What the Arts Plan, published by the Arts Council and recently approved by government, needs most is a strong and well-resourced internal staff, if it is to deliver the plan's substantial requirements. It has long been an open secret that the workload for the Council's staff has been extreme, causing a substantial amount of internal pressure. The problem has been highlighted with the recent resignation of staff officer Marian Flanagan, a highly respected arts administrator with many years' public service behind her. Formerly the North/South officer of both the Arts Council/An Chomhairle Ealaion and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland, Flanagan also carried the portfolio of local arts development officer. This included responsibility for the development needs of arts officers in local authorities nationwide. John Coll, former arts officer and now community and enterprise director for Mayo County Council was shocked by the news of Flanagan's resignation. At the time of writing, the Arts Council was unable to make a formal statement on the exact reason for Flanagan's departure, and appears to have no immediate plans to do so. Marian Flanagan was unavailable for comment. Perhaps all will be revealed in due course?
They are already calling it a "record-breaker" and it hasn't even opened yet - Dancing on Dangerous Ground is the latest rivulet from the Riverdance torrent, and will star Jean Butler and Colin Dunne. Directed by Ian Judge with music by Seamus Egan, it will open on November 30th at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in London.
The Guardian described his performance as "exceptional" and the In- dependent as "unforgettable". John Hurt received rave reviews this week for his performance of Krapp in Krapp's Last Tape in the Gate's Beckett Festival running at the Barbican in London. Hurt's ragged appearance mesmerised reviewers. Most noted the actor's striking resemblance to Beckett himself, suggesting that the play is one of the playwright's most personal.
The play will be performed twice more on Sunday. "It might just be worth queuing for returns," wrote Paul Taylor of the Independent.
Charles Spencer of the Daily Telegraph described Barry McGovern and Johnny Murphy's Vladimir and Estragon in Waiting for Godot as "a superb comedy double-act". He was terrified by Alan Standford's Pozzo who reminded him of the late Robert Maxwell.
"The production confirms that Waiting for Godot, at least in its English translation, is a distinctly Irish work, and the Dublin lilt suits Beckett's dialogue perfectly," Spencer wrote.
The Guardian recommended the trio of Beckett shorts: Come and Go/Act Without Words II/Play. Director Bairbre Ni Chaoimh "brilliantly mobilises the precision of these pieces - less like plays, more rhythmic infernal machines," Jonathon Romney said of the piece which was "performed with machine-gun timing by Ingrid Craigie, Ali White and Gerard McSorley".
The paintings and drawings of Ronnie Wood (the Rolling Stones), John Illsley (Dire Straits), Tico Torres (Bon Jovi), John Lennon and Miles Davis, better known for their contributions to the world of music, will be on display in the Origin Gallery on Harcourt Street in Dublin from September 20th.
For £375, a Stones's fan or art-lover can own a signed print by the band's guitarist, Ronnie Wood, or for £15,000, jazz connoisseurs can have an original oil painting by the great Miles Davis. All proceeds from the exhibition go to Noelle Campbell-Sharp's Cill Rialaig Project in Kerry.
For voice-spotters, at least, the year 2000 will get off to a melodious start with the visit to Dublin of the superb Russian baritone, Sergei Leiferkus. He has been signed up by Barra O'Tuama for a series of New Year gala concerts - beginning at the City Hall, Cork on January 15th; and continuing at the University Concert Hall, Limerick on January 19th and the National Concert Hall, Dublin on January 22nd. O'Tuama's opera gala programme for 2000 will feature artists who have been successful in his concerts over the past decade - Leiferkus last sang in Dublin in 1989 - and other big names to watch out for include the baritone Marzio Giossi, and tenors Alexei Steblianko and Gegam Gregorian. The series opens later this month, when Giossi will be joined by Regina Nathan and the Georgian tenor Badri Maisuradze, for concerts in Cork (23rd) and Dublin (25th).
`Just checking this is not a comparative piece," said the PR woman for the Donmar Warehouse in London. "Are you absolutely sure?" But why would this column be interested in comparing Noel Pearson's production of O'Casey's Juno and the Paycock, which opens at the Gaiety tonight, with the Donmar production, directed by John Crowley, with Colm Meaney as Captain Boyle and Dearbhla Molloy as Juno?
Juno was the first play on which Crowley worked, as an assistant to Joe Dowling, and he has always harboured the desire to direct it, he says. His production is previewing now and opens on September 20th.
It's official. Dublin isn't a part of Ireland any more. The Belfast Festival is proudly announcing "a major artistic coup" in the Irish premiere of Messiaen's Turangalila Symphony, a piece which has been performed twice in Dublin, with the composer in attendance on each occasion. The first of these, in 1976, was one some people might rather forget. On arrival at the St Francis Xavier Hall, Messiaen remarked what an unfortunate place it was to have to rehearse in. He then had to be told that the concert was taking place there, too. The second and altogether finer performance was given in a packed NCH in 1990, in the first flush of the expansion that turned the RTESO into the National Symphony Orchestra.
The Mercy International Centre in Lower Baggot Street has restored a Telford organ of 1844, which was designed for the chapel built for Catherine McAuley, who founded the Sisters of Mercy. As with many another historic instrument, repairs over the years led to a distortion of its original character. The restorer, Trevor Crowe, has dispensed with the electric console, added about 1970, and reinstated the original 1844 console, which happily was not destroyed. The restored 17-stop instrument was inaugurated last night by Gerard Gillen, and the Mercy International Centre is planning to hold occasional recitals on their historic musical asset. The first of these takes place next Wednesday lunchtime (1.10 p.m.) with Cliona McDonough (mezzo soprano) and John O'Keeffe (organ).
These days, millennium labels seem to be hanging off just about everything that moves. Young at Art 1999, Belfast's citywide arts festival for children and young people, also has a take on it. "Reflections" is the chosen theme for this year's event, which will be looking back on and marking the end of the 20th century.
November 1998 saw the first Young at Art, then an integral part of the Belfast Festival at Queen's. This year, the fledgling has been given the wings to fly solo under the combined auspices of the Belfast Festival, Voluntary Services Belfast Wheel Works and the Old Museum Arts Centre, where the wide-ranging 1999 programme was announced this week. Director Anna Cutler takes pride in pointing out that, during its three-week span - from October 18th to November 7th - the festival will involve some 2,000 participants, drawn from the city's schools, youth clubs and community groups. Highlights include Nightlights, a spectacle of lights and lanterns on the River Lagan; The Glasshouse Project in Botanic Gardens with artist Rachel Inman; Replay's revival of Gary Mitchell's play Sinking; the Scottish company Catherine Wheels with its highly-acclaimed Martha; and Making Waves, a recording on the world at the end of the millennium.
Tel: 0801232-660515.
Irish composers are going Dutch, well, two of them at any rate. Donnacha Dennehy has two works (Junk Box Fraud and Traces of a Revolutionary Song) in contention for the prize awarded at the end of International Gaudeamus Music Week, a major world forum for composers under 30. He'll be back in the Netherlands next month for the premiere of a new commission from the De Volharding, a small orchestra with the line-up of a jazz band. Roger Doyle's new Tradarr, commissioned by the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, features in an all-Doyle programme to be heard next month in Amsterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Eindhoven. He's one of three composers from three different countries commissioned to write a work engaging with their own folk culture. Tradarr (as in traditional arrangement) features two soloists, an uilleann piper and a sean nos singer.
Don't let this week's top story put you off applying to the Arts Council for revenue and capital funding for 2000 - contact the Revenue Grant Unit at the Arts Council, 01-6180200, and get your application in before October 29th . . . The Abbey Theatre will hold Butoh-inspired movement workshops with Naomi Mutoh on September 18th and 19th. The cost is £60 - phone Aindrea Ainsworth on 01-8872200.
