ArtScape:Peter O'Toole returns home this month to portray a pope in the second series of the successful TV drama The Tudors, which started shooting in Irish locations this week, writes Michael Dwyer.
His daughter, Kate O'Toole, played Lady Salisbury in the first series. He will play Pope Paul III in the series, which deals with the eventful life of the young King Henry VIII, portrayed by another Irish actor, Jonathan Rhys Meyers.
Coincidentally, O'Toole has played one of that monarch's predecessors, King Henry II, in two films, Becket and The Lion in Winter.
During his long, distinguished career, O'Toole has played a diverse range of real-life characters on screen, including the title role in Lawrence of Arabia, Jim Larkin in Strumpet City, Emperor Tiberius Caesar in Caligula, Priam in Troy, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle in Fairy Tale, and the eponymous boozy columnist in the TV film Jeffrey Bernard is Unwell.
"Peter O'Toole is the holy grail for The Tudors," says Robert Greenblatt, president of the US TV channel, Showtime, which is making the series. "We needed someone of enormous stature to play Pope Paul III, who faced off against Henry VIII in his bid to get his divorce from Catherine of Aragon. Henry's defiance of the pope and his break with the Roman Catholic Church is one of the great turning points in the history of the world."
Earlier this year, O'Toole, who is 74, was nominated for an Oscar as best actor for his portrayal of an ageing actor in Venus. It marked his eighth nomination in that category, but he has yet to win the award. Offered an honorary Oscar four years ago, O'Toole refused the honour, insisting that he was "still in the game" and would like more time to "win the lovely bugger outright". He relented only when he was informed that the award would be bestowed on him whether he collected it or not.
He will feature in seven of the 10 episodes in the new series of The Tudors, in which he joins a large cast headed by Rhys Meyers and including Henry Cavill, Jeremy Northam, James Frain, Maria Doyle Kennedy (as Queen Catherine of Aragon), Natalie Dormer (as Anne Boleyn), Nick Dunning, Padraic Delaney, David Alpay, Hans Matheson, Aaron Monaghan and John Kavanagh.
The first series of The Tudors was so well received by critics and audiences in the US that Showtime decided to make a second series. It is the most expensive production to date from the channel. Scheduled to be filmed here over 20 weeks, the sequel comes as a boon to the Irish film industry. The Irish producers are Morgan O'Sullivan and James Flynn.
TV3 and BBC will broadcast the first series in the autumn. One US review noted that, in the opening episode, "the king mourns the death of his uncle, declares war on France and leaps into bed with two squealing damsels - all in the first 15 minutes".
Choreographing change
Ever wanted to work with a major choreographer? Well, here's your chance - and you don't even have to leave the beach, writes Victoria White. Muirne Bloomer is to choreograph the crowd in a special movement against climate change for Stop Climate Chaos's Umbrella Action Day tomorrow on Sandymount Strand in Dublin.
Bloomer has much experience of orchestrating large spectacles, having co-choreographed the opening of the Ryder Cup at the K Club and the Special Olympics at Croke Park. She also choreographed the opening of the Special Olympics in Belfast.
Her theatre work includes, most recently, The Cavalcaders at the Abbey, as well as Drama at Inish, A Doll's House and The Tempest at the same theatre. She also choreographed Dancing at Lughnasa at the Gate. As a dancer she has worked with Coiscéim, as well as the Vienna Ballet Theatre, Dublin City Ballet and others.
Stop Climate Chaos, a coalition of 20 development and environmental agencies including Trócaire, Concern and Friends of the Earth, is aiming to send a message to the new government to cut carbon emissions. We have room for improvement, being the fifth biggest emitters of greenhouse gases, per person, in the world. Bring an umbrella to the Martello Tower, Sandymount Strand tomorrow at 3pm and let Bloomer show you how to open it. For more information, tel: 086-1744938.
Opera, opera, everywhere
As if Wexford Festival Opera, Opera Ireland at the RDS, Opera 2005 in Cork and the 2007 season of Castleward Opera were not enough to satisfy the most voracious operatic appetites, here comes Opera Fringe, in the historic Co Down town of Downpatrick, writes Jane Coyle.
Now in its sixth year, the festival has grown from being a quirky fringe event to the nearby Castleward season into a fully-fledged affair in its own right. It remains centred in Downpatrick but its programme fans out into the attractive villages of Castlewellan and Strangford, both also in Co Down, thereby giving it a cultural tourism edge.
There are no fewer than three world premieres: Opera Theatre Company's The Marriage of Figaro; a new commission from Irish composer Ciaran Farrell, performed by Codetta, a collaboration between virtuoso Derry saxophonist Gerard McChrystal and former members of the youth choir of City of Derry Civic Choirs; and The Vikings, a gallop through 600 years of history, written and directed by Peter Morgan Barnes for opera singers and school choirs.
The magnificent Great Hall of the Downshire Estate is the setting for tonight's Irish premiere of the Armonico Consort's production of Henry Purcell's The Fairy Queen, first performed in London in 1692. In another Irish premiere, the Irish Baroque Orchestra Chamber Soloists will perform a specially devised programme commemorating the 250th anniversary of the death of Domenico Scarlatti.
Elsewhere, there is a midsummer musical celebration in the grounds of Inch Abbey, lunchtime "soup operas" at local hostelries, a recital by mezzo-soprano Della Jones, talks, workshops, films and general merry-making every night at the Festival Club in Denvir's Hotel, Downpatrick. The festival runs until June 24th. See www.operafringe.com.
Galway set for 'Garage'
Fresh from its world premiere at Cannes, Lenny Abrahamson's rural Irish drama, Garage, will have its first Irish screening at the 19th Galway Film Fleadh on Saturday, July 14th, writes Michael Dwyer. In Cannes it won the annual Art et Essai prize, presented by the International Confederation of Arthouse Cinemas, which represents more than 3,000 cinemas in Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa. The Cannes award reflects their mission "to promote quality motion pictures on cinema screens and to defend the right for cultural diversity".
Set in a rural Irish town, Garage stars Pat Shortt as a simple man who unwittingly triggers a crisis in his life. The screenplay is by Mark O'Halloran, who also scripted Abrahamson's Dublin drama Adam & Paul. The film was produced by Ed Guiney of Dublin-based company Element Films.
The Galway Film Fleadh runs from July 10th to 15th. The full programme will be announced later this month.
Many in the arts world, and elsewhere, are grieving the passing of media and arts consultant Carmel White, who died from cancer on June 1st after a short illness. Much more than an arts publicist with her company Media Reach, she touched many people's lives and creative work over the past few decades. She studied with Deirdre O'Connell for eight years at the Stanislavski Studio and got an MBA from UCD. The range of her interests, commitments and friendships spanned work for theatre - particularly Focus, New Theatre and Calypso - dance companies, the International Dance Festival and the Dublin Film Festival in the mid-1990s, as well as work with many individual artists.
She was on the boards of Ouroboros and the New Theatre - one of her last visits to the theatre was to the reopening of the rebuilt New Theatre on Dublin's East Essex Street in early March. A Dublin Fringe Festival judge from 2004-2006, she was an instigator of the Jayne Snow Award, in honour of her friend and colleague, who died in 2000. There were readings and music at her funeral on bank holiday Monday in the overflowing Unitarian Church at St Stephen's Green, where she was an active member. Friends and colleagues remembered a woman of integrity and passion, who was creative but pragmatic, generous with her advice and supportive of artists. She was self-effacing, often claiming the limelight for others. She is survived by her husband of 34 years, the architect Peter White, and their sons Fiachra and Tadhg. Carmel White would have been 60 in October. Rest in peace.