Meandering Tripe

It’s been a dark few weeks for people who like to see live shows as we all do our best to stay home and stay safe during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some of the world’s best creatives have stepped unto the breach, offering free performances that we can all view from home.

For the past two years I’ve been writing a page for the free Wednesday Limerick Leader, listing and curating the better events that Limerick people can get to every weekend. The page is called Things What Are On In Limerick (and before low-level amateur grammar nerds get on my case, the title is deliberate) and obviously we’re now in a situation where things are not on in Limerick and won’t be for some time.

So, after a few weeks off, it’s time to start listing a few events that you can catch at home, in the company of your dog, cat, rat or family. Every event is free, though some of them will have a virtual hat that you can toss some beans into if you like. Usually I organise the events by day but, as we’re now living in a world where the social construct of time has been mostly abandoned for a few weeks or months, they’ll be listed in the order they occur to me. Some of the showings will be available for weeks or months but I’m probably going to list them only once.

Right, so, let’s get started.

April 23 (yesterday as I write this) was the traditional date of Shakespeare’s birthday and there’s an almost ridiculous amount of Shakespeare that you can watch for free this weekend.

Twelfth Night

The National Theatre (of Great Britain) is serving up one play a week from their extensive archive for the duration of coronavirus and this week’s offering is their 2017 production of Twelfth Night. As with all the best Shakespearean comedies, there’s plenty of mistaken identity, crossdressing, love triangles and mentions of cake. Tamsin Greig plays a gender-switched Malvolio in the NT’s gambit to get people to see Shakespeare because it has someone from the telly. The show’s a lot of fun, the production’s a lot of fun, it’ll take you just under three hours to watch it and I heartily recommend it.

It’s available until 7pm on April 30.

Romeo & Juliet

Romeo & Juliet is the classic tale of two far-too-young children messing around with love as though it was soda pop, running around, running away and dying. A few quietly-written notes would have sorted out the situation (seriously, folks: I cannot stress this enough – if you’re going to fake your own death, tell someone in advance) but you can watch the Globe Theatre’s 2009 production of the play for free until May 3.

Love’s Labour’s Lost

Deafinitely Theatre make some wonderful shows for hearing and non-hearing audiences. In 2012 they were invited to contribute to the Globe To Globe festival, which staged each of Shakespeare’s plays in a different language. You can check out their BSL production of Love’s Labour’s Lost, the tale of a king and his courtiers who have sworn off women and wine for three years to get down to some study and fasting, but begin to realise that life is more fun with women and wine when a French princess arrives with a full posse of hot ladies in waiting. People think that Shakespeare plays are stuffy. They’re not.

Six iPlayer Shakespeares

You can watch six (yes, SIX) Royal Shakespeare Company Shakespeare productions on BBC’s iPlayer right now.

Macbeth, with Christopher Eccleston and Niamh Cusack
Hamlet, with Paapa Essiedu, directed by Simon Godwin
Romeo and Juliet, with Bally Gill & Karen Fishwick, directed by Erica Whyman
Much Ado About Nothing, with Edward Bennett & Michelle Terry, directed by Christopher Luscombe
Othello, with Hugh Quarshie and Lucian Msamati
The Merchant of Venice, with Makram J Khoury, directed by Polly Findlay

For what it’s worth from me, I very much recommend Hamlet starring Paapa Essiedu.

Last of the Shakespeare: get it while it’s hot

If you took the three hours to watch the National Theatre’s production of Twelfth Night listed above – and even if you didn’t – and thought “I’d like to know more about Malvolio, why is Malvolio such a party-pooper?”, you’re in luck. Tim Crouch’s wonderful I, Malvolio one-man show is available for free on Vimeo.

If you’re up for seeing some of Tim’s other one-person shows about pivotal minor Shakespeare characters, you can also see I, Banquo and I, Peasebottom.

I caught I, Malvolio at the Belltable in 2017. I even had to remove Tim’s socks during the show. It’s worth your time, I promise you.

https://vimeo.com/386837018

Cyprus Avenue

Cyprus Avenue was described by Guardian theatre critic Michael Billington as “the most shocking play on the London stage” in 2016. Not harsh, entirely fair. David Ireland’s play is the tale of a solid Belfast loyalist, played by Stephen Rea, who thinks his baby granddaughter is Gerry Adams. I like to go into plays knowing as little about them as possible, so when I saw it at the Peacock in 2018 I assumed it was going to be a cheeky wee romp through the ridiculousness of a man thinking a five-week-old child is the embodiment of a guy who knows a lot about the Army Council for someone who swears he’s never even been a member. It is not. It’s a dark journey through staunch nationalism, sexuality and justification for cruelty. It’s a powerful show and gets my highest recommendation. You can see it for free until this Sunday. Note: it is definitely not suitable for children.

The wacky world of Pan Pan

Pan Pan make deliciously-wacky experimental theatre. If there’s a way they can twist a show and turn it surreal, they’ll take it every time. I’m very looking forward to their national tour of ELIZA’s Adventures in the Uncanny Valley, which was supposed to be this May but I’m guessing will now happen right after coronavirus pisses off. They’ve been making stuff available from their archives for weeks now – this week’s offering is their 30-minute sound installation of Samuel Beckett’s Cascando.

They’ve been good enough to leave their previous uploads available for us all to poke our peepers at. Check out their 2013 Herald Angel Award winning production of Samuel Beckett’s Embers and The Rehearsal, Playing The Dane, first performed in 2010 (I managed to see it in the Abbey in 2018) and 2012’s Everyone Is King Lear In His Own Home from the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2012.

Opera

Free opera! Have you any idea of how much decent opera tickets cost? Far more than I’m willing or able to pay. The Metropolitan Opera is offering a massive season of nightly opera – one per night – and digging deep and generously into their archive. You can check out the upcoming listings here.

If you want to see a little of the opera and need some pointers from an idiot, I recommend that you don’t miss their 2012 production of La Traviata, which will be online on Friday April 24, and their 2011 staging of Donizetti’s Anna Bolena (starring Anna Netrebko), which will be available on Monday April 27.

All shows go online at 7:30pm EDT (which, admittedly, is a terrible time for viewers on the east side of the Atlantic) and will be available until 6:30pm the following day.

Musical theatre

If you’re a fan of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musicals (and, thus, I assume, have never seen one – or any of the three decent musicals), he’s uploading one musical per week, which you can watch for two days before it’s yanked back into the ether. This week’s musical is Love Never Dies, the critically-derided sequel to The Phantom Of The Opera. It’s your penny. I’m just letting you know it’s on. Raoul has started drinking since the events in Paris and is basically a dick. The Phantom’s still a killer. Christine is still lost. It will be available for 48 hours from 7:30pm GMT on Friday April 24.

Bees: A Musical

The Ark is one of Ireland’s best cultural resources for children. They’ve uploaded their production of Bees: A Musical, which you can watch for free until midnight on April 29. You can also download some educational resources for the show. Bees: they’re like tiny pointy dogs.

RTE’s Cohen Concert

At the beginning of March, the RTE Concert Orchestra got together with Phelim Drew, Lisa Hannigan, Mick Flannery, Moncrieff and Suzanne Savage to perform the songs of Leonard Cohen at the Grand Canal Theatre aka the Bórd-Gais-for-sponsorship-purposes. You can see that concert on RTE 1 at 10:30pm this Saturday (April 25). It’s right after yet another episode of Mrs Brown’s Boys, so you know they’ve almost dumped it into the schedule forgetfully. Should be rather good, especially if you’re the sort of person who watches live TV on a TV set like a psycho.

Limerick corner

It wouldn’t really be a Things What Are (Not) On In Limerick without a little Limerick corner, would it?

Limerick songstress Emma Langford is hosting a live singalong on Friday night (April 24) with guests Moylan Brunnock, Lux Alma, The Ocelots and Niamh Regan. See it on her facebook page at 7pm. Emma’s forthcoming second album can be picked up on bandcamp.

Third year LSAD photography, film and video students are presenting a 24-hour online exhibition of their work from 8pm this Friday (April 24). It’s the perfect chance to see what students are able to create during lockdown. You can check it out here.

Isolation FM is a group of Limerick DJs who’ll be bringing live DJ sets into the comfort of your own home this Friday and Saturday. 9pm till 11pm on Friday, 8pm till 11pm on Saturday. You can see the lineup and check out the stream on their facebook page.

Coming soon

The Abbey Theatre has commissioned 100 artists (50 writers and 50 actors) to take part in their Dear Ireland project – 50 pieces about where Ireland should go next and what Ireland could write on a postcard to itself – which will premiere next week from Tuesday to Friday (April 28 to May 1) on the theatre’s Youtube channel. Sounds exciting, interesting and, above all, like something new. Cost to you? Nada. Here’a a trailer.

That’s your lot for this week.

This week was a bit heavy on the Shakespeare but it’s the lad’s birthday so give him a break. I’ll do another listing whenever I feel like it. Maybe next week. Let’s see how this goes.

As usual, if you go to things there will be more–oh, yeah, you can’t go to things. Stay inside if you can, don’t give your granny coronavirus. Both of my grandmothers are dead but, if yours are still alive, try to keep it that way.

Feel free to like or follow the Things What Are On In Limerick facebook page. Or not. The world will keep turning either way. If you like bad sarcasm, I have a twitter account. You can do better. Stephen Fry is good at twitter.