EVENT OF THE WEEK
DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL
Saturday, September 10th-Sunday September 25th; various venues/times/ticket prices; fringefest.com
If there’s one thing that the Dublin Fringe Festival is most renowned for it is daring to be subversive and courageous. As usual, there are too many options to choose from, but you won’t go wrong with these: Wake (National Stadium), from ThisIsPopBaby, is “an outpouring, a reckoning, a release and a party”; Accents (Project Arts Centre) sees Emmet Kirwan dramatically negotiate a path through family and community; meanwhile, Tom Moran is a Big Fat Filthy Disgusting Liar (The New Theatre) is a solo comedy show wherein the titular comedian asks “if I never told another lie and was just myself, would any of my loved ones still love me?” Full details on run times/start times/ticket prices are on the DFF website.
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GIGS
MAIJA SOFIA
Saturday, September 10th; Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin; 8pm; €25; paviliontheatre.ie
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Maija Sofia, the West of Ireland songwriter whose beguiling 2019 debut album, Bath, brought her to the attention of many, is the nominal headliner but anyone with a keen interest in equally compelling music would be advised to get to this show early. The reasons why are two American songwriters making their Irish debuts: Lael Neale (from Los Angeles) and Jana Horn (from Texas). A superb three-for-one. As part of the Dún Laoghaire Folk Festival.
GARTH BROOKS
Saturday, September 10th; Sunday, September 11th; Friday, September 16th; Saturday, September 17th; Croke Park, Dublin; 5pm; €81/€65.45; ticketmaster.ie
For thousands of country music fans, these shows have been a long time coming — and not just for fans. The plain truth is that Garth Brooks loves Ireland, Ireland loves Garth Brooks, and whether you view his music as not exactly to your taste has very little to do with it — these shows, including last night’s inaugural gig, sold out minutes after tickets were put on sale. There are no support acts, so it’s the girth of Garth from start to finish. Expect blue-collar country-rock/pop anthems followed by fireworks. Not a fan? Soak it up.
LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III
Sunday, September 11th; Liberty Hall Theatre, Dublin; 7pm; €38; singularartists.ie
Although perhaps weary that most people now know him as the father of Rufus and Martha — and not an acerbic, insightful singer-songwriter in his own right who back in the 1970s was saddled with the dreaded “new Bob Dylan” tag — Loudon Wainwright III continues to valiantly shape and share a distinctive body of work. As someone who has been around for more than 50 years, Wainwright III knows a thing or two about a lot, and so over the decades, his shows have become as much droll comedic masterclasses as therapy sessions.
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MUSIC FESTIVALS
VANTASTIVAL
Friday, September 16th and Saturday, September 17th; Baltray, Co Louth; 12noon; €70/€120; Family Saturday (two adults, two children 3-12 years) €150 vantastival.com
Vantastival started in May 2010 on, says one of its co-founders, Louise Tangney, “a wing and a prayer.” The festival’s 2022 iteration is the first time since 2019 that it has returned to Baltray (on the grounds of Beaulieu House, situated about three miles outside Drogheda), and while slightly smaller in scale, it nevertheless holds true to its loyalties toward promoting Irish music (as well as being a catch-up haven for lovers of the campervan lifestyle). Music acts to watch out for this year include Pixie Cut Rhythm Orchestra, Zapho, Kyoto Love Hotel, Wood Burning Savages, Niamh Regan, RSAG, and Susan O’Neill.
FALL RIGHT INTO PLACE
Friday, September 16th to Sunday, September 18th; Claregalway Castle, Co Galway; 4,30pm €36; three-day ticket €86; fallrightintoplace.ie
Galway-based record label and music agency Strange Brew masterminds, once again, this immensely cool weekend festival that has its finger so firmly on the pulse it might just cut off the blood supply. Headliners are New Dad (Friday), The Scratch (Saturday) and The Mary Wallopers (Sunday) but bubbling under each day are backup rows of emerging Irish music acts that very much deserve your time: Robocobra Quartet, Pretty Happy, Overhead the Albatross, Kynsy, Houseplants, Daithí, Junior Brother, and Paddy Hanna.
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GALLERY
EITHNE JORDAN — MISE EN SCENE PART I & PART II
Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, Co Louth, until October 1st; Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, until December 4th.
Two solo exhibitions by Eithne Jordan continue in two separate galleries across two months, so the probability of seeing both and coming to your conclusions as to themes is reasonably high. Mise en Scene Part I at Drogheda’s Highlanes Gallery features large and smaller scale paintings that look at the elegance of certain 18th/19th-century buildings and what they are now used for. Mise en Scene Part II features a sequence of miniature oils (of mostly sculptures), which is something of an artistic departure for the RHA artist.
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ON STAGE
SOUTH PACIFIC
Bord Gais Energy Theatre, Dublin; Tuesday, September 13th to Saturday, September 17th; 7.30pm; €45/€35/€30/€25 matinee shows at 2.30pm September 14th/15th/ 17th. bordgaisenergytheatre.ie
The Chichester Festival Theatre production of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Tony and Pulitzer Prize-winning South Pacific makes its Irish debut, and if you’re looking for a memorable night out — full orchestra, leading ladies and gents, classic show tunes such as Bali Ha’I, Some Enchanted Evening, There is Nothing Like a Dame, Happy Talk, and I’m Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair — then get in your canoe, paddle up and sing along. Bear in mind, however, that the musical’s message of confronting racial prejudice was strong enough for British drama critic Kenneth Tynan to remark that South Pacific was the first musical romance “seriously involved in an adult subject”.
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STILL RUNNING
EVA GONZALES IS WHAT DUBLIN NEEDS
Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, until Sunday, September 18th.
As well as utilising Édouard Manet’s 1870 portrait of Eva Gonzales (a formal pupil of his) as an access point into the depiction and creative rituals of women artists, this exhibition also outlines the long-lasting artistic discourse between painter and subject.
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BOOK IT THIS WEEK
The Blackwater Lightship, Gaiety Theatre, Dublin; September 27th-October 2nd; tickets available from ticketmaster.ie
Potted Potter, Gaiety Theatre, Dublin; October 18th-23rd; tickets available from ticketmaster.ie
Cinderella, National Opera House, Wexford, October 26th/29th/31st; November 4th; tickets available from wexfordopera.com
Guinness Cork Jazz Festival 2022, various venues across Cork city, October 27th-30th; tickets available from guinnesscorkjazz.ie
