Reviewed today: Des & Rosie On The Loose!, Patrick Horan: Angels & Devils, Polish Radio Orchestra/Krenz and Man Of La Mancha
Des & Rosie On The Loose!, Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire
This revue is a delightful soufflé with just the right amount of acerbic citrus to provoke repeated belly laughs. It consists of a series of unconnected sketches and songs, all of which target those so worthy of derision - ourselves included. The writing is witty, the timing crisp and the music, by Trio con Brio, complementary.
And what a great mix. But it would be difficult to go wrong with the trusty combination of Des Keogh, Rosaleen Linehan and their scriptwriter, Fergus Linehan (who is backed up by contributions from Gerry Stembridge, Jack O'Leary, Brendan Balfe, Frank Sheerin, Gordon Snell and Dark Rosaleen herself).
All the usual suspects are here to be mocked for our pleasure. Les grandes dames philanthropistes are mercilessly lampooned, as are Linda Martin, Louis Walsh and "Cool Filter", the Mad Cow roundabout, Beverley Flynn, upset senior civil servants, electronic voting, George Bush, reflexology and much more.
For me the highlight was Putting A Spin On It, a spin doctor's rendition of The Spinning Wheel by Linehan, accompanying herself on harp, which "just goes to show there's money in lying". This is great satire, and at its punchiest best. And there is the very black, very funny We Had A Wonderful Time At Your Funeral.
The principals are such old pros it seems almost an impertinence to compliment them, but they were wonderful, as they were with the audience - so essential to a show of this kind.
The revue as a form has fallen into some neglect on the Irish stage - indeed, on Irish radio and television too - and more's the pity when you see it done as well as this. You also realise how rich in the side-splittingly absurd are the times we live in when dealt with so cleverly
It is a short show, beginning at 8 p.m. and over at 10 p.m., with a 15-minute interval, but it passes even faster. There could hardly be a better way to spend an Irish summer evening, the rain pelting down outside, as it was this week. The sunshine was within.
Runs until July 17th - Patsy McGarry
Patrick Horan: Angels & Devils Form Gallery, Cork
Form Gallery has made it through its first year - not surprising, given the professional way the space is managed and run. But what does remain a surprise is the location, in Paul Street shopping centre: not an obvious place for a contemporary gallery.
The space currently hosts the work of the young Dublin artist Patrick Horan, a painter who explores the figure in an experimental and thoughtful way. Two bodies of work are on display. The first, the angels and devils of the title, are 24 small mixed-media pieces. Each has the nude form as its subject, but the treatment is far from conventional, as the artist invests alternative approaches to media application, ranging between illustrative, expressionistic and decorative. In ways it shouldn't work, as Horan treats his palette and use of line and texture divergently. It is all held together, however, by the common presence of the figure.
The second part of the show, made up of large oil paintings, is focused in terms of paint treatment, as carefully modulated application is employed in a photorealist style. The figure remains, but the style is suggestive of surrealism, as form, space and surface are interchanged and supplanted into incongruous settings. In Soil Drops a background of decaying foliage is contrasted by two figures whose shapes are filled convincingly by raindrops on glass. Daylight Leaves puts the foliage inside the figure, which tumbles against a brooding evening skyscape.
It is this willingness to challenge our perception through symbolic juxtapositions that fuels Horan's work. The impression is one of almost spiritual intensity, as fear, anxiety, sensuality and joy enshroud the figures' existence - and, by extension, of course, our own.
Runs until July 14th - Mark Ewart
Polish Radio Orchestra/Krenz National Concert Hall, Dublin
The Polish Radio Orchestra's gala celebration Warsaw, Closer Than You Think was given under the honorary patronage of the mayor of Warsaw, Lech Kaczynski, and the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, John O'Donoghue, although neither man was able to attend.
The programme mixed some jumpy documentary films - cityscapes of Warsaw and "landscapes of Chopin's youth" - and a silent excerpt from Roman Polanski's The Pianist, with music by Polish composers from Chopin to the present.
The pianist Janusz Olejniczak was the busiest of the soloists. His playing was rather too dry to catch the wit of Lutoslawski's Paganini Variations but tonally alluring in the quieter sections of Chopin's Nocturnes in C minor, Op 48 No 1 and in C sharp minor, Op posth, although his sensitivity became compromised in the face of technical challenges.
Jakub Jakowicz was the soloist, plaintive and agile, in the slow movement and finale from Wieniawski's Second Violin Concerto. The musically sensitive baritone Adam Kruszewski and the full-voiced soprano Agnieszka Wolska each sang an aria from Moniuszko's Straszny Dwór (The Haunted Manor), which was seen at Wexford Festival Opera five years ago.
For my money, though, the highlight among the 19th-century offerings was the orchestral mazurka from that same opera, brought fully to life through playing of affectionate and appealing flexibility.
The only living composer to be represented was Woyciech Kilar, 72 next month, who is best known for his film music, including for films by Coppola (Bram Stoker's Dracula), Polanski (Death And The Maiden) and Campion (Portrait Of A Lady). Kilar's polonaise from Wajda's film Pan Tadeusz is a rather anodyne affair, but his mountain-inspired Krzesany of 1974 is exactly the opposite. It's a programmatic-sounding succession of stylistic and gestural extremes that always seems to be aimed, lowest-common-denominator style, to tickle the ear and hit the gut.
The conductor, the musically and physically sprightly septuagenarian Jan Krenz, led his players through Kilar's florid fairground ride of a piece with declamatory enthusiasm. - Michael Dervan
Man Of La Mancha Cork Opera House
That the big story of Don Quixote emerges from this exciting Cork Opera House production of Man Of La Mancha is a tribute not only to its writer, Dale Wasserman, but also to the efficiency with which all the transformations and re-arrangements on set are managed by the cast. This gives them a kind of ownership of the action and establishes what looks like a flowing sequence of episodes. As a result a complex plot remains coherent even though the players take many roles and form their own, highly effective chorus. Something else emerges as well: Don Quixote, or Don Alonso in real life, is at all times vulnerable, and the creaking mechanisations on stage groan like a metaphor for the horrors of an age Cervantes himself knew only too well.
Wasserman's crisp script is echoed in Joe Darlon's lyrics, even if the music, by Mike Leigh, has a distinctly soft centre. The catacomb-like set designed by musical director Bryan Flynn is both useful and convincing, and it is beautifully lit by Paul Denby. Director Marion Wyatt has generally focused her cast so strongly that occasional imbalances cannot dilute the impact of that simple but often unattainable objective, entertainment.
Hugh Moynihan, as the eponymous knight, is key: he sings firmly and never loses a characterisation that must combine authority with fragility and keep to the end the sympathy of the audience. Richie Hayes is a guileless, convincing Sancho Panza, and Camille O'Sullivan acts with a natural style and confidence even though, on opening night, her singing voice is still at cabaret pitch.
She's not the only one to suffer from this problem: mikes like exaggerated earrings harden the voice, and there's a lot of shouting in this show. O'Sullivan has to move between sultry and screeching most of the time, then hit dramatic soprano heights. It's a bit much to ask, but then again the promise of this thoughtful, atmospheric and emotionally rich production is that having been askedfor, it'll come. - Mary Leland
Runs until July 3rd
