TRAD
Frank Yamma
Whelan's, Dublin 8pm €15 whelanslive.com
Yamma is bringing his glorious music from the red centre of Australia. His searing songwriting and distinctive guitar sound have paved a path from the Central Desert to Europe since the release of Countryman (2010). This tour coincides with the release of his much anticipated follow-up, Uncle.
FESTIVAL
Celtronic
The Guildhall, Derry 9pm £10 celtronicfestival.com
One of the best electronic music festivals on the calendar, Celtronic has brought top- notch international and Irish names together in Derry for 15 years. This year’s event gets underway with a Maeve Records showcase featuring label founders Mano Le Tough and The Drifter, both straight out of Geystones but now residing in Berlin.
THEATRE
The Importance of Being Honest
Bewley's Café Theatre @ Powerscourt. Jun 22-25 1pm €8-€12 (light lunch €4)
bewleyscafetheatre.com
It takes particular confidence, and no small amount of nerve, for a writer to square off with Oscar Wilde. Billie Traynor just about gets away with it by imagining a meeting 20 years after the events of The Importance of Being Earnest between Cecily and Gwendolen. Two rivals in love who end up becoming sisters in Earnest, Traynor here uses them to explore a splitting female identity at a time of deep social change. A thoroughly modern Cecily pursues bohemianism and suffrage while Gwendolen's deeply conservative views slide into obsolescence. "Perhaps all women become like their mothers," Cecily worries. "What a tragedy." It's an artful inversion of Wilde's witticism, which, like Liam Halligan's modest production, finds a poignant picture of lives in stasis.
