ArtScape:So, the next step towards the new Abbey was taken this week on a moist and unprepossessing morning, when Minister for Arts Séamus Brennan announced the selection jury for the international architectural competition for the new theatre at George's Dock, just past the Custom House.
The jury is a pretty heavy-hitting one, including top architects and theatre people (interestingly among them are two Corkonians of international standing, actor Fiona Shaw and US-based designer Bob Crowley). For the announcement, there was representation from the Department, the Abbey, and Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA), but no one from the Arts Council - and indeed no mention of council involvement on the selection committee.
Surely the main funder of the National Theatre was not being excluded? A council press release later in the day clarified that architect Edward Jones is the council's nominee on the panel. "The Arts Council considered carefully the needs of theatre practitioners and audiences, as well as best architectural quality, and is honoured and delighted that Ed Jones has agreed to be our nominee."
A decision could be made on the design by the middle of next year, and then the pitching, selection and negotiation process for the public-private partnership (a private company will finance, build and manage the building) begins, which, judging by the National Convention Centre, may take 18 months, so in theory building might begin in 2010 and there might be a new national theatre by 2012.
Where in the dock it's situated will be of interest, and will be down to individual design pitches. The specifications indicate that water must remain a feature of the site - it doesn't specify how much or where - but the Abbey building, which has to house three theatres, a cinema, restaurants and bars, perhaps five rehearsal rooms, offices, and more, may overlap onto the "land" area. It would surely be unfortunate if too much of the dock's water were to be lost to the building. Getting the design right for a key landmark building in the rapidly changing docklands, an area that's altering the fulcrum of the city centre, is a challenge for the impressive jury, and the designers.
Belfast festive despite cuts
There may be a significant lack of a public presence - no billboards, no advertising, no banners in the streets proclaiming the city's 45th annual international arts festival - but the Belfast Festival at Queen's is shrugging off cuts in staff quotas and budgets (particularly for marketing) to launch itself in style, writes Jane Coyle.
This first weekend brings together a high-profile bunch of major award winners. Last night, the new Man Booker Prize winner, Anne Enright, was due to be in conversation with Belfast writer Glenn Patterson, whose latest novel, The Third Party, has just been published. On Sunday, film director David Lynch will be discussing his new book and the foundation he has set up to bring stress-reducing meditation to children and teenagers at risk. Newly appointed Children's Laureate Michael Rosen will talk about his own work and that of other great children's writers, including Lewis Carroll, CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien. And proceedings were to kick off with a flourish yesterday evening in the Waterfront Hall, when the Chieftains - Ireland's Grammy Award-winners - were joining forces with the Ulster Orchestra for the opening concert.
Still to come over the next two weeks is an impressive line-up of artists and events from countries including Sweden, the US, Poland, India, Germany, Australia, South Africa, the Czech Republic, Ukraine, and Serbia. Among the anticipated highlights are cabaret diva Ute Lemper; counter-tenor Andreas Scholl; Truth in Translation, which retells stories from South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission; gospel legends The Blind Boys of Alabama; a new site-specific Macbeth in Crumlin Road Gaol and the decadent brilliance of the Tiger Lillies cabaret band in the Spiegeltent.
"You'll travel a long way to find a collection of talent as good as this," says director Graeme Farrow. "In spite of its well-documented financial difficulties, the festival is, artistically, in extremely good shape. We've already amassed over £500,000 in advance ticket sales, and with nearly a third of shows sold out at this early stage, the programme has proved to be one of the most popular in its 45-year history."
Irish shorts for Cork film buffs
As the Corona Cork Film Festival enters its penultimate day, four new Irish-language short films will premiere there this afternoon, writes Michael Dwyer, Film Correspondent. They were made under the Oscailt scheme, funded by the Irish Film Board and TG4.
Writer-director Peter Foott follows his award-winning short The Carpenter and His Clumsy Wife with An Créatúr, which spans the first 15 years of a boy's life and reveals how a childhood prank leaves him racked with guilt. Eoghan Mac Giolla Bhríde's An Teanga features Keith McErlean and Macdara Ó Fatharta in the tale of a lowly office clerk who loses his tongue and confronts the establishment when he can't talk and they won't listen. Written and directed by Sonya Gildea, Bua is described as the story of "a young girl's fierce will to survive". Produced by Kirsten Sheridan, the film features Mick Lally, Jemma Harris and Marcus Lamb. And Rolla Saor, written by Brendan Griffin and directed by Cathal Watters, deals with a couple whose interest in photographing each other attracts the attention of the local pharmacist.
The four Oscailt films will be shown in the Kino cinema at 4.30pm today. The festival, which celebrates its 52nd edition this year, closes in Cork Opera House tomorrow night with Ang Lee's Lust, Caution, a drama of passion and betrayal in wartime Shanghai, which took the top prize, the Golden Lion, at the Venice Film Festival last month.
"Access to the arts" are the buzzwords these days, and for the past few years there has been awareness that, for all the swanky (and welcome) new arts centres and theatres all over Ireland, cultural access only happens if there is work to put into them. Touring costs money, more money that can be raised by box office, so it's good to see more and more work getting out there this autumn, from Rough Magic's tour of the delicious Improbable Frequency and Taming of the Shrew to Nomad's tour of Conversations on a Homecoming.
Indeed, there are 40 different shows touring Ireland this month and next as part of the Arts Council's Touring Experiment. The selection of work is eclectic and wide-ranging, and surely represents a real widening of access, so that more and more people outside the main urban centres can see Irish and international artistic work. Some of the examples of art on the road include Echo Echo Dance Theatre's new show Consequences, a variety of author tours, Donal Dineen's A Month of Sundays, Crash Ensemble's folk-inspired new music concerts, the Ulster Orchestra, Tomasz Stanko and Zold tours. Other theatre includes Druid's My Brilliant Divorce with Deirdre O'Kane, and Second Age's Philadelphia, Here I Come!.
Director Michael Barker-Caven, who moved from Ireland to Britain earlier this year, has had a good critical reaction in London to his direction of Shadowlands, with great reviews in the Evening Standard, London Times and Daily Telegraph. Michael Billington wrote in the Guardian that the "supreme virtue of Michael Barker-Caven's production is that it proves the play is much more than a Goodbye, Mr Chips-style tearjerker. Its real subject is faith and doubt".
Barker-Caven will be back in Ireland shortly to direct two shows for Landmark Productions, the Christmas show Alice in Wonderland (a Helix co-production, adapted for the stage by Mary Elizabeth Burke-Kennedy) from November 28th, and later a Frank McGuinness version of Strindberg's Miss Julie opening in February at the Project, starring Catherine Walker and Declan Conlon.
On the ball, the Arts Council sent a copy of Anne Enright's The Gathering to every TD and senator - that's 226 copies - after she was nominated for the Man Booker prize. Hopefully this example of the high standard of Irish artistic achievement might focus the legislators' minds when it comes to supporting artistic endeavour. It would be interesting to know how many Oireachtas members had read it by the time Enright won the prize this week (the council says it got a lot of acknowledgments for the book, but no feedback or critical reaction).