Event of the week
Yusuf/Cat Stevens
Thursday, September 18th, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, 7pm, €138.25/€98.25/€93.25/€83.25 (sold out), ticketmaster.ie
The last time Yusuf/Cat Stevens performed in Dublin, in November 2009, at what is now 3Arena, he prompted slow handclapping, booing and jeering, not to mention shouts of “Play Peace Train, you bastard!” It was a classic conflict between audience expectation and artistic expression: instead of playing all of his beloved bedsit hits, Stevens previewed Moonshadow, his unconventional stage musical. “Now I know what Dylan felt like,” he quipped on the night, referring to the negative reaction in the mid-1960s when Bob Dylan swapped acoustic guitars for electric. Let’s hope there are no such ructions at this show, which coincides with the publication of his new memoir, Cat on the Road to Findout, and which is billed as featuring unplugged performances of Stevens’s songs and an in-depth conversation about his life.
Festivals
Culture Night/Oíche Chultúir
Friday, September 19th, nationwide, free, culturenight.ie
Celebrating its 20th edition with another all-island programme of free arts and cultural events, this Arts Council initiative delivers to rural settings, villages, towns and cities too many experiences to list. The range on offer includes Kaught at the Karpark (which pays tribute to Cork city’s galvanising punk/post-punk music scene of the late 1970s), Where Light Lingers (an illuminated site-specific music/visual art encounter at Kylemore Abbey, in Connemara), We Act (a diverse, community-driven storytelling session in Smithfield, Dublin), Maud Cotter (a solo exhibition, Maelstrom, Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda, Co Louth), Jaskane (chamber folk trio, Ormston House, Limerick city) and Spanish Armada Photographic Retrospective (City Hall, Sligo town).
Vantastival
Friday-Sunday, September 19th-21st, Beaulieu House, Baltray, Co Louth, 1pm, €180/€145/€70, vantastival.com
They said it wouldn’t return, but some promises are meant to be broken. After a run of 12 family-friendly festivals, Vantastival is back for one more weekend – “absolutely final”, according to its director and cofounder, Louise Tangney – of predominantly Irish music talent. Alongside a headline late-night slot by Orbital’s Phil Hartnoll, other acts performing across the weekend include Gemma Hayes, HousePlants, Junior Brother, Jinx Lennon, Susan O’Neill, Sun Mahshene, Negro Impacto, Elaine Mai, Reevah and Ispíní na hÉireann.
Gigs
Jape
Sunday, September 14th, NCH, Dublin, 8pm, €37.50/€30/€22, nch.ie
As part of NCH Landmarks, an initiative to celebrate the best of Irish music, the Sweden-based Dubliner Richie Egan, aka Jape, performs two of his best albums. The Monkeys in the Zoo Have More Fun Than Me, from 2004, is exploratory and reflective folktronica, while Ritual, from 2008, bursts with indie beats and tiers of often inspirational electronics. The aim of the evening, Egan said recently, is to “present these older albums in a way that stays true to their essence but also maybe broadens their palette a little”. Highly recommended.
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Stage
The Boy: A Two-Play Theatrical Event
From Monday, September 15th, until Saturday, November 1st, Abbey Theatre, Dublin, 7.30pm, €55/€49/€38/€27, abbeytheatre.ie
Written by Marina Carr and directed by Caitríona McLaughlin, two new plays – The Boy, and The God and His Daughter – receive their world premiere. Inspired by Sophocles’s trilogy of Oedipus Rex, Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone, the plays can be viewed separately or back to back. The cast across both plays includes Eileen Walsh, Frank Blake, Olwen Fouéré, Zara Devlin and Frank McCusker.
Literature
David Sedaris
Thursday, September 18th, Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny, 7pm, €37, watergatetheatre.com; Friday, September 19th, Town Hall Theatre, Galway, 7pm, €36.05, tht.ie
David Sedaris, blurring the lines between amiable humorist, thoughtful essayist and self-deprecating comedian, was initially influenced by US comedians he listened to on radio shows in the early 1960s: Jack Benny, Danny Kaye, Eve Arden and more. By the time he reached his early 30s, Sedaris was reading essays based on his diary entries on National Public Radio. He is now a celebrated radio and podcast presence, and an essayist par excellence. Also Saturday, September 20th, Cork Opera House, 7pm, €39, corkoperahouse.ie; Sunday, September 21st, 7.30pm, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin, 6pm, €41.10, ticketmaster.ie; Monday, September 22nd, 7.30pm, £42, Ulster Hall, Belfast, ulsterhall.co.uk.
Spoken word
Between Dog and Wolf: An Evening of Storytelling with Tommy Tiernan & Martin Shaw
Saturday, September 13th, Áras Éanna, Inis Oírr, 8.30pm, €25, aras-eanna.ie; Tuesday, September 16th, Roscommon Arts Centre, 8pm, €39, roscommonartscentre.ie; Wednesday, September 17th, Linenhall, Castlebar, Co Mayo, 8pm, €39, thelinenhall.com; Thursday, September 18th, Glens Centre, Manorhamilton, Co Leitrim, 8pm, €39, theglenscentre.com; Friday, September 19th, An Grianán Theatre, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, 8pm, €39, angrianan.com
In a rare occurrence, the stand-up comedian and actor Tommy Tiernan will not be commandeering the stage but sharing it with the storyteller Dr Martin Shaw, founder of the oral-tradition and mythic-life courses at Stanford University, in California. The pitch is folk tales, fairy stories, true but strange yarns and many points in between. The tour continues until Monday, October 6th (Vicar Street, Dublin), with most of the shows sold out.
Still running
Clonakilty International Guitar Festival
From Wednesday, September 17th, until Sunday, September 21st, DeBarra’s, Clonakilty, Co Cork, various venues, times and prices, clonguitarfest.com
The 21st iteration of this admired event continues to deliver what it says is a “greenfield model for a festival” with its reclamation of public spaces for performances. The core music venue, however, remains DeBarra’s, one of the best in the country. Acts across the festival include the UK singer-songwriter Roy Harper, the Donegal blues prodigy Muireann Bradley, and the hot-button bands Babyrat, Adore and Silverbacks.
Book it this week
Tebi Rex, Button Factory, Dublin, December 22nd, ticketmaster.ie
The Dedication to Philip Lynott, 3Arena, Dublin, January 4th, ticketmaster.ie
Biffy Clyro, 3Arena, Dublin, January 9th, ticketmaster.ie
Dara Ó Briain, Vicar Street, Dublin, January 15th-17th, ticketmaster.ie
