GIG OF THE WEEK
Dún Laoghaire Folk Festival
August 30th-September 5th
Now is as good a time as any to start up a new festival, and Foggy Notions are hoping that the inaugural Dún Laoghaire Folk Festival will grow to become one of the big fixtures on the late summer calendar – an acoustic picnic by the sea, perhaps. Folk is oft-maligned as an olde worlde genre, but the nine limited-capacity events taking place at the Pavilion Theatre are designed to show folk in a modern, vibrant, forward-looking light.
The very creditable line-up for this start-up event includes Junior Brother (Tuesday, 7.30pm, €21), Christy Moore (Wednesday, 7.30pm, €41), The Mary Wallopers (Saturday, 7.30pm, €26), Lemoncello (Sunday, 12.30pm, €16) and John Francis Flynn (Sunday, 7.30pm, €21).
Something special is planned for the opening night, when Bob Gallagher presents Aiteach: From Cú Chulainn to the Quare Fellow, a live exploration of queer Irish identity and representation in music and literature, featuring poet FeliSpeaks and other guests (Monday, 7.30pm, €21).
Writer Ingrid Lyons and singer-songwriter Lisa O’Neill join forces for It’ll All Come Out in the Wash, a “storyboard” that finds new connections between music and the written word (Thursday, 7.30pm, €21).
Local lad Conor O’Brien of Villagers will perform an intimate acoustic set to mark the release of Villagers’ fifth album Fever Dreams (Friday, 7.30pm, €31) and Ian Lynch from Lankum will host his Fire Draw Near live podcast which digs deep into the roots of Irish trad (Saturday, 12.30pm, €16).
Galway International Arts Festival
Until September 18th, giaf.ie
Covid may have shrunk the events calendar, but Galway International Arts Festival remains larger than life, and this year's programme is an ambitious mix of live and online happenings in and around the City of Tribes. The big-ticket event is Enda Walsh's absurdist drama Medicine (September 1st-18th, Black Box Theatre, €25/€35), starring Clare Barrett, Aoife Duffin and Domhnall Gleeson, with musician Seán Carpio. It is a tale of a man on a trolley in a hospital, with no idea how long he's been there, in this surreal study of how we treat people with mental health issues. No surprise that the live shows are long sold out, so you may have to wait for the live-streamed shows.
Kevin Barry’s wildly imaginative play There Are Little Kingdoms plays like his short story collections – a mad cavalcade of characters and situations that somehow weave together nicely (8pm, September 1st-11th; matinees, Thursday 2nd and 9th, Saturday 4th and 11th, Town Hall Theatre, €23-€25).
Volcano is a mad blend of miniseries, dance and sci-fi epic, (August 30th-September 11th, Nun’s Island Theatre, €15 per episode, €40 for all four episodes. Online: €10 per episode, €25 for all four episodes).
And Fidget Feet will be delivering a spectacular aerial acrobatic performance, A Handful of Dreams, at the Commercial Boat Club in Wood Quay (September 4th-12th, 1.30pm and 4.30pm, no performances on September 6th-7th).
The Laughing Boy
August 31st-September 11th, 7.30pm, plus matinees at 1pm on Friday and 2.30pm on Saturday;New Theatre, Dublin; €20
How did a song written by a famous Dublin writer and hellraiser in honour of Michael Collins become an anthem of revolutionary socialism in Greece? The new play by Jack Harte explores the connection between Brendan Behan and the Hellenic left, who adopted his tune The Laughing Boy during a period of student unrest in the 1960s. In this fictionalised drama, a young Greek activist, Alexandra, comes to Dublin to meet the great man himself, only to be confronted with two people who claim to be the bould Behan. Will the real Brendan Behan stand up and be counted, or is this Irish visit a lost cause?
Ortús Chamber Music Festival
September 3rd-5th; Cork; festival pass €40/€60, live concerts €15/€18, online festival pass €30, online concerts €10; ortusfestival.ie
e hear a lot of tut-tutting about young people gathering in public spaces, but there'll be no finger-wagging when the young musicians behind the Ortús Chamber Music Festival get together and create their virtuoso classical sounds in and around Cork city and county.
The festival was co-founded in 2016 by Mairéad Hickey and Sinéad O’Halloran, whose youthful enthusiasm and prodigious talent made the Ortús Festival a must-see for music lovers in the rebel county. The idea is to showcase the talents of young Irish musicians and also build connections with other young musicians from around the world. The name, say the organisers, is a blend of words meaning origin and beginning, and that’s the launchpad for some seriously riveting performances, which you can see live or online, whichever makes you most comfortable.
The opening concert takes place at MTU Cork School of Music with a programme that includes Mozart’s Horn Quintet in E-flat major, K407 (Friday, 8pm). More Mozart, along with Brahms, is in store at Inkwell Theatre, Tracton Arts Centre (Saturday, 2pm), with Haydn’s String Quartet in D major, Op 20 no 4 on the menu at Cloyne Cathedral in Cloyne (Saturday, 7.30pm), and a closing concert of Brahms and Schubert at the MTU Cork School of Music (Sunday, 3pm).
Summer Songs Wicklow: Mary Coughlan, Leslie Dowdall and Pillow Queens
Sunday, September 5th, 2pm and 6.30pm; North Beach, Arklow; €120, admits six; summersongswicklow.eventbrite.ie
Two towering women of Irish rock join forces for this latest Summer Songs event, along with one of Ireland's finest upcoming bands. Mary Coughlan and Leslie Dowdall bring 30 years of music and life experience with them for this afternoon show, and they're sure to have plenty of wit and wisdom to impart along the way.
The former In Tua Nua singer opens the proceedings with help from local band Feel the Pinch, and Coughlan will headline with classic bluesy tracks from her album Tired and Emotional and her most recent release, Life Stories, which she released during lockdown, notching up another Irish chart-topper. The evening concert is headlined by the Pillow Queens, four queer women making a glorious, grungy noise unto the heavens, as heard on their debut album, In Waiting.
Curious Gardens
Sunday, September 5th; Doneraile Estate, Co Cork; €156 for pod of four, €234 for pod of six, €78 with family discount
We're sorely missing Mindfield, Trailer Park and Salty Dog, but the people behind those staples of Electric Picnic have put together this one-day festival in the historic walled gardens of Doneraile Estate in Co Cork. It is the first in a planned series, with the next one taking place in Emo Court, Co Laois, on September 9th.
Prepare for lots of horticultural action, along with music, words and interactive installations, all designed to pique your curiosity and tickle your senses. Get vibed by the sounds of JYellowL, Jafaris, Dublin Gospel Choir and Interskalactic, get stuck into some chat with Jarlath Regan, Hilary Rose, Sinead Gleeson, Lisa McInerney and Jennifer O’Connell, and pick up some green-fingered gardening tips along the way.
