Life, death and makeup

JOHNNY PATTERSON, THE SINGING IRISH CLOWN,George Bernard Shaw Theatre, Carlow 8pm Ends Oct 3 20/18; Project Arts Centre, Dublin 8pm Nov 4-14 18-22

You might have thought it would be more appropriate to open the new George Bernard Shaw Theatre with one of the trenchant Hiberno-Irish dramatist's biting political satires. But not everyone has the appetite for Major Barbara. Instead, here's a new work that pitches the physical to the lyrical and the global to the local, with Barabbas staging Little John Nee's homage to Johnny Patterson.

Orphaned in early childhood, the 19th-century entertainer and son of Carlow literally ran away with the circus. Head-hunted by the world-famous Cooper and Bailey Circus as a musician and a clown par excellence, Johnny visited the US, where he was reviled among a wave of Irish immigrants.

Director Raymond Keane has always displayed a kinship for figures both tragic and triumphant. Patterson’s life ought to be full of rich pickings: it took a turn for the worse when he returned to Parnell’s Ireland as a would- be unifier whose songs and sentiments met with a violent response – and a crowbar attack that killed him.

“Always a fool, always a fool,” goes Nee’s text, “but a fool with worthy aspirations.” Here’s hoping their Patterson never plays before such a tough crowd.

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Freefall, Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray and Project Arts Centre, Dublin