Autumn

A disgraceful amount of time has passed since my last post. I never thought I'd be quite this bad this early on, but there we be.

Succeeded in seeing only one preview for the Dublin Theatre Festival, Festen at the Gate. Odd to see a play which began life as a film, and one that has made the seamless move from a Danish to an Irish setting, but it was a very fine play. Not all of the actors were up to the task, or alternately, their direction clashed when they were pitted against eachother, but all in all a success. The physical 'choreography' of it on stage was very fine indeed, with at one point three or four scenes playing simultaneously on stage- physically overlapping without seeing eachother, juxtaposing the various relationships to great effect.

The scene is set as a family joins together in a large country house in Denmark/Ireland for a banquet in honour of the father's 60th. Having just celebrated my father's 60th in an old Dublin pub, I wondered whether we'd done him justice... until the banquet scene all went sour with the promised nasty revelation of a dark family secret. Dark is an understatement, mais bon.

It was also extremely funny: it was, as I've tried to highlight, a very well-staged affair, so there was often a physical comedy element to its presentation, be it slapstick or mock-balletic. This not to mention some very funny lines...

The new RTÉ arts show, cast out to the 11pm weekly slot (RTÉ supporting the arts, ha!) came into its own when covering the Theatre Festival soon after my return. I was glad of this, considering that their debut airing was a focus on public sculpture. You do the math: sculpture, radio, sculpture, radio... I mean, ok, maybe once you have a listenership, but your debut show?? Come on.

But I digress. One of the critics mentioned that he saw one woman walk out of Festen, and to be honest, I'm surprised it didn't happen at every show. I'm trying, here, not to reveal the revelation, but let's just say it's a bit topical to Ireland's current confessional culture.

I wasn't the only one who liked it, though I suspect my companion for the evening did not- the Guardian gave it 4/5 stars.

Dublin Theatre Festival

So, being third in a three-woman team, I didn't draw the lucky straw to Edinburgh this year. That said, if I were to go, with, say, The Bearded One, I'd rather it not be during the festival so that we might enjoy the city, or alternately, that I not be at the festival for work. Demanding, I know, but that's what publicity gals are like - or so I'm told.

Besides, it's the Dublin Theatre Festival that really gets me going, as it always somehow manages to up the ante. Dublin is an amazing city for theatre, it's true, but things tend to get a bit pallsy and nepotistic, with the same pairings of actors/directors or actors/playwrights cropping up again and again. Either that, or as happened to me in my last two years of university, absolutely everything I saw was laughably bad. Every single one. It was thespian death out there, folks, but since, the pendulum has swung back to the kind of theatre we're all comfortably used to, and some we're not. The festival is a bit of fresh air, and the rest of the year seems to draw a lot of energy from it.

So, Thursday will see me at an Irish adaptation of Festen, reviewed there for the West End production. No doubt the ever-present theme of abuse will hit the reviews, which like the constant insistence on all things Catholic gets trying, particularly when you're living in England, but I'm intrigued as to how the Dublin production will rework a Danish country kitchen drama.

And, if I can get the blasted website to accept my plastic, I'll fly solo to a matinee -a parkbench first- to see the topical production of The Exonerated. Always one for a gimmick, I'm only dying to see who shows up as a guest. Unsurprisingly, given the topic, Susan Sarandon was strutting her stuff in the New York show. On the downside, it's in (though it pains me to link to anything so hideous) here we go, it's Liberty Hall.

Reviews to follow.