Archive for January, 2009
For those of you that spend lunch times eating stale, over-priced sandwiches and listening to classmates’ tales of romantic woe and alcoholic excess this article will change your life – or at least an hour of it.
It appears that those most affected by economic downturn are drama graduates- aren’t we a sorry lot? Jobs disappear, arts council funding dissolves and we are left holding our tails between our legs, having to listen to our fathers singing along to the ‘I told you so’ dance. Faced with the obvious option of working in Asda- now that they’re creating more jobs for people exactly like us- what do we do? Do we give up our theatrical ambitions and head down to the job centre, or do we face the music and make some ghetto theatre in whatever space we can get our grimy little mitts on? The latter, according to Dan Bergin, one of the founders of ‘Daguerreotype’, Trinity’s latest home grown theatre company.
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I’ll come clean before I start this entry. I do not sit at home musing upon whether or not Brian Friel deserves to be considered Ireland’s pre-eminent playwright. Honest. I had a class on Friel last week which made me question his star-studded, status. Let us not forget the momentous occasion of Friel’s 70th birthday which was celebrated in Dublin with the Friel Festival. This was an extravaganza during which ten of his plays were staged or presented as dramatic readings; in conjunction with the festival were a conference, National Library Exhibition, film screenings, outreach programmes, pre-show talks and the launching of an issue of The Irish University Review devoted to his work. In 2006 Friel was elected a Saoi, one of the five elite members of Aosdána (an association of people in Ireland who have achieved distinction in the arts). There is no doubt that this man is a national celebrity.
Reading Shakespeare is infinitely different from seeing it in the flesh. Consider this passage from The Winter’s Tale, currently playing at The Project Arts Centre in Temple Bar.
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Powerfully in contention for the silliest comments made about art in the last year are Ian McEwan’s on opera. The thrust of his argument is that operas are not enough like Ian McEwan novels: “I don’t like fairies and dwarfs cavorting around the stage… and I’ve always had a bit of a problem with the lack of psychological realism in opera”. Thus McEwan does away with Mozart’s Magic Flute, perhaps in favour of a McEwan-style Realist Flute. But the questions for McEwan are: who said anybody was supposed to really believe it in the first place? And even more: is it nevertheless not actually truer than your “heritage London” reasonableness?
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The Irish Critic has noted that a few of you theatre lovers have been searching for information on The Irish Times Theatre Awards 2009. This has been noted and as usual the critic has accomodated your every need by providing you with a list of this years nominees- quite a line up. The Irish Critic’s vote goes for Tom Vaughan Lawlor in the best actor category.
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The Golden Globe award winners, just incase you lost the plot half way through Kate Winslet’s speech. A glamorous and weepy night was had by all.
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This January, The Pavillion Theatre hosts some exciting new adaptations. Here are a couple that might tickle your fancy.
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Sitting in the foyer of The Abbey Theatre moments before my interview with Wayne Jordan, the director of La Dispute, the show currently beginning its run at The Peacock, I suddenly realise I know nothing about him- this should be interesting. When I finally do meet him however, I find that despite my ignorance, I must have had expectations, because he defies all of them. Bounding through the entrance wearing a distinctly blue tracksuit, he is definitely the most excitable director I have ever met, rushing over to greet me, the ignorant stranger, with a hug.
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The Abbey- it’s the posh one. If you were going to take your granny to a show, it would be at The Abbey (unless she’s one of those grannies, like mine, that shouts at the actors). More importantly however, The Abbey is our national theatre, representing us as a nation on stage, though that has always been debatable.
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