On The Town:'You can talk your way through - I don't mind." For a chattering audience, it was a provocative challenge. And one that worked for writer Patrick McCabe as he silenced the masses during his opening of the Galway Arts Festival earlier this week.
"I thought I was Yeats, Dickens, Joyce . . . the Encylopaedia Britannica!" the writer continued, describing his own first arts festival experience several decades ago in "Teletubbyland". To those of us who didn't immediately associate the drumlin landscape with the children's television series, McCabe explained that he was referring to his native county, Monaghan.
That particular festival opened and closed in one day back in 1985, the author recalled with a little nostalgia and much dramatic flourish. Galway was, by contrast, the "land of high hearts", he said, as guests at the back of the Galway Bay Hotel's function room queued for a taste of its chocolate fountain.
If the fountain or "fondue" offered one sensual experience, Matt Skeffington, manager of Tigh Neachtain's bar, experienced another. The wandering trio of Australian bulls from Chrome Theatre Company couldn't resist massaging his back, his shoulders and his neck, while several of the "animals" sidled up to his companions.
Sidling up to politicians proved a little more difficult - they were somewhat scarce, given that this year is the arts festival's 30th birthday, but Frank Fahey (FF) and Galway East's new junior Minister, Michael Kitt (FF), were spotted. Former mayor Terry O'Flaherty (PD) was looking forward to the festival's two-week programme, and was not dwelling too much on her party's difficulties, while the current Mayor, Cllr Tom Costello (Labour) paid tribute to the event's founders.
Galway had experienced its "ups and downs", the mayor said, but the arts organisations could be relied on as "models of professionalism". Referring to his own party's long-running campaign for a school of music, Costello urged local and national administrations to realise the city's pressing need for more cultural infrastructure.
Galway Arts Festival runs until Sun, July 29. For more information, telephone 091-509700, visit www.galwayartsfestival.com or e-mail info@gaf.iol.ie - LS
Joining the Yeats circus
The rush and noise of the circus grew louder as the images created by Jack B Yeats were unveiled in Dublin this week. The soulful clown, the swinging chair-o-planes, the trundling wagons, the cheeky double jockey act and the watching dwarf have all been gathered together from public and private collections for a new show at the National Gallery of Ireland (NGI) to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the artist's death.
Raymond Keaveney, director of the NGI, joked that he was ringmaster for the evening. He said his favourite painting in the exhibition is The Occupation because "it's a beautiful painting. It captures brilliantly the humdrum side of the circus. It's a very simple small canvas of a member of the troupe going off to feed the bear."
The artist's sketchbooks and early watercolours "are filled with images of country race meetings, travelling fairs and circuses, at which he observed a mixture of characters and social groups", said Seamus Brennan TD, the Minister for Arts, Sport and Tourism, who opened Masquerade and Spectacle: The Circus and the Travelling Fair in the Work of JB Yeats. Many of Yeats's formative years were spent in Co Sligo with his grandparents, the Minister added. "It was here that he found much of his artistic inspiration in the lives of the ordinary people."
Dr Róisín Kennedy, curator of the exhibition and NGI fellowship scholar, said the 22 paintings showed how Yeats's "style and treatment developed, how he moved from a very strong realistic position into his much later expressionist work". In his art, "he plays a kind of a game with his viewer, which is akin to the whole idea of the circus. You are aware of the construction of the work. You can see the way the paint is applied in later works," she added.
The extended family of Jack B Yeats and his brother, poet William Butler Yeats, was present, including Gráinne Yeats and her three daughters, Síle, Siobhán and Caitríona Yeats. Jack B Yeats "did for Ireland visually and socially what Charles Dickens did verbally for England", concluded art dealer Theo Waddington.
Masquerade and Spectacle: The Circus and the Travelling Fair in the Work of JB Yeats continues at the National Gallery, Dublin 2, until Sun, Nov 11. Admission is free. - CF
'Private Lives' goes public
The style and elegance of lime-green and navy blue chiffon gowns and cream crêpe de Chine slips delighted audience members at the opening night of Private Lives, by Noel Coward, at the Gate Theatre this week. And costume designer Peter O'Brien was there to enjoy their reactions.
"It's a perfect comedy because it's a comedy of situation and character rather than dialogue," said director Alan Stanford. "It's about the way people pretend to be what they're not, so as they begin to expose themselves that's what the audience recognises and that's what makes it eternal . . . It's 70 years old and every bit as funny today."
Among those at opening night were broadcaster Gay Byrne and his wife, Kathleen Watkins, and director of the Arts Council Mary Cloake. Actor Owen Roe (who will play the eponymous lead in Chekhov's Uncle Vanya, in a version by Brian Friel, opening at the Gate in September) was there with his daughter, Megan Forbes-Roe (13).
Batik artist Bernadette Madden, who is working towards her next show at the Narrow Space in Clonmel, sat beside Ken Langan, registrar of the National College of Art and Design, who noted that Private Lives was first performed in Edinburgh in 1930 with Coward himself in the lead role and Laurence Olivier in the role of Victor.
Langan was pleased to recall seeing the play at the Gate some years ago, when Stephen Brennan was in the same role.
At the interval, Anne Clarke, of Landmark Productions, and Una Carmody, chief executive of the Helix, chatted about upcoming productions, including Alice in Wonderland, which will play at the venue at Christmas.
Young actors Ronan Dempsey, Darren Hollywood and Alexandra Fay were at the play also, as was Fred Aherne, a former theatre promoter who recalled seeing the Coward play in the UK's Royal Theatre in Windsor in the 1960s, with Maggie Smith and Robert Stephens in the lead roles.
"This production is brilliant and equally good," he said.
Private Lives, by Noel Coward, runs at the Gate Theatre, Dublin, until Sat, Aug 25 - CF
Viewing Ireland's eye
Lee Marvin, Noel Coward, Patrick Kavanagh, Jackie Kennedy, Princess Grace of Monaco, a dancing Charlie Haughey and a smiling Eamon de Valera are just some of the images captured by press photographer Colman Doyle over a 50-year period. Eyewitness: Ireland Through the Lens of Colman Doyle was opened to the public at the National Photographic Archive in Dublin this week.
"I was apprenticed to one of the best photographers then, Norman Ashe. He taught me all of my skills," said Doyle. Lighting and patience were the key elements to getting a good photograph, he added, but "it's not the same today".
The most dangerous images he took were those he captured in Derry on Bloody Sunday. "I assumed they [the soldiers] were firing in the air. I walked in front of them," he recalled. "Who would think they were going to shoot civilians with live rounds?"
His most successful image internationally, he said, was of the Canadian navy's rescue of British submariners from Pisces III off the Old Head of Kinsale in 1973. He took the picture from a plane that circled above the scene for an hour until the clouds parted.
Dermot O'Shea, former picture editor with The Irish Times, said "dedication to his work" was a key element of Doyle's success.
"What makes him a photographic genius?" asked Aongus O hAonghusa, director of the National Library. "Contrariness," joked a friend in the audience. "He has a great eye," said Tim Pat Coogan, former editor of the Irish Press. The photographs told "the story of Ireland", said Nicky Brennan, president of the GAA, launching the show.
Eyewitness: Ireland Through the Lens of Colman Doyle is at the National Photographic Archive, Temple Bar, Dublin 2, until Mon, Nov 5. Admission is free - CF