Irish Timescritics on a selection of events.
The Maids
Black Box, Galway
By Peter Crawley
The play has not yet begun, but as a religious hymn echoes through Madame's boudoir there is already an air of ceremony about Theatrecorp's new production of The Maids. Framed by red drapes, a figure appears in a blue veil and strikes the pose of a religious icon. Her maids, sisters Claire and Solange, kneel before her, both supplicants and worshippers, performing their housework like a slow cleansing ritual.
It is a tableau both serene and provocative, for the rites depicted in Jean Genet's subversive first play are more sinister and disturbing. The giddy role play and murderous fantasies of Claire and Solange were inspired by the infamous Papin murders, yet here they are given the weight of social injustice and the abandon of religious fervour. Nothing is clear-cut, however, for everything in The Maids is a performance, where roles are swapped and reversed and power shifts constantly between the players.
As Andrea Kelly flounces around the room, her voice climbing the scales while admonishing her servant, or leaping upon her bed with mirth, it would be easy to accuse her of melodrama. That is entirely intended, however - her Claire is impersonating the mistress - and Sheila McCormick's Solange beats us to it: "There's no need to overdo it," she says, breaking character, "your eyes are ablaze."
Servitude in Genet's play becomes its own sadomasochistic ritual (and this production ups the ante, even finding room for a whip in the bedroom), where the maids despise their slavery but love their shackles, and, in two strong performances, Kelly and McCormick manage to both revile and revere their mistress, played with a girlish haughtiness by Ionia Ní Chróinín.
Mary Doyle's spare, effective set enforces the sense of psychological incarceration with a looming backdrop of iron bars, while director Max Hafler has his cast pace the small space as though measuring the stifling confines of their world.
Hovering between theatre of the absurd and theatre of cruelty, Genet's play is here left in its original context - 1940s Paris - yet, without simplifying its complexities, Hafler lets the ritual of subjugation become his guiding note. Whether that obeisance is to religious icons or imperious bosses, this faithful, intelligent production reminds us that the power structures that define us and consume us are a prison of our own making. - Runs until Sun
Wilson, O'Leary, RTÉ NSO/ Houlihan
NCH, Dublin
By Andrew Johnstone
Jane O'Leary's concert in the RTÉ Horizons series mixed her own music with that of two other woman composers who, like her, have settled far away from the places where they were reared. Joan Tower grew up in South America, and Hilary Tann in south Wales; both now live in New York State. O'Leary herself was born in Connecticut, and has become a prominent figure on the Irish contemporary music scene since making her home in Galway in the early 1970s.
The common theme of displacement was given musical expression by O'Leary's own My Heart is Always Here (1991), where a whispery sequence of fledgling ideas gently meanders around the time-line of a single-note cantus firmus. O'Leary was the solo pianist in Strings Alive (2007), a reworking of her instrument-tweaking Piano Quintet (2005). Despite careful execution of its special technicalities by Robert Houlihan and the RTÉ NSO strings, this upscaled version seemed to have turned the vivid primary colours of the original chamber work to more moderate shades.
Tower's brainwave of a mock-feminist response to Aaron Copland's iconic Fanfare for the Common Man has so caught the imagination of concert programmers that she's turned out five such pieces. Fanfare for the Uncommon Woman, No 1 does what it says on the tin, and does it boisterously.
Tann was present for this performance of her Shakkei (2007), a work she describes informally as a concerto and formally as a diptych for oboe and small orchestra.
For all its avowed indebtedness to Japanese landscape gardening and Debussy's Nuages, it is musically absolute enough, and harmonically distinctive enough, to stand alone. The eloquent solo playing of Adrian Wilson, the recently appointed principal oboist of the RTÉ NSO, was keenly attuned to the music's peculiar sense of tranquil objectivity.
NME Awards Tour
Ambassador, Dublin
By Brian Keane
As well as a smart branding move for the magazine, the annual NME Awards Tour can often be an accurate barometer of what bands are worth keeping an eye on in any given year. Lower bill acts from previous tours such as Arctic Monkeys, Coldplay, Interpol and Kaiser Chiefs have all moved on to greater things, thanks, in no small part, to the exposure from the shows.
The Ting Tings, one of the more intriguing propositions of the evening, were a late cancellation due to a radio show performance in London, so it was left to Reading band Does It Offend You, Yeah? to open proceedings.
The four-piece, who describe themselves as an electro-punk outfit, certainly endeavoured to work the crowd into a frenzy, but as Battle Royale and Let's Make Out show, despite the big beats, crunchy electronics and vocoders, there is little substance behind the energetic front.
The much-hyped Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong take to the stage next.
Opening with an instrumental, Tough Terrible, the Londoners approach their rock'n'roll from a decidedly traditional 1960s angle. The band, all chest-high guitars and skinny jeans, are the ideal backdrop for frontman Joe Lean, whose antics occasionally border on the hilarious.
During the Kinks-esque Teenager In Love, he moves around the stage with the grace of a ballet dancing Mick Jagger, and as the set progresses the screams from the enthusiastic young audience diminish in ardour.
Despite having three albums under their belts, The Cribs, worthy headliners overall, have yet to reap the commercial rewards that some of their lesser peers have enjoyed. The three brothers specialise in the kind of shouty, angular guitar pop that has pervaded the indie scene for the past five years.
The anthemic Hey Scenesters!, delivered with aplomb early in the set, is still the band's finest moment to date, and while
Men's Needs, Martell, I'm A Realist and Girls Like Mystery display the ingredients of good pop songs, there's a distinct homogeneity to them all that prevents The Cribs from rising above mediocrity.
Michael McHale (piano)
NCH, Dublin
By Martin Adams
Beethoven - Sonata in C minor Op 13 (Pathétique). Breffni O'Byrne - Geantrai a hAon 'Prelude'. Debussy - Estampes. Liszt - Bénédiction de Dieu dans la solitude; Dante Sonata.
This recital was in recognition of Michael McHale being awarded the National Concert Hall's Rising Star '08 award. Throughout a programme that was demanding on technique and musicianship, there was no doubt about McHale's ability
to hold his audience's attention. His playing was elegant, thoughtful and musically intelligent; and he has the technique to deliver.
Beethoven's Sonata in C minor Op 13 (Pathétique) typified the recital in showing a firm control over balance, tone and dynamic shading.
There was also a long-line sense of rhythm that made this sonata's many surprises sound purposeful rather than quirky; and that depended as much on McHale's knack for timing silence as on his clarity of phrasing.
In works as varied as the Beethoven sonata, Debussy's Estampes, and the two Liszt pieces in the second half, the playing had an objective quality. Everything was in the right place, as indicated in the scores, and there was no sign of player ego.
The latter was a strength; but because some music thrives on flamboyance, it was also a limitation.
Liszt's Dante Sonata was well-shaped, but too polite. The high-speed patter of Debussy's Jardins sous la pluie was evocative, but over-subdued.
I would hope that Michael McHale's ability to project, to let go a bit, will increase, and thereby intensify his already-strong knack for capturing the character of a work. That knack was welcome in the first performance of Geantrai a hAon 'Prelude' by the winner of the 2007 NCH Jerome Hynes Competition, Breffni O'Byrne.
Placing it just before the Debussy underlined its attachment to "a neo-romantic and neo-impressionistic aesthetic". But this is no evocative ramble. It has ideas, and is especially strong at controlling slow-moving harmony. This young composer is someone to watch out for, as is Michael McHale.
