Event of the week
Alan Gilsenan Retrospective
From Wednesday, April 8th, until Thursday, April 30th, Irish Film Institute, Dublin, various times and prices, ifi.ie
“Honoured, humbled and a bit mortified, to be honest,” was the reaction Alan Gilsenan posted on Instagram about this career-spanning retrospective. Ten of the acclaimed director’s films will be screened, including early works such as Samuel Beckett’s Eh Joe, from 1986, The Road to God Knows Where, from 1988, and All Souls’ Day, from 1997, as well as more recent films, such as Unless, from 2016, and Meetings with Ivor, from 2017. The screenings will conclude with a preview of Gilsenan’s non-narrative film-poem, The Journey of Weather-Exposed Bones (Sunday, April 26th, 1.30pm, €13), which Gilsenan will attend alongside the actor Stephen Rea and the composers Jim O’Rourke and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh. On the final day of the retrospective (Thursday, April 30th, 6.30pm, €10), the director will discuss his career with his fellow film-maker Pat Collins.
Gigs
Francis Rossi
Tuesday, April 7th, Ambassador Theatre, Dublin, 7.30pmn, €51.35; Friday, April 10th, Theatre Royal, Waterford, 7.30pm, €51.35, ticketmaster.ie
He is no stranger to Ireland, but this is the first time that Francis Rossi, the Status Quo frontman, has embarked on a solo tour of the country. With the subtitle Songs from the Status Quo Songbook and More, fans can expect heads-down, no-nonsense hits (including Pictures of Matchstick Men, Paper Plane, Caroline and Down Down) as well as conversation. Also, Saturday, April 11th, Lime Tree Theatre, Limerick, 7.30pm, €46.50, limetreebelltable.ie; Monday, April 13th, Gleneagle Ballroom, Killarney, Co Kerry, 7.30pm, €46.70, gleneaglekillarney.ie; Tuesday, April 14th, Leisureland, Galway, 7.30pm, €46.70, leisureland.ie; Thursday, Ulster Hall, Belfast, 7.30pm, £44.20, ulsterhall.co.uk; Friday, April 17th, Millennium Forum, Derry, 7.30pm, £48/£45, millenniumforum.co.uk
Music Current Festival 2026
From Wednesday, April 8th, until Saturday, April 11th, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, various times and prices, projectartscentre.ie
Produced by Dublin Sound Lab, the 10th edition of Music Current features a programme of contemporary Irish and international electronic music, workshops, panel discussions, public interviews and professional-development classes. Highlights include the Austrian-born violinist Judith Fliedl’s concert of contemporary works for violin and electronics (Thursday, April 9th, 6pm), the clarinettist Szilard Benes and the electronics programmer Christof Ressi (Saturday, April 11th, 6pm) and Topographies, featuring the pianist Izumi Kimura (Saturday, April 11th, 8pm).
David Kitt
Friday, April 10th, and Saturday, April 11th, NCH, Dublin, 8pm, €45/€36.50/€28, nch.ie
Taylor Swift has done it, so why not David Kitt? These two shows celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Dublin songwriter’s second album, The Big Romance. It was originally released on Warner Music – which, Kitt says, owns the rights to the album in perpetuity. So he re-recorded all 10 tracks. Released to coincide with these shows, The Big Romance (Kittser’s Version) also features several new tracks. The outcome, the musician says, is an album “that will be cherished by fans of the original and would get the seal of approval from my 25-year-old self.”
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Dayramir González Trio
Friday, April 10th, and Saturday, April 11th, Arthur’s Blues & Jazz Club, Dublin, 8pm, €30, eventbrite.ie
The Afro-Cuban pianist and composer and arranger Dayramir González makes his debut in Ireland with a blend of performances, all of which showcase his commitment to forming links between cultures, and to present, he says, “the spirit of Havana and the soul of jazz”. Following his pair of trio-based shows at Arthur’s Blues & Jazz Club, González performs solo piano concerts on Sunday, April 12th (Marino Church, Bantry, Co Cork, 8pm, €30, marinochurch.ie) and Monday, April 13th (Allihies Copper Mine Museum, Beara, Co Cork, 8pm, free, acmm.ie).
Dance
Bold Moves: Dare to Dream
Friday, April 10th, and Saturday, April 11th; and from Wednesday, April 15th, until Saturday, April 18th, O’Reilly Theatre, Dublin, 7.30pm, €35/€30, balletireland.ie
Ballet Ireland presents a triple bill of world-class choreography with singular, thought-provoking works that confront the parameters of classical ballet. There are two world premieres: Storm Scene, choreographed by Arthur Pita and inspired by Shakespeare’s King Lear, and Linear Flux, choreographed by Ruaidhrí Maguire, which traces themes of mortality, connection and lifeforce. The third presentation is Pita’s Olivier-nominated A Dream within a Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was created for Ballet Black in 2014.
Visual art
Patrick Conyngham: Shift Reflections of Unknowing
Until Saturday, May 9th, Market Place Arts Centre, Armagh, free
Based in Co Monaghan, the artist, writer and poet Patrick Conyngham has exhibited widely, and his work is included in private collections in Europe and the US. His work is themed around an intuitive understanding of landscape, earth and humanity. “Intrinsic nature for me as an artist is to allow paintings to flow out as a kind of diary or story, a dialogue between inner and outer worlds,” he says. “Hopefully, they reverberate out further into the world as they engage the viewer.”
Stage
A Grain of Sand
From Tuesday, April 7th, until Saturday, April 11th, Smock Alley, Dublin, 7.30pm, €21/€19, smockalley.com
Adapted from A Million Kites: Testimonies and Poems from the Children of Gaza, compiled by Leila Boukarim and Asaf Luzon, this one-woman show, enhanced by sound and video design, delivers waves of theatrical knockouts that demand our attention and empathy. Palestinian Elias Matar directs and adapts/writes, but the focus is always on the London-based writer and actor Sarah Agha, whose performance as the young Gazan girl Renad, notes The Strand magazine, “effortlessly transitions between moments of hope and heartbreak”.
Still running
The Church of What’s Happening Now
Thursday, April 9th, Fumbally Stables, Dublin, 7.30pm, €15, eventbrite.ie
The Dublin-based free-improvisation/noise trio TCOWHN pull off a coup by having as their special guest Richard G Evans, aka a founding member of Dublin’s Dada deconstructionists The Virgin Prunes (and, as it happens, the elder brother of U2’s Edge). Evans joins the guitarist Matthew Nolan, the drummer Jamie Davis and the violist Joanna Mattrey.
Book it this week
- In Conversation with Irvine Welsh, Droichead Arts Centre, Co Louth, May 3rd, droichead.com
- An Evening with Maggie O’Farrell, Live at St Luke’s, Cork, June 18th, westcorkliteraryfestival.ie
- Masters of Tradition, Bantry, Co Cork, August 19th-23rd, westcorkmusic.ie
- Korn, 3Arena, Dublin, November 2nd, ticketmaster.ie
