Cork 2005: Sometimes it's hard to know where Cork 2005 ends and other organisations begin. So it is with the Corcadorca Relocations project which is taking centre-stage as a Cork Midsummer Festival event, but is also sponsored by the Capital of Culture.
The collaboration between the festival and Corcadorca has led to the theatre company's production of The Merchant of Venice from June 16th to 25th. This is supported by Cork 2005, which also commissioned the new Enda Walsh play pondlife angels, presented by Asylum Productions, which will have its world premiere at the Granary Theatre on June 15th.
Clamorous as this timetable may be, it doesn't eclipse the other events on the festival programme, announced recently at one of those parties which give the notion of reclaiming the streets a new meaning. Revellers were happily spreading from the doors of the Bodega bar on to Cornmarket Street.
The giant Spiegeltent La Gayola will be the hub of the festival. The "tent of mirrors" will bring its programme of live music and serving as a late-night club from June 14th to 25th.
This year the festival has a questioning theme. Blow-In from the Danger Museum, is a collage-based exploration of Cork's cultural climate at Cork Public Museum from June 15th to 24th.
Other events are Hammergrin's Trying Jokes at the former (and temporary) court house on Camden Quay, and the Dark Week project from Playgroup and the Everyman Palace Studio at the Everyman from June 21st to 25th.
CoisCeim Dance Theatre, with Chamber Made from June 14th to 18th at the Quality Hotel in Shandon and The Beach Project from CruX Dance Theatre at Graball Bay in Crosshaven (for one night only on June 24th, with bus transport) add to the gaiety, with the visit of Theatre Forum adding some gravitas by holding its annual conference in the city (June 16th-17th).
Exhibitions, lectures and music from The Tallis Scholars at St Fin Barre's Cathedral on June 18th and the Galway Baroque Singers in the same cathedral on June 25th all share the programme. The Signal to Noise company perform in your home in Homemade at a time to suit you from June 14th to 18th.
Running alongside all this is a children's programme built around the centre-piece of the Ark production of Roddy Doyle's play No Messin' with the Monkeys at the ICD Firkin Crane from June 20th to 24th.
