Things What Are (Not) On In Limerick: May 1

Another week of being stuck in our homes leads to another weekend of some of the world’s best theatres and performers offering their material for free. Sure, I know it probably feels like we’re living in the worst timeline at the moment, dealing with coronavirus marauding through the streets, stealing our jobs and women (and, sure, some men), forced to stare outside the window at birds steadily getting cockier and

Battle of the Sherlocks: Cumberbatch & Miller in Frankenstein (National Theatre)

 cockier as this lockdown rolls on. When I was young and doing my homework, my mother would declare “Don’t worry about outside, outside is going nowhere, it’ll be there when you’re done!” Well, you were wrong, Mother. Outside is gone, just as it was for Clov and Hamm in Beckett’s Endgame. Enjoy your bin.

No, we’re living in the BEST timeline if we can ignore the plague (note: please don’t ignore the plague – it’s trying to kill you). Other timelines don’t have anywhere near as much free theatre, dance and music being sent to us on the Internet. Plenty of utterly fab things this weekend that you can watch from home. As usual, many of the performances have a virtual hat into which you can throw a few quid if you feel like supporting the artists who have entertained you.

Dear Ireland
The Abbey Theatre’s Dear Ireland has been running all week on Youtube. 50 actors and 50 writers have taken part in the project, creating 50 monologues for you to enjoy from home. The mini plays are available on their page for the next six months. They range from poignant to hilarious and are definitely worth seeing. You can watch part one, two, three and four separately (each will take you between two and three hours) or just set aside ten hours and watch them as one playlist.

Part One:

Part Two:

Part Three:

Part Four:

National Theatre: Battle of the Sherlocks
In the Spring of 2011, Frankenstein was deservedly the hottest theatre show in London. Directed by Danny Boyle, the stage production of taking life to the second birth starred Benedict Cumberbatch (who you’ll remember from playing Sherlock Holmes, as well as his inability to say “penguin”) and Jonny Lee Miller (who you’ll also remember from playing Sherlock Holmes, as well as his inability to say no to Angelina Jolie). The show tells Mary Shelley’s story from the perspective of Victor Frankenstein’s narky creation, akin to re-telling The Tempest from the perspective of Caliban. Cumberbatch and Miller alternate in the roles of the Creature, who is the child of Frankenstein and thus can be called Frankenstein, and Victor Frankenstein, who is some creature.

Rather wonderfully, they filmed both versions, so you can take your pick of seeing Benedict Cumberbatch as The Creature or Jonny Lee Miller as The Creature. If you have time to see only one, I suggest watching the Cumberbatch-as-Creature version. But it’s worth taking the time to see both.

If you loved the opening ceremony for the 2012 London Olympics, this show is guaranteed to be right up your alley – Mark Tildesley worked on both and it shows.

Cumberbatch as Creature is available until 7pm on May 7.

Miller as Creature is available until 7pm on May 8.

1984… but ballet
If, like me, you like a bit of ballet maybe twice a year (nothing too fancy, let’s not bother to get dressed up) but also see shadows of a future dystopia where the machines train humans to do arabesques and assemblés 24/7 for their perverted amusement, I have a show for you. In 2015, Northern Ballet mounted a wonderful production of 1984. Yes, that 1984. George Orwell’s warning about the all-pervading power of an ever-monitoring state. But, y’know, ballet. If you’ve had enough of The Nutcracker or if you’re the sort of person who never wants to see The Nutcracker, this might be the show that makes you like ballet (again, nothing too fancy, let’s not bother to get dressed up). It is dark, disturbing and very accomplished. Orwell would approve.

You can see it for free until May 2.

For families: The Girl Who Forgot To Sing Badly
The Sydney Opera House is running an ongoing From Our House To Yours season, which this weekend includes Theatre Lovett‘s The Girl Who Forgot To Sing Badly. I’ve never seen a Theatre Lovett show that I didn’t adore and this is not an exception. It’s fun, funny and extremely family-friendly (suitable for anyone over 7). They’ll be touring this show across North America next year so if you’re living in Trumpland, look out for it.

There’s no end-date for seeing the show on the Sydney Opera House website, so I assume you’ll be able to see it all weekend.

Horny? Call a matchmaker
For 50 years, the writings of john B Keane captured the hilarious details of Irish country life in the same way that Brian O’Nolan was displaying the sometimes surreal nature of the rest of the country. Keane’s comic book Letters Of An Irish Country Matchmaker was turned into a very successful stage show about two decades ago and still tours annually to the sorts and sizes of audiences who subsidise all the weird stuff that I like to watch in a 200-seater theatre with six other people. Thanks, folks.

You can see the 2001 stage performance of the show (pretty much *the* classic performance of the show), recorded at the Olympia Theatre, courtesy of the Civic Theatre and Michael Scott of City Theatre Dublin. It stars Des Keogh and Anna Manahan. It should be available until at least the end of this weekend. See it here.

Princesses, peas and just one night of decent sleep
The Princess And The Pea is a classic tale of a very privileged woman (a literal princess) who’s really picky about her sleeping arrangements. Every slight lump in the bed will be reported at breakfast time and, presumably, every slight lump in her breakfast eggs will be reported to the guy who chops heads off.

You can see the Ark‘s Far Away From Me, which comes with aerial performance, dance and plenty of music, until May 6. See it here.

The Midnight Gang
To avoid being thought of as some sort of theatre snob (or someone with standards) it’s good to include one musical per week. I’d apologise for including the sequel to the Phantom of the Opera in last week’s listings but I warned you off it, so we’re all square. Here’s something I can happily recommend though: a musical version of David Walliams’ The Midnight Gang. Set in a wacky hospital, it features five children whose lives get going at midnight every night. And they sing. Because it’s a musical. Otherwise it would be unnatural and wrong. Very suiotable for children and people who like musicals. You can see it on the Chichester Festival Theatre website until the end of May.

Ai Weiwei, not Huawei… wei
Hampstead Theatre‘s The Arrest Of Ai Weiwei was staged in 2013 and tells the story of Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei. Like 1984, it’s an examination of a monolithic state versus someone who wants to live their life in their own way. The stage show is semi-documentary, semi-Beckett and totally worth your time. It stars Benedict Wong, who you’ll know from that movie with one of the Sherlocks from up the page. The one where Earth has wizards now. Benedict Wong is a fine actor and should be remembered more for this show than for being the patient sidekick of an asshole wizard. You can see the show until May 3.

The Time Of Your Life
With so many big shows with big-name stars, it might seem odd that the show I’m recommending that you don’t miss under any circumstances this week is a 25-minute piece of physical theatre shot in the BBC’s Television Centre and aired in 2015… but that’s what I’m doing. Gecko’s The Time Of Your Life was made for the BBC’s Live From Television Centre show, one of five theatre pieces written specifically for the BBC, and it is utterly outstanding. It shows the entirety of a person’s life in under half an hour and comes with a twist… which I won’t tell you about as telling you that it’s there won’t spoil the show but telling you what it is will. It’s an outstanding piece of writing with outstanding performances. See it here.

Opera: Cosi Fan Tutte
Like ballet, opera can be too stuffy for its own good when taken too seriously. Last week I recommended you dive into the Metropolitan Opera’s free offerings (and those are still continuing) but this week I’m suggesting the Royal Opera House’s production of Mozart’s 1790 opera Cosi Fan Tutte.

It’s not the best production you’ll ever see of the opera but it has plenty of people in leather jackets, so it at least makes the plot (a passing prick betting two geezers that he can prove that their partners are, like all women he says, incapable of being unfaithful) slightly more relatable. Worth seeing.

You can see it until May 10.

Duncairn Virtual Cabaret
The Duncairn is the heart of the arts scene in north Belfast and they’re keeping that fire burning throughout the lockdown with a series of weekly virtual cabaret nights on their facebook and youtube pages. This Saturday night (May 2) from 8:30pm you can check out the Duncairn Virtual Cabaret 5, which will include performances by Lisa Hannigan, the Ocelots and John Spillane. Minimum suggested donation is a fiver.

Limerick corner
Limerick’s flagship annual festival is Riverfest, which usually takes place on the May bank holiday weekend (this weekend). It is what it is. This year, to the chagrin of Riverfest fans, the festival can’t take place because of COVID-19. But there will be a free stream of a Hermitage Green gig, which you can watch on the Riverfest Facebook page. It’ll kick off on Saturday May 2 at 9pm. The Virtual Riverfest also features some cookery demos and fashion videos. I’m fairly sure the world isn’t short of either of those things but you can find them on the Riverfest page.

That’s your lot for this week…
Like the title says, that’s your lot for this week. Some of last week’s events are still available, so have a look there too. Feel free to like the Things What Are On In Limerick facebook page, but only if you feel like it.

 

Things What Are (Not) On In Limerick: April 24

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.

In the time of coronavirus, we’re all Edward Hopper paintings (Cape Cod Morning, 1950)

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.