THERE IS a natural tension between festival and its fringe, sometimes healthy, sometimes artificially generated, and sometimes destructive. Kilkenny Arts Week at the moment is in a state of some flux, with the main event about to embark on an overdue programme of professionalisation, while the Fringe is looking more lively than ever, so it seems a good moment for healthy cross fertilisation.
The Arts Week continues to focus on classical music and the visual arts (see accompanying articles), but there is also a strong literary programme which includes readings by Jennifer Johnston, Paul Muldoon and Roddy Doyle. The highlight of the surprisingly slim theatre programme is the Gate Theatre's Waiting For Godot, fresh from its triumph in the Lincoln Centre. Project Arts Centre is visiting with John Banville's Sea Change and Michael Harding's The Kiss, a double bill with superb performances from Tom Hickey. The film season, also on the sparse side, features winners of the Student Academy Awards, as well as student films from the Dun Laoghaire College of Art. There is also a community arts programme.
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Meanwhile, the Pubs Fringe Festival kicked off last night with a Samba Night at Langton's with two bands from Scotland, one from Belfast, and Ceol Batucada from Drogheda, who lead the Kilkenny parade at 4 p.m. today. There's also quite a lot of music from the smoky, sophisticated side of cabaret during the week, including the inimitable Agnes Bernelle (tomorrow), and Jack L and the Black Romantics (tonight). In an interesting combination, Italian pianist Antonio Breschi is joined by Ronnie Drew and Keith Donald on Monday night.
Drew and Donald also feature in Shoot If You Must, a satirical revue directed by Judy Friel, where you can see Irish Times columnist John Waters in the company of, among others, Nell McCafferty, Shay Healy, Eamon McCann, Pom Boyd and Zrazy, running tonight and tomorrow. Comedy will also be represented by Jeremy Hardy and Tommy Tiernan.
The Fringe visual arts programme is gigantic, running to 70 events, the highlight being the Kilkenny Colourists Inter Expo (see below).
For full details on the Fringe: 056-70276.