ARTSCAPE:SO, DO the changes to arts programming on RTÉ Radio indicate expanded and wider coverage in a better time slot, or a dumbing down to incorporate more celebrity news? We'll have to wait to see how it pans out, writes DEIRDRE FALVEY
While the new radio schedule announced two new arts programmes, it didn't mention The Arts Show, currently on Radio 1 at 8pm on weeknights and hosted by Vincent Woods, is being dropped. The bumf promises "a new look, new voices and new sound" when Seán Rocks (a regular Arts Show presenter) hosts Arena, a "cultural digest", to include "new music (live and recorded), news from the world of media, television and radio, visual arts, dance, theatre, film, books and publishing. The programme will feature items on new movie releases as well as reports on emerging social trends, material culture and updates from the world of celebrity" and a nightly event guide.
Is this dumbing down? Not at all, says an RTÉ spokesman, stressing the show will have the same production team and editor (Lorelie Harris), and that people who like The Arts Showwill also like Arena. " Arenaremains an arts show at its heart," he says. The change is part of a larger review of evening radio, and Arenawill go out five nights a week; RTÉ sees the earlier slot (7.30pm, after a sports programme) as advantageous, potentially allowing it to tap into a bigger audience. This week's JNLR indicates 16,000 listeners for The Arts Show(previously 13,000); the numbers aren't great, but 8pm was always going to be a difficult slot, especially coming after Dave Fanning's show – two programmes that seemed to have difficult demarcation lines. Without saying what listenership is expected, the spokesman said there's hope " Arenawill gain a bigger audience share with a different approach to the arts, broader-or faster-moving with a textured, varied approach". Arts Show presenter Vincent Woods moves to an in-depth hour-long arts programme, Arts Tonight, at 10pm on Monday nights, with topic-based one-hour specials and longer interviews and panel discussions. Woods looks forward to the show, and to "continuing to make a substantial contribution to serious arts programming on RTÉ", and wishes Arena, the team and Sean Rocks well. And in January a new Saturday evening Irish-language arts magazine, Ardán na nEalaíon, is also due.
Best of the Fests
Edinburgh is mid-festivals, and Irish theatre and dance companies have been doing well with audiences and critics. In the Edinburgh International Festival, the Gate's Faith Healergot a bunch of four-star reviews (the Guardian,the Scotsman, the Herald, London Times). The Guardiansaid Friel's play was "Simple . . . beautiful and elusive" while the Scotsmanrated it an "immaculate production . . . starring an unforgettably crumpled charismatic Owen Roe". The Heraldsaid "Owen Roe, Durham and Craigie give masterful and precise performances" and the Timeswrote that Friel "deserves the rare distinction of being staged three times at this year's official Edinburgh Festival".
Over in the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Gúna Nua's production of Elaine Murphy's Little Gemat the Traverse is one of the Scotman'sBest of the Fest where a four-star review from Joyce McMillan cited "three stunning performances from Sarah Greene, Hilda Fay and the wonderful Anita Reeves". There has been great interest in Little Gemwith many shows sold out and more than 20 international presenters booked to see it. It too got a clutch of four-star-reviews (London Times, Herald, British Theatre Guide, the Guardian), while the Guide called Elaine Murphy "a female challenger to Conor McPherson whose writing can bear the comparison with the master of his art. Little Gemwill undoubtedly travel the English-speaking world, and as it does so will proclaim Elaine Murphy one of the most promising new playwrights around". In the Guardian, Lyn Gardner said "this is a play that, like its characters, gurgles and giggles with life even in the face of death. Murphy and her brilliant cast make us care about every breath these women take, and make you want to hug them", and the Times said it had "blazing authenticity – and with the performances to back it up".
This morning Culture Ireland (which is supporting six Irish companies in Edinburgh), along with the Irish Consul General and Irish Theatre Institute, will host an annual breakfast at the George Hotel. More than 50 Irish companies and artists can meet over 80 international presenters – a great opportunity to meet colleagues and do business.
Camille O'Sullivan, who has performed at the Fringe for a number of years, seems to have really cracked it this year, with lots of good word, a high profile, great reviews, and performing nightly to 800-plus at the Assembly. And new-ish theatre company Making Strange has been making a mark with Luck, based on performer Megan Riordan's life as the daughter of a professional gambler, getting four stars from Festand the List(Riordan is "a compelling performer . . . Luckis pretty much on the money").
Circus and gravity-defying aerial dance may not be what audiences expect from an Irish show, and the David Bolger-choreographed Rawfor Fidget Feet has had positive reviews for a big production (a large aerial set, which floods with water at the end of the show), whose "gorgeously put-together set pieces" were praised by the List.
Reviews are starting to appear for Fearghus Ó Conchúir's dance Dialogue, a collaboration with Chinese dancer Xiao Ke ("thoughtful, quirky and intimate", said the Skinny). And reviews should appear soon for Rex Levitates's Unsung (Irish contemporary dance by choreographer Liz Roche, with Mícheal Ó Súilleabháin's live score and Iarla Ó Lionaird's voice), which has just opened, while the other Gate Friel plays ( Afterplay; The Yalta Game) open next weekend.
There was also great word of mouth – and reviews – for Irish actor Andrew Scott, in Simon Stephens's monologue play Sea Wallat the Traverse, described by the Guardianas "one of the most devastating 30 minutes that you are ever likely to experience in the theatre . . . It gnaws all the more because of the most outstanding performance of the festival so far by Andrew Scott."
- If drama is society's way of expressing its arguments with itself, this week's The Cherry Orchardat Fota House by the Gaiety School of Acting (Cork; CSA) will be read as a metaphor for our times, writes Mary Leland. At least this is the intention of CSA director Stella Majewsky, who sees Chekov's play as a reflection of the current property crisis and social change. "What's happening now is the same as was happening in the play, and with the same consequences," she says. "Here's a group of people who can't pay off the mortgage and who have to leave their beloved house but who don't want to face up to the new reality. The orchard is going to be cut down to build villas, like apartments were built in Ireland, thinking it would make somebody some money." Designed to move from room to room in the Regency mansion in different sequences, so the audience is always aware of something going on elsewhere, the play has also been cropped to sharpen the way Chekov's characters simply walk away from the house once the deal is done.
While Fota House (now in the care of Irish Heritage Trust with the gardens managed by OPW) doesn't exactly mirror the fate of the cherry orchard, it came close. Its ornamental estate was sacrificed to a golf club, hotel, holiday villas and, less controversially, to the Wildlife Park. The Cherry Orchardis at Fota House, Carrigtwohill, Co Cork on August 28th and 29th. To book, tel. 021-4815543.