Curtain down as Upstairs venue closes

ARTSCAPE:THERE WAS SOME devastating news this week for Theatre Upstairs @ the Plough, which has been forced to close only three weeks into its life, writes Shane Hegarty. Lanigan's Plough pub on Lower Abbey Street is due to close in its present form, and with it will go a venture sweated over – and financially backed – by Karl Shiels, Paul Walker and Andy Cummins.

With the idea of soup and a show for lunch or a pint and a play for teatime, the venue had opened with Jimmy Murphy's well-received new play, What's Left of the Flag. New work had been scheduled up to November, and there were immediate plans to open as a gallery and for musical residencies and evening shows. The team were left aghast at the news of the closure when it was delivered on Thursday, and What's Left of the Flagwill now run only until May 1st.

“From the ashes we hope to rise again,” the team says. “Where or when we do not know, as we are now homeless.”

- IT WAS Abusy week in the arts world, but not in a way anyone could have anticipated, writes Shane Hegarty. No one went came to work just over a week ago thinking that a volcano would cause them such grief.

The ash caused several cancellations, and as the dust (or ash) settled, it became clear that the financial cost would be spread between promoters, venues and local businesses. For instance, the National Concert Hall had to call off five events – although Russell Watson has been rescheduled for August and the Whale Watching Tour may return in September – and the impact was wider than might at first have been expected.

More than 5,000 ticket-holders were affected and promoters lost out on marketing and hotel costs that had already been paid. But on-site caterers were also hit, as well as local restaurants and hotels which regularly benefit from NCH shows.

In all, the NCH estimates that its own loss will be no more than €25,000 and “will have limited impact on our end-of-year figures, given we are likely to promote almost 700 events this year”.

- ANNE ENRIGHTfirst got her short stories published in the New Yorkermagazine by shouting at former fiction editor Bill Buford in a pub: "What d'ya mean, what's my name? It's your job to know my name." Eventually it worked, writes Deirdre Falvey.

She told the story this week at Cúirt's entertaining first reading, one of three events in conjunction with the New Yorker. But volcanic ash interfered with the excellent line-up for Galway's literary festival and Enright was a late addition, replacing Mary Gaitskill (stranded in the US), who was to read with Roddy Doyle. "Aren't we Irish great at winging it?" said Enright. "Here's to ash and all the rest of it."

Maybe because of the circumstances, there was a relaxed feel to the reading. Doyle and Enright were comfortable and familiar with each other, and the – unmoderated – questions and chat afterwards was casual, easygoing, funny. Each read a complete short story they'd had in the New Yorker(Natalie by Enright; Sleep by Doyle) with humour and humanity, and, as Kennelly commented, you'd know Enright was an actor in an earlier life.

Enright talked about what an education it is writing for the New Yorker. "The staff are paid to be stupid," she said. "They constantly ask 'what does this mean?', which you wouldn't take from anyone else. You have to make things clear. And it's a great thing for writers to have to make things clear."

When asked about what books they read, Enright said she doesn’t. Rather, she recalled wondering, when asked that question before: “Do they know what my life is like?” For a few years she had written more books than she read, she announced, quoting the statistics: two children, eight years, six books, two stone. But she also talked about the ebb and flow of influences, including Nabokov – very strongly at one stage but who she doesn’t like at all now – and Alice Munro, who has been a presence throughout her writing life. She also recalled, at other stages in her life, reading two books a day and “a third one in the bath”.

- "A CHALLENGEdifficult to resist" is how novelist Denyse Woods describes the invitation from Cork County Council to become director of the West Cork Literary Festival in Bantry, writes Mary Leland. Given seven weeks to come up with a programme of 60 different readings and workshops, Woods is delighted that both Fay Weldon and Margaret Drabble – writers to whom, she believes, "women owe a lot" – have agreed to participate. The event also includes Eavan Boland, Peter Cunningham and Hugo Hamilton, and will inaugurate the JG Farrell Fiction Award for Work in Progress.

Opening at the Maritime Hotel on July 4th, the literary festival follows the West Cork Chamber Music Festival, a sequence of galas in glorious locations, which will present a glut of choices for music and book-lovers.

Diarist and broadcaster Michael Palin and traveller Tim Mackintosh-Smith will extend the frontiers well beyond afternoon tea at Bantry House with Carol Drinkwater. Given her fellow-feeling for new writers, Woods has also arranged readings for emerging and immigrant poets and novelists. Anthony Horowitz will talk about writing for children Saud Amiry will offer a humorous perspective on life in Ramala.

Woods says her programme is designed to move away from a preoccupation with bestsellers and to focus instead on “people who are bubbling along under the surface”. See westcorkliteraryfestival.ie.