Event of the week
Arctic Monkeys
Sunday, October 15th, Tuesday, October 17th, and Thursday, October 19th; 3Arena, Dublin; 6.30pm; €81.50; Monday, October 16th; SSE Arena, Belfast; 6.30pm; £81.50/£71.50; ticketmaster.ie
The Sheffield band didn’t please their Irish fans too much when they pulled out of their Marlay Park gig in June (singer Alex Turner was suffering from acute laryngitis) only to play a headline slot at Glastonbury a few days later. The fans and band, we surmise, are now kissing and making up with several arena shows that mark the close of their world tour. Expect a trawl through an eclectic and always intriguing back catalogue, including their latest (exploratory, cinematic) album, The Car. That album, however, appears to receive short shrift in a crowd-pleasing set list that focuses on their era-defining indie songs. They can do that because, hey, hey, they’re the Monkeys.
Gigs
Ellie Goulding
Monday, October 16th; 3Olympia, Dublin; 7pm; €40.55; ticketmaster.ie
In a recent interview to promote her latest album, Higher Than Heaven, the English singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding admitted that she’d love to shake off the shackles of large-venue touring and head down to Dingle for another visit to Other Voices. Whether that might happen is debatable; in the meantime she brings her Higher Than Heaven tour to the capital. Interesting fact, pop pickers: Goulding holds the record for a British female solo act with the most entries in the UK singles charts – 35 hits so far. What to prepare for, then, but a gig full of bangers?
Dustin O’Halloran
Monday, October 16th; Liberty Hall Theatre, Dublin; 7pm; €33; paviliontheatre.ie
The US composer Dustin O’Halloran arrives in Dublin courtesy of Pavilion Theatre’s Between the Notes concert series, which presents the work of contemporary-music shape-shifters. There is none more so than O’Halloran, whose compositional work as a solo artist and as half of A Winged Victory for the Sullen (not forgetting his soundtrack music for film and television) has been duly acclaimed. Special guest is the Brussels-based composer and harpist Margaret Hermant.
Sinéad: A Celebration of Sinéad O’Connor
Thursday, October 19th; Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin; 8pm; €32; paviliontheatre.ie
There will no doubt be more celebrations of the music and bold activism of Sinéad O’Connor, whose death on July 26th this year left a vacuum that will never be filled. This evening features a heartfelt gathering of musicians, writers and visual artists who will explore and present O’Connor’s work in ways that pay tribute as much to her personal politics as to her wide-reaching art as a singer and songwriter. Keep an eye out for additional names to be added to an already superb line-up of Lisa O’Neill, Soda Blonde, Niamh Regan, Una Mullally, Aoife Wolf, Iona Zajac and Dorje de Burgh.
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Stage
Of a Midnight Meeting
From Monday, October 16th, until Saturday, November 11th; Bewley’s Cafe Theatre, Dublin; 1pm; €10; bewleyscafetheatre.com
We are approaching Halloween and should, therefore, prepare to be spooked until the end of the month. An early entry into the season of things that go bump in the night is Katie McCann’s supernatural-themed play, set in the 1920s, about the celebrated medium Hester O’Brien’s investigation of the authenticity of ghosts. Topics touched on in this world premiere include faith versus science, and the manipulation of sorrow. Jeda de Brí directs McCann as O’Brien.
Literature
Red Line Book Festival
From Monday, October 16th, until Sunday, October 22nd; various venues/times/prices; redlinefestival.ie
Libraries are crucial to the development of an informed society, so let’s applaud (quietly, if you don’t mind) South Dublin Libraries & Arts for yet another year of the Red Line Book Festival. The “something for everyone in the audience” tag applies here, with events that include the potentially controversial (Daring Debuts: Who says men can’t write romantic fiction?) and common sense (A Guide to Growing Old Gracefully, with Marty Morrissey and Francis Brennan) to writing masterclasses (with Catherine Ryan Howard) and public interviews (John Banville in conversation with Dermot Bolger). The festival website has full details of venues, times and ticket prices.
Oscariana
From Saturday, October 14th, until Monday, October 16th; Oscar Wilde House, Dublin; various times and prices; oscariana.ie
Subtitled A Wilde Dublin Festival, Oscariana takes place around the weekend of the 169th birthday of the Irish playwright and poet. Based in Wilde’s childhood Dublin home, the festival highlights the life and legacy of the man who said, “Be yourself – everyone else is already taken.” Events include theatre (The Importance of Being Oscar, by Micheál Mac Liammóir, adapted and performed by Michael Judd), film (screenings of The Picture of Dorian Gray, from 1945, and The Importance of Being Earnest, from 1952), poetry (Julian Bernard, Ruairi Conneely and Caoimhe Lavelle delivering Wildean works) and music (Villagers’ Conor O’Brien, and The Silken Same). Full details on the festival website.
Visual art
Emma Talbot: The Age/L’Eta
Until Saturday, December 2nd; the Model, Sligo; themodel.ie
A recent winner of the Max Mara Art Prize for Women (which promotes and nurtures women artists, and is the only visual-art prize for women in the UK), an exhibition by Emma Talbot makes its debut at the Model. Her work, noted Artforum’s Iwona Blazwick, features “radiant drawings ... on an epic scale ... and combines word and image to express the lyricism and the pain of subjectivity”.
Still running
Powerful Trouble
Until Sunday, October 15th; RHA, Dublin; various times and prices; dublintheatrefestival.ie
This immersive blend of live sound, remarkable visuals and instinctual movement is a collaboration between the dance visionaries Junk Ensemble (the piece is conceived by Jessica Kennedy and Megan Kennedy) and the artists Aideen Barry, Jesse Jones, Vicky Langan and Olwen Fouéré.
Book it now
Trad Fest, Dublin city and county, January 24th-28th, tradfest.com
Yard Act, Vicar Street, Dublin, March 20th, singularartists.ie
Thundercat, Vicar Street, Dublin, March 26th, ticketmaster.ie
Dave Matthews Band, 3Arena, Dublin, April 27th, ticketmaster.ie
