Event of the week
Aisling Bea
Wednesday, March 18th, Vicar Street, Dublin, 7pm, €34, ticketmaster.ie; Thursday, March 19th, National Opera House, Wexford, 7.30pm, €32 (sold out), nationaloperahouse.ie; Sunday, March 22nd, Vicar Street, Dublin, 7pm, €34, ticketmaster.ie
Aisling Bea’s background, first in drama and then as an ubersmart comedian – she won the So You Think You’re Funny award at Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2012, becoming only the second woman to scoop the prize – has helped make her one of the most familiar faces on TV, including for This Way Up, her excellent dramedy series for Channel 4 (in which her good friend Sharon Horgan also starred). The Irish star’s new stand-up tour, Older Than Jesus, focuses on the recent changes in her life, including motherhood, parenting and the gritty bits that get in the way of each. The show is strictly over-16s, for reasons that explains Bea on Instagram: “There are lots of chats about sex, and I like to curse when I want, and I absolutely do not want to be staring into the eyes of your 13-year-old as I do that.”
Gigs
Rock Against Homelessness
Tuesday, March 17th, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, 7.30pm, €50.65/€45, ticketmaster.ie
This annual event in aid of Focus Ireland features a headline performance by the Sharon Shannon Big Band, with guest appearances by Bob Geldof, Camille O’Sullivan, Garron Noone, Colm Lynch and Alky. All eyes and ears, however, will be on the big band, which includes the lauded fiddle player Gerry O’Connor and the esteemed saxophonist Richie Buckley. Expect special guests to be announced closer to the time of this St Patrick’s Day concert. The MC is Laura Whitmore.
Paddy’s Day at Hen’s Teeth
Tuesday, March 17th, Hen’s Teeth, Dublin, 2pm, €14.38, eventbrite.ie
For a different perspective on Irish music, this St Patrick’s Day event features what the promoters describe as an afternoon of non-traditional trad music. Programmed by the sound designer Rory Bowens, a presenter on the digital radio station NTS (on which he presents The Slip, a fortnightly ambient show), music will be performed by the harpist Róisín Berkeley and the multi-instrumentalist Ian Nyquist. Along with live music is a DJ set from Ian Lynch of Lankum, who will be showcasing numerous acts from his Fire Draw Near podcast.
David Geraghty
Friday, March 20th, Kasbah, Limerick, 8pm, €20, dolans.ie
No sooner has Paul Noonan, Bell X1’s lead singer, completed a nationwide tour (with the Bell X1 alumnus Brian Crosby) than his bandmate David Geraghty embarks on live shows to road-test songs from his forthcoming solo album, Komorebi. The gigs blend previously unheard material (including the recent single Valentine) with older tracks from the albums Kill Your Darlings (2007), The Victory Dance (2009), Inherit (2014) and Monomania (2019). Also, Saturday, March 21st, Róisín Dubh, Galway, 8pm, €21, roisindubh.net; Friday, March 27th, Balor Theatre, Ballybofey, Co Donegal, 8pm, €15; balorartscentre.com
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In conversation
Neil Jordan: The Ethics of Memory
Monday, March 16th, Royal Irish Academy of Music, Dublin, 7pm, €20, riam.ie
As an early event of Borris House Festival of Writing & Ideas (which takes place from Friday, June 5th, until Sunday, June 7th) the film director and writer Neil Jordan talks about his new book, The Library of Traumatic Memories, a piece of speculative fiction, set in 2084, about an archivist at the titular institute who allows overpowering grief to taint his normally fastidious work ethic. The use and misuse of personal archives are investigated in conversation with the author (and Irish Times columnist) Mark O’Connell.
Arts festival
Sm(All) Folk
Until Friday, March 27th, AXIS, Ballymun, axisballymun.ie
Created specifically for young audiences, Sm(All) Folk Festival offers affordable and accessible live theatre for children of all abilities and backgrounds. Remaining events include The Story Dome: The Salmon of Knowledge (Saturday, March 14th, 10am-3.45pm, €5/€2) and Steven Lee’s The Witch Who Couldn’t Sleep (Friday, March 27th, 12pm, €15/€9.50), during which children are encouraged to help configure the story as it develops.
Visual art
Marcel Vidal: Blue Moon Shadow
Until Saturday, April 18th, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, kerlingallery.com
The Wicklow artist Marcel Vidal creates work from, he says, “personal photographs, online archives and restaged snapshots”, some of which are rigorously cropped and divided. Personal and impersonal narratives, he adds, “blur the lines of authorship and subject matter”. The outcome of Vidal’s disciplined and precise brushwork is a series of minimalist paintings that blend the familiar with a sense of unease and examine “how meaning is constructed, altered and continuously negotiated through images, gesture and composition”.
Still running
Zoe Velthuysen: Liminal Prints
Until March 28th, South Tipperary Arts Centre, Clonmel, Co Tipperary, southtippartscentre.ie
The work practices of the Irish-Australian artist Zoe Velthuysen explore migration as a lived, fluid experience and engage with the way social constructs, environment and the need to adapt to unfamiliar surroundings can affect identity. In keeping with the exhibition theme, Velthuysen, a recent graduate of Crawford College of Art and Design, uses repetition and variation to represent uncertainty and ongoing change.
Book it this week
- Elvis Costello & The Imposters, Iveagh Gardens, Dublin, July 5th, ticketmaster.ie
- The Brightening Air, Gate Theatre, Dublin, July 17th-August 30th, gatetheatre.ie
- Another Love Story, Killyon Manor, Co Meath, August 21st-23rd, anotherlovestory.ie
- Sam Campbell, Vicar Street, Dublin, October 2nd, ticketmaster.ie
