Tag Archives: Project Arts Centre

Theatre: Minute After Midday @ The Project

  By Sinead Keogh | November 14, 2011 - 9:24 am | Events, The Arts, Theatre
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It’s the 15th of August, 1998. It’s a Saturday on Lower Market Street and it’s just gone 17 seconds past noon. In 43 seconds, Lizzy, Conor and Mari’s lives will change forever… Kicking off this evening at The Project is Minute After Midday, a new Irish play written by Ross Dungan. Looking at the effects of the Omagh bombing on three characters - a young girl who was at the scene, a repentant bomber and woman who lost her husband in the tragedy - it’s an unexpected theme from Dungan who is better known as a member of comedy sketch group A Betrayal of Penguins. Having received critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe where it won a Scotsman Fringe First Award for Innovation in New Writing, we reckon it’s worth a look. Booking Information: Dates: 14th – 26th November Preview: 14th and 15th November (Tickets €8) Matinee: 2pm, 26th November … There’s more →

Theatre Preview: The Year of Magical Wanking @ Absolut Fringe

  By Sinead Keogh | August 25, 2011 - 5:19 pm | Events, Performance Art, The Arts, Theatre
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Yeah that’s right, you heard us: WANKING. Now try writing this post on the sly in your REALLY CONSERVATIVE WORKPLACE like I’m doing and you’ll get an idea of how much we want you to know about this show. Kicking off on September 9th and running until the 17th as part of the Absolut Fringe Festival, The Year of Magical Wanking is a THISISPOPBABY production which is written by and stars former Alternative Miss Ireland Neil Watkins. Described as ‘brave and heartbreaking’ the one-man show is a personal journey that takes us ‘from Catholic Ireland to the cruising bars of the world’. Grand says you, but what’s it actually about in plot terms and none of your fancy adjectives? It’s about porn addiction, destructive sexual behaviour and a dollop of Catholic guilt as well. Watkins has been described as a ‘writer to be taken seriously’ by the gang over at … There’s more →

Preview: The Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival

  By Sinead Keogh | July 27, 2011 - 11:41 am | Events, Festivals, The Arts, The Culch, Theatre
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Back on our pop culture radar is the annual Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival with their just-launched, kick-ass programme. In keeping with previous years, there’s plenty of variety and you’ll find it all here but if you’re a bit overwhelmed by the scale of it all, we have a few recommendations. For starters, we’re big fans of Chekhov. First introduced to team Culch via the Chekhov’s Comedy Shorts series on Sky Arts (find it if you can, it’s hilarious and unexpectedly crammed with big names), we’re looking forward to seeing two Chekhov-inspired works during the festival. “DONKA, A LETTER TO CHEKHOV” is pegged as an extravaganza of acrobatics and magic (it’s performed by acrobats and a troupe of clowns), inspired by Chekhov’s plays and diaries it’s promising to be surreal and escapist. (Gaiety Theatre, September 29th - October 2nd.) Meanwhile, “16 POSSIBLE GLIMPSES” focuses on the life and death of the … There’s more →

Queer Notions 7-11 Dec 2010

  By Niamh | December 7, 2010 - 11:01 pm | Events, The Arts, The Culch, Theatre
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Queer Notions is back with a vengeance starting today, for 5 days with 24 events and 40 artists. Queer Notions involves plays, art, music, lecture, dance, film and politics, celebrating queer ideas and performance from Ireland further afield. There are some wonderful shows coming up for a very short run each so catch them while you can! Some of the coming highlights are The Big Deal written by Una McKevitt and already posted about by ElaineBucko. Trade will play once on Friday 10th December and is probably one of the shows I will try my best to catch: In a run down B+B in the north inner city, a chaotic and vulnerable rent boy meets with a middle-aged, happily married client. At first their meetings are simple, money/sex exchanges, but as they get to know one another, the man experiences a troubling burden of care and a moral awakening that … There’s more →

Go see The Colleen Bawn at the @ProjectArts Centre

  By Darren Byrne | July 27, 2010 - 11:24 am | Featured Post, The Arts, The Culch, Theatre
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When the interval arrived, I was eager to find out more about the play’s history, so I leapt on to Wikipedia and I was surprised to discover it was written 150 years ago. The ‘Quiet Man’ style Oirish brogue seemed so over the top, that I thought it a brilliant modern parody of the era. Instead, I discover that this exciting, fast paced and very funny melodrama was written by Irish playwright Dion Boucicault in 1860. The Colleen Bawn, directed by Jimmy Fay, centres on Hardress Cregan’s (played by Ian Lloyd Anderson) secret marriage to Eily ‘The Colleen Bawn’ O’Connor (Liz Fitzgibbon), a woman considered to be below his station, and the fact that he is due to wed the wealthy Anne Chute (Charlie Murphy), which would solve his family’s financial woes. Anne is also being courted by the lovely but lost Kyrle Daly (Will Irvine) and the Colleen Bawn … There’s more →

Dublin Dance Festival

  By Niamh | May 13, 2010 - 6:01 pm | Performance Art, The Culch
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The Dublin Dance Festival kicked off last Saturday evening with the first performance of Five Ways to Drown followed by the Bumper 2 Bumper headphone disco in conjunction with Phantom 105.2fm. Five Ways To Drown in the Project Arts Centre was choreographed and performed by Junk Ensemble. Junk Ensemble was established in 2004 by twin sisters Megan and Jessica Kennedy who were also joined in this performance by three other dancers. Five Ways To Drown is listed as something which: “looks into the interior of people’s lives and exposes the sadness, the absurdity and the banality through vignettes of dance and installation” The set in the Project was amazing, with the upstairs area having been transformed to have a central stage with a specially built staircase and the stage even had real grass! Alas, I had never been to see contemporary dance in this kind of format and I didn’t … There’s more →

Review of Who Is Fergus Kilpatrick

  By bngr | April 15, 2010 - 1:49 pm | The Culch
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There are two ways of coming to Who Is Fergus Kilpatrick. If you read the play’s initial subtext or come to it blind, this play is a feature about an historical Kerry rebel that veers off mid way, playing tricks with you for the rest of the time until you get comfortable with the tricks being played and accept that it is a play that’s questioning reality. Or you can read into it a bit further and know in advance that it’s a play about the philosophy of reality and with that comfort, enjoy the entertainment and comedy that is offered in the process of its analysis. I confess I came to it blind and my head hurt by the end but the question that I’m still trying to figure out is which of these two audiences are the producers trying to reach? Maybe a bit of both, and naturally … There’s more →

On a Coconut Raft at the Project Arts Centre

  By Darren Byrne | March 29, 2010 - 10:17 am | Music, The Arts, The Culch, Theatre
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A darkly comic tale of three murderers and what they found on the night they broke out of jail, Coconut Raft juxtaposes a stark gritty jailbreak with a musical about that jailbreak. Written and performed by Bryan Quinn, Bobby McGlynn and Sean Carpio, it uses some dark monologues, simple theatre and music and dance to explore the nightmarish break out of three desperate criminals and the secrets they uncover that night. It’s engaging, funny, heart-rendering and a surprising amount of fun. From the opening musical number to Sean Carpio’s near tear-inducing monologue where he realises that his victims family are, most likely, praying for him to die, this play/musical is brilliant. Sadly, it’s still a work in progress. It’s unfinished and needs to be tightened up and extended, but I have no doubt that this show will break out of the Project Arts Centre and become something much bigger.

Una Santa Oscura at the Project

  By bngr | March 6, 2010 - 4:17 am | Featured Post, The Culch
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Una Santa Oscura is a piece of music theatre currently showing in the Project Arts Centre, performed by violinist Ioana Petcu-Cola, and inspired by the music and life of the 12th Century abbess, composer and mystic Hildegard of Bingen. See here for a sample of Hildegard’s music. Essentially this is a theatrical art installation. It’s 48 minutes of a woman going through domestic rituals, acting part visually but for the most through skilled violin playing; aided by various images and colours that are flashed onto her apartment wall and a dominant white noise that directs the action. The musical score combines the electronic background noise with a 21st Century take on Hildgard’s music that chops and changes to suit the play’s narrative.

Absolut Fringe Festival: Victor and Gord Cubed review

  By Niamh | September 12, 2009 - 12:14 pm | Performance Art, The Arts, The Culch, Theatre
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Last night I went to see ‘Victor and Gord Cubed’ in the Project Arts Centre, Temple Bar. The official blurb told me this: “You know those friends you grew up with? Went to school with? Laughed, cried, partied and pulled with? D’you ever wonder sometimes, if they’d ever just F*ck Off? Real Life friends Vickey and Aine, aka Victor and Gord, have only one thing in common, each other. Sneaky cans. Sneaky fags. Free love. It was Ballinclea Heights. It was Killiney. Victor and Gord CUBED is a funny and moving theatrical celebration of friends and family featuring two additional real life relationships, including a brother and sister. Victor and Gord CUBED. Real Lives. Told by the people who live them.” The reality was this: ‘Victor and Gord‘ was amazing. I had no real idea what to expect, what sort of format. I wasn’t expecting to laugh and cry along … There’s more →