OnTheTownSome were overwhelmed, some had to sit down, some were speechless. To others it was like making a pilgrimage to the shrine of a genius, writes Catherine Foley
The opening of the exhibition that features Leonardo da Vinci's most famous notebook, the Codex Leicester, was described as "a landmark exhibition" and "ocáid iontach stairiúil" by President Mary McAleese at the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin this week.Prof Marie Redmond, of TCD, whose company, X Communications, sponsored the exhibition and created the technology which will allow people to view and turn the codex's pages virtually, explained that the writing is concerned with da Vinci's "scientific thoughts on water in nature and the moon".
Eoin Gill, of the Centre for the Advancement of Learning of Maths, Science and Technology (Calmast), was involved in creating exhibits that are based on some of the experiments that da Vinci describes in his notebook.
The great thinker "was eccentric, he was certainly a very complex character and he could easily be accused of not finishing things, but that's because he started so many. He was so far ahead of his time . . . He was a scientist, an artist, an engineer. Those [areas] were not separate to him, they were all connected, they were all about creativity," said Gill, as he and Sheila Donegan, director of Calmast, waited patiently to see the exhibition.
"It's a pilgrimage. It's going to be like going to Mecca. We've been looking at reproductions since Christmas," said Gill.
"This is one of the most valuable documents in private hands," said Charles Horton, curator of the library's western collection.
"You can virtually turn the pages and get an English translation of the writing," he explained.
"You are not just getting access to his mind, but the man is speaking to you," he said.
The writer Colm Tóibín, the artist Dorothy Cross, the chair of the Arts Council, Olive Braiden, and her husband, Seán Braiden, Eina McHugh, director of the Ark cultural centre for children, and the director of the National Museum, Dr Pat Wallace, were among those who gathered for the official opening.
The Codex Leicester continues at the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin Castle until Sun, August 12
Creatures of the night
It was the perfect twilight time for the world premiere of Terminus, written and directed by Mark O'Rowe.
The light was fading as guests emerged from the Peacock Theatre in Dublin, following a night of
dragons, angels and hellish creatures.
The play is "the Faustian story," said Fiach Mac Conghail, director of the Peacock and the Abbey Theatre. And it's "about the search and re-acquaintance with one's soul, set in that Faustian world of demons and soul . . .It's an extraordinary verse play and a welcome return of Mark O'Rowe to the Abbey."
Other plays by O'Rowe, who was there with his wife Aoife Ruane, include Howie the Rookieand Crestfall,and he wrote the screenplay for the film Intermission. The play's three actors, Andrea Irvine, Eileen Walsh and Aidan Kelly, all joined friends and family afterwards in the theatre bar downstairs.
Those at the opening included playwright Conor McPherson and his wife, artist Fionnuala Ní Chiosáin, choreographer David Bolger, director Bairbre Ní Chaoimh, of Calypso Productions, and Christine Madden, literary manager of Rough Magic Theatre Company, who was off to Limerick the next day for a two-day Theatre Forum Symposium, entitled Tearing Up the Script.
Freelance producer Cian O'Brien and Roise Goan, of the Ark, were also preparing to deliver a lecture at the forum, called The Show Must Go On.
Others at the opening included TomButler of ComReg, the Communications Regulator, and his wife, Lisa Moran, the poet Peter Sirr, playwright Gerald Murphy, actor Bríd Ní Neachtain, Wolfgang Hoffmann, director of the Dublin Fringe Festival, and Patrick Sutton, director of the Gaiety School of Acting, which will showcase its current talent next Tuesday in the Project with two plays, End-Timeby Seán McLoughlin and Playgroundby Lisa Harding.
Terminus continues at Peacock Theatre until Sat, July 7
Nimble fingers in New Ross
Fingers flew across the keyboards, arms rose and fell like guillotine blades, pedals were pumped as the concert pianists dazzled all those who listened. The playing of John O'Conor and Finghin Collins was a taste of what to expect at the New Ross Piano Festival later this year.
As they played, many recalled the years of teaching and friendship between the two: O'Conor taught Collins from the age of six until the age of 22. Together they performed music by Bizet in Dublin Castle's Coachhouse earlier this week.
O'Conor will also play at the New Ross Piano Festival this year, announced Collins, the artistic director of the upcoming festival, now in its second year.
"Schubert is the alpha and omega of this year's festival, without really being its official theme," Collins continued, listing some of the works that will feature, including Schubert's early A major piano sonata and his Trout Quintet from the same period, "and in between we will hear his dark and distressing Fantasie for four hands, a different world altogether".
The programme also includes works by Bach, Schumann, Grieg, who celebrates his centenary this year, and the Catalan composer Roberto Gerhard.
The festival "in Ireland is a unique musical gift - a celebration of piano music," said Ann Fuller, administrator of the Axa Dublin International Piano Competition, who launched the programme.
It recognises "the fantastic world of the piano - with its repertoire and its great performers," she said.
Among those who attended the festival launch were Finghin's sister, pianist Dearbhla Collins, Ciara Higgins, artistic director of the Music in the Great Irish Houses, which concluded in Kilruddery House, Co Wicklow last night, the young British cellist Guy Johnston, Connie Tantrum, festival director and committee members Brian and Jenny Nuttall.
Joan Deacon, of St Mary's Church, composer Gerry Murphy, of Ballavarra, Co Kilkenny and Deirdre Doyle, head of keyboard studies at the Royal Irish Academy of Music were also in attendance.
The New Ross Piano Festival 2007 runs from Fri, Sept 28 to Sun, Septr 30 at St Mary's
Church in New Ross, Co Wexford
Out of the dark and into the light
Evolving art forms, the future of television, memory technologies and existing in a virtual world.
All this and more will be put under the microscope at this year's Darklight Film Festival Symposium.
Ten years ago, "we founded the festival as a way to showcase and exhibit the new types of films being made with digital cameras and computer animation," said Nicky Gogan, the festival's director.
This year, the symposium will focus on "taking stock of the past 10 years and really looking at how developments in arts and film production and distribution have impacted on creative practices, exhibition, education and distribution," explained Gogan, at the launch of the symposium's programme in Dublin.
Darklight is "committed to showcasing film and art that pushes boundaries both technically and creatively", she said.
Throughout the festival, the four-day symposium will investigate and highlight advances and trends in popular production and exhibition, with guest speakers taking part, including the award-winning animator and film-maker Chris Shepherd, Samantha Kotey, art director of Virtual Worlds Network, and Pat Murphy, who will be present at the screening of her avant-garde 1981 film, Maeve.
Another star, who now lives in Galway and who is "worshipped in America", said festival manager Linda McGrath, is Vivienne Dick. Her 1994 28-minute film, A Skinny Little Man Attacked Daddy, will be screened as part of a retrospective of her work during the festival.
Others at the programme launch who will be taking part included Neil Leyden of the Digital Media Forum and Maeve Connolly of Dún Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology. Both will be chair discussions during the symposium.
Darklight Symposium 2007 runs from Thurs, June 21 to Sun, June 24 in venues in Dublin's Temple Bar area. For more information, see www.darklight.ie Tel: (01) 670-9017