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• The winners . . .

  September 23, 2008 @ 2:04 pm | by Fiona McCann

  Here they are folks, the winners and contenders for this year’s Fringe Awards. Were they yours? 

  Spirit of the Fringe Commissioning Award – €4,000

  Presented in association with Project Arts Centre to the company that best embodies the Spirit of the Fringe – fresh, brave and exciting. The prize is a €4000 commissioning grant for a new show to be produced for the Dublin Fringe Festival 2008 in Project Cube. Usually presented to an Irish company.

  Winner
  The Woman Who Left Herself, Jouissance Productions
  Other Nominees
  Bouffon Glass Menajoree (Ten Directions)
  Etiquette (Rotozaza)
  Rock Paper Scissors (RYT Performance Lab)
  Pinocchio (Silvia Mercuriali and Gemma Brockis)
  Best Production – €750
  Presented to the show or event that displays excellence in every area of production.
   

  Winner
  Susan and Darren, Quarantine
  Other Nominees
  Grasping the Floor with the Back of my Head (Mute Company)
  War of the Roses (Whiplash)
  Polaroid (Jo Stromgron Kompani)
  Bygones (Ingun Bjornsgaard Prosjekt)
  Best Design – €500
  For outstanding lighting, set, sound, costume and/or graphic design and is the only theatre award in Ireland to acknowledge sound and design.

  Winner
  The Four Horsemen, Volcano – Overall design
  Other Nominees
  Chronicles of a Sleepless Moon (overall design, Suitcase Royale)
  Tundra (lighting design by Conleth White)
   

  Bewleys Cafe Theatre Award – €500
  This new award is presented to the best Irish fringe show under an hour. The prize is the opportunity to remount the show in Bewley’s for a two-week run at lunch time in 2008.

  Winner
  Luck, Making Strange Theatre Company
  Other Nominees
  The Common Will from Painted Filly Theatre Company
  Love 2.0 from thisispopbaby
  La Voix Humaine from Randolf SD I The Company
  Life After Love by Billie Traynor
  Fishamble New Writing Award
  Presented to the best play by a new or emerging Irish (or Irish-based) playwright premiered during the Fringe. The prize includes a scholarship place on a playwriting course, dramaturgical support and a €1000 stipend towards the playwright’s next play.

  Winner
  Elaine Murphy, Little Gem
  Other Nominees
  Phillip McMahon and Belinda McKeon (Love 2.0)
  Jody O’Neill (They Never Froze Walt Disney)
  Lawrie Pendlebury (Thicker Than Water)
  Best Male Performer – €500
  

  Winner
  Raymond Scannell, Mimic
  Other Nominees
  Joseph Keckler (Cat Lady)
  Robbie O’Connor (Rock Paper Scissors)
  Karl Quinn (All in the Timing)
  Daniel Costello (Appointment in Limbo)
  Best Female Performer – €500

  Winner
  Anita Reeves, Hilda Fay, Aoife Duffin (Little Gem)

  Other Nominees
  Ana Schmidt (IDentity dFragments)
  Saori Tsukada (Saori’s Birthday)
  Germana Civera (The Forest)
  Sigrid Husjord Og Valravin (Grasping the floor with the Back of my Head)
  Best Spiegeltent Show
  To the best night in the tent, or to the best performer in the tent over the 16 nights. Not including La Clique.

  Winner
  Cathy Davey, Songs that scare children (but in a very beautiful way), presented by Hum and Aiken Promotions
  Other Nominees
  The Fall, presented by Crawdaddy
  An Evening with Fujiya and Miyagi, presented by Steo da Cat
   

  Culture Ireland Touring Award – €5,000

  Winner
  Drinking Dust, Junk Ensemble

• What is the star?

  September 18, 2008 @ 4:07 pm | by Fiona McCann

  This Fringe has so far proved a pretty mixed bag, with some great shows (Etiquette, Pinocchio and Equilibre spring to mind), alongside some serious duds. But that’s just my opinion, ain’t it? Reviewing is a subjective game but it still seems quite an amount of shows have been reduced to single stardom in the Irish Times rating system (which, by the way, is an Irish Times euphimism for plain old “bad”, in case there was any ambiguity). These include Mad Mabe, The Cat’s Miaow Part II, and City Breaks. Is this kind of shorthand fair to productions and cast, and does anyone feel the reviewers, myself included, were wrong? If so, line up folks because here’s your chance to realign the constellations.

• Fringe food

  September 16, 2008 @ 4:13 pm | by Fiona McCann

  I’m not dissing the sausages, Lord knows, nor is this any reflection on the two delightful German gents manning the ever-popular sausage stand, but maaan, those pizzas. How do they make ‘em so delightfully doughy? It’s a slightly expanded snack selection this year at the Iveagh Gardens, and a very pleasant dining environment under the trees. Cheesy pretzels were a little controversial for my tastes, though, Fringe or no Fringe. How are yizzer bellies finding this year’s fine festival fare?

• Paranoid

  @ 10:07 am | by Fiona McCann

  From today’s paper, my review of Paranoid: “There is something effectively cold-sweat-inducing about receiving a Saturday-night text message to confirm a secret meeting place the following afternoon in the city centre for a Fringe performance, with the addition of: “Paranoid? You should be.”

  Factor in the show’s proviso, that anyone you meet over the 90 minutes of Paranoia may be in on the act, and you’re guaranteed clammy palms and a mind ripe for messing with. Despite that, and for all its convincing performances and quirky set pieces, Paranoid ultimately squanders the excitement of its mysterious set-up. While the premise – the sole audience member is taken through Dublin’s streets without any warning of what’s around the next corner – is novel and compelling, the theatrical strands fail to come together to produce any coherent whole, or even the promised, and by the end of the show, strangely desirable, state of paranoia.”

• Infinite Jester

  September 15, 2008 @ 1:18 pm | by Fiona McCann

  Another off-fringe post, this time on the late David Foster Wallace. I haven’t read Infinite Jest, but it is a book very dear to someone very dear to me, and I didn’t want the news of Foster Wallace’s death to go unmarked here. The New York Times described him as ”a writer of virtuosic talents who can seemingly do anything.” It’s disappointing to know he won’t be doing anything else.

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