Gig of the Week: Dublin International Film Festival celebrates 20 years

Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival

February 23rd to March 6th, various venues, diff.ie
Moviegoers are relieved that they can return to the multiplex and not have to just watch No Time to Die. The Virgin Media Dublin International Film Festival (DIFF) is presenting a hybrid programme of world cinema and new Irish work in cinemas around Dublin and online over 12 days. This is the 20th anniversary of the festival and there will be more than 100 films on show from 19 countries, along with a programme of shorts, panel discussions and workshops.  Among the film highlights are a screening of acclaimed Irish director Kate Dolan's creepy psychological thriller You Are Not My Mother.

Scene + Heard 2022

Ends February 26th, Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, various times, €16, smockalley.com
Smock Alley's annual Festival of New Work enters its third and final week, and if you don't already have sensory overload from this varied and challenging programme of events, there's plenty more in store to tickle your braincells – and your funny bone. Scene + Heard is a chance for artists to roadtest new ideas and for audiences to feel engaged and actually take part in the creative process. Among the delights-in-progress on offer this week are Canonical, the story of Jack the Ripper as told by the women he murderers (Tuesday 22nd & Wednesday 23rd, 6.30pm), Reluctantly Irish, comedian John O'Keeffe's reflection on the heritage trap (Wednesday 23rd, 7pm), The Motherload, Kirsty Blake-Knox's meditation on young motherhood (Friday 25th, 6.30pm), To the ARSEHOLE Who Ruined My Favourite Film, where Hollywood's golden age meets the Bible meets 50 Shades of Grey (Friday 25th, 8.15pm) and A Fishy Tail of Sound and Fury (Saturday 26th, 6.30pm), where Shakespeare is served up with a side order of food snobbery.

Mother Tongues Festival

February 21st-26th, Various venues, Blanchardstown and Tallaght, mothertonguesfestival.com
Ireland has become a multicultural and multilingual society, and the Mother Tongues Festival celebrates this diversity with a programme of performance, storytelling, workshops and exhibitions. The idea is to promote better communication whatever language you speak, and to break down language barriers through better understanding and empathy. The festival was set up five years ago to provide a unique space for children to have fun, socialise and get creative through different languages, and to encourage them to celebrate the language of their parents and give voice to their unique cultural identity.

Denise Chaila

Friday 25th, 3Olympia, 7pm from €29.50, ticketmaster.ie
The Limerick rapper has deftly torn down race, gender and music barriers with her all-inclusive sound. Her biggest headliner to date, at the 3Olympia, promises to be a multicultural party to beat them all. Tipped as one to watch, and garnering rave reviews in the international music press for such tunes as Chaila and Anseo, the rapper has scored a first by winning the Choice Music Prize album of the year with her mixtape Go Bravely. She'll no doubt be bringing along a posse of talented singers, rappers and DJs, and all eyes and ears will be on the Limerick star as she works her musical magic.

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Ortús Chamber Music Festival

February 25th-27th various venues, Cork city, €18/€15, ortusfestival.ie
Founded by musicians Mairéad Hickey and Sinéad O'Halloran in 2016, the Ortús Chamber Music Festival has gone from strength to strength. This year the streets and venues of Cork will once again ring out with live classical sounds following last year's mostly online event. The festival features a fine array of musical guests from around the world – Sindy Mohamed, Brannon Cho, Fumiko Mohri, Sara Ferrandez and Alexander Kovalev – along with Irish pianist Fiachra Garvey and young Cork violinist Siún Milne, a member of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra who has worked with composer Ólafur Arnalds, De Danann leader Frankie Gavin and singer-songwriter Rumer. Four concerts are lined up over the three days: St Peter's Church (Friday 25th, 8pm & Sunday 27th, 3pm), Tracton Arts Centre, Minane Bridge (Saturday 26th, 2pm) and My Place, Midleton (Saturday 26th, 7.30pm). If you can't make any of the concerts in person, post-festival screenings will be available at €10 a concert or €20 for all four.

Mise Freshin’

Saturday February 26th, Pepper Canister Church, Dublin, 7.30pm, €20, selectivememory.ie
The punningly titled RTÉ Radio series goes live with a diverse line-up of artists dancing at the crossroads of traditional Irish music, hip-hop and skratch turntablism. This special live recording for RTÉ Radio 1 is designed to showcase the talents of young Irish musicians, singers, rappers and DJs from all cultures and corners. Guests include Djackulate, Skipper's Alley, Rick Epping, Cormac MacDiarmada and Ruth Clinto aka Poor Creature, Séamus Barra Ó Súilleabháin, Jonny Dillon and Aileen Dillane. Expect a genre-hopping musical adventure that everyone can feel part of no matter what their origins.

The Lonesome West

February 26th-March 19th, Gaiety Theatre, Dublin, €23, gaietytheatre.ie
The Oscar-winning director and playwright Martin McDonagh has achieved international acclaim for such darkly comic plays as The Cripple of Inishmaan and The Lieutenant of Inishmore, and for darkly comic films such as In Bruges and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Now comes a major new production of one of McDonagh's best-known plays, telling the seething saga of two squabbling brothers living in their late father's house, wallowing in poitín and petty grievances. It falls to the young local priest to try to broker peace between the brothers and prevent a bloodbath. It stars Denis Conway, Frankie McCafferty, Art Campion and Zara Devlin, and is directed by Andrew Flynn, who is a past master at staging McDonagh's works.