Tag Archives: Dublin Fringe Festival

Review: The Oh Fuck Moment at Filmbase

I’ve had way too many Oh Fuck moments than I care to remember – the innocent, fairly repairable ones likes spilling red wine at an aunt’s house and the heart in the mouth, oh-dear-fucking-god-what-have-I-done moments in work when you realised that there’s no turning back and you just have to face the music.

It’s refreshing then to meet some people who can share their own Oh Fuck moments and turn them around to make them feel like an affirmation of how wonderfully human you are, how you don’t subscribe to the belief that you’re always perfect and never mess up and how wonderful that is in itself as you have fully accepted your ability as a perfectly functioning human to fuck up every now and again.

The Oh Fuck Moment is just like yesterday’s ‘White Rabbit, Red Rabbit’ in that it is a welcome breath of fresh air. I went into Filmbase feeling a bit dreary and came out feeling great, rejoicing in the fact that I’ve made mistakes. It’s like a club really, the Oh Fuck club. We (i.e. I and my fellow audience members) shared our Oh Fuck moments and gave each other pats on the back for accepting our moments of ill-decision. Sitting around with cups of tea, we all laughed, sighed and gasped as tale after tale of ‘oh fuck’ moments were shared – some heart-breaking, some hysterical and others so unbearably relatable.

The Oh Fuck Moment isn’t comfortably labelled as theatre, I’d be quicker to describe it as a workshop of sorts, one that teaches you to deal with everything from the minor everyday fuck ups (spillages, slips of the tongue and such) to the major catastrophes such as totalling your car or telling your boss to fuck off. If you’re feeling the pressure to always deliver 100% without fault (who doesn’t feel that way?), then you’re due a visit to The Oh Fuck Moment – a relaxing piece of interactive performance with warm revelations about how you’re only normal if you fuck up every now and again – as James Joyce once said ‘a man’s errors are his portals of discovery’.

The Oh Fuck Moment plays in Filmbase until September 22. More info here >>

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Review: White Rabbit, Red Rabbit at the New Theatre

A whole host of great performers (Stephen Rea, Olwen Fouere and Peter Daly amongst others) have signed up to be ‘the actor’ in Nassim Soleimanpour’s play ‘White Rabbit, Red Rabbit’ which is currently being staged in The New Theatre as part of the Fringe Festival, so with such high calibre performers it must be good!

Beginning with a quick reveal of that day’s performer (in my case comedienne Maeve Higgins); the play moves pretty quickly with ‘the actor’ reading a script they see for the very first time when they step on the stage in front of the audience. The script weaves between insane yet meaningful tales and an explanation of the structure of the play from the playwright who ponders on to whom and where it is being performed today.

A highly self-conscious playwright, Soleimanpour refuses to serve military duty in his homeland of Iran and is therefore refused a passport by the Iranian government. Instead of creeping around after people on Facebook like your average geographically restricted stalker; he has taken to writing this play which is, as he describes it, his passport to the world. It is his way of telling his tales to people in countries he may never visit. Requesting the audience members to carry out certain tasks, play certain roles and take pictures to be emailed to him; Soleimanpour is very much the central character in this highly interactive play.

Maeve Higgins did a wonderful reading of a script which was full of surprises for both her and the audience and while all the way off in Iran, I very much felt as if Soleimanpour was with us in the theatre – in fact I thought for a moment he may  walk through the door or reveal himself as one of the audience members.

Sometimes a piece of theatre can be simply an entertaining story well told through script and performance, and other times it can be an obscure piece of theatre which challenges the way we perceive the world and turns strongly held opinions upside-down; however White Rabbit, Red Rabbit has managed to combine lovely stories with a play that is simply constructed and also happily, very unique too. A breath of fresh air that’s not to be missed (unless you really, really don’t like audience participation!), catch White Rabbit, Red Rabbit at the New Theatre until September 22 at 1pm each day (except tomorrow) – more info here >>

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Fringe Resources for Artists

Wow, two posts in one day – you’d know I’m supposed to be doing something else wouldn’t ya!!! I’m putting off my design project ’til, by some devine intervention, I am somehow able to use InDesign and have developed the artistic skills of Picasso. Up until then, I’m sticking to blogging – chicken, me?! Never!

Anyways, Fringe sent round an email there yesterday with info on their new Fringe Lab initiative, so I said that it would be nice to pass this on to spread the word!

Have a goo:

In addition to its annual festival presenting the new and the next in the performing arts each September, ABSOLUT Fringe provides year round support to performing artists who present, or would like to present work at the festival.  This support includes workshops, rehearsal/studio space, equipment loans, use of office space, mentorship, advice clinics and master-classes. With thanks to The Arts Council’s theatre resource sharing initiative, the Fringe have now expanded this support, under the banner Fringe Lab.

Fringe Lab will now offer:

  • Year round studio space for performing artists to develop work in a practical and private setting
  • Desk space in the ABSOLUT Fringe office with free wifi, phones and printer access

These services will be available free of charge to artists.

From April, Fringe Lab involves private studio time in the LAB, Dublin City Council’s purpose built facility for the arts, on Foley Street. Lab space is available. To take part in Fringe Lab, the Fringe want to know about you, your project, and your availability. Numerous slots are available and are open to all performing artists and Kate O’Sullivan, the Fringe Lab Coordinator is available on kate@fringefest.com.

The application form is available on the Fringe’s website at http://www.fringefest.com/backstage/fringe-lab. Closing date for April/May session is April 11th at 6pm. Applications for June/July/August must be received by April 30th at 6pm.

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As You Are Now, So Once Were We Review

It could perhaps be the 16th of June 1904, and these actors are trying to find their part in Joyce’s seminal work – Ulysses, however this is rubbished by the inclusion of mobile phones (albeit large cardboard ones). Perhaps The Company‘s initial plan was to “pick up the most important and unread book in Irish history and follow James Joyce as he invents a whole city and its people.”, however they seem to have become sidetracked along the way and instead of delving into Ulysses, they’ve created their own.

Far better than what the initial plan sounded like, this exploratory piece of theatre explores our everyday interpretation of all that happens around us, as well as our remembering or recreation of things past and imagination of things to come. The four actors become bloomalikes, wandering around Dublin city, sampling the food and getting into arguments about the burial of Paddy Dignam (four times over!).

The play itself is playful yet very self conscious in that it reflects upon itself and its characters as they reconstruct and imagine their day and how to recreate it on stage in the form of dozens of cardboard boxes. The actors themselves are outstanding for their perfect execution of complicated routines involving the boxes, along with beautiful storytelling and recounting of events.

The Company are definitely a talented group and I’ll be keeping my eyes out for them in the future. The play tonight was something very different, it was very “fringey” and experimental (not entirely dissimilar to the likes of Pan Pan) but at the same time, surprisingly well organised, executed and very polished. I would love to recommend others to go and see it but unfortunately tonight was the last night – boo :( Hopefully The Company will be back again soon with something different from what everyone else is doing – just like they did tonight.

You can follow their goings on on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

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Medea at the Beckett Theatre

Medea is a woman scorned by a wandering husband for whom she betrayed her family. Faced with banishment from the only place she can call home with two small sons, Medea seeks her revenge. However, the only revenge that will quell her anger towards her husband is a revenge that will ultimately destroy her also.

Siren Productions modern take on this classic is stunningly executed and performed by a stellar cast including Eileen Walsh, Stuart Graham and the ever amazing Olwen Fouéré. The stage itself is a character also, a modern home, yet also a prison containing secrets and plots and ultimately the scene for horrifying acts. Medea, initially imprisoned in her bedroom, once the site of marital bliss, darts around her home’s many rooms searching for ways to escape the pain of her heartbreak. Other characters move fluidly between the rooms, echoing the motion of the unfolding events which shape Medea and her family’s future. A model boat is carried around the rooms, a symbol of the travel Medea must face into her exile, but also her entrapment – out at sea on her own with nowhere to call home and no family to call on.

The production is frenetic, full of energy and movement and also at times quite playful, however it is the closing scenes which are the most powerful as Medea reveals the true strength of her hurt and jealously and how far she will really go to exact her revenge on her cheating husband.

Playing in the Beckett Theatre, Trinity College until Sat. 25th of Sept. as part of the ABSOLUT Fringe Festival, this production is a must for those wanting to see an interesting modern take on a classic. And at €15 a ticket, it’s a steal for a production with such an impressive cast! Clickedy click here for more details.

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Theatre and Food: Cheap as Chips

I’m back after over two weeks of holidays away from the dusty concrete of Dublin and already missing the lowing of cows and the feel of grass under my feet down the country. To make up for it, the silly season of theatre festivals is coming up. The Ulster Bank Theatre Festival and Dublin Fringe Festival launched their festival line-ups recently to great excitement and promotion. I personally found myself dishing out over €150 for tickets to only a handful of shows, picked out of a multitude which I would really love to see.

It is a pity that the Ulster Bank Theatre Festival in particular cannot offer cheaper tickets to shows, €25 per ticket is quite expensive. So, it did gladden my little theatre and food loving heart to spot this offer recently offered by the Project Arts Centre and Conrad Gallagher’s Salon des Saveurs. For €34, you get:

  • A 2 course meal at Salon des Saveurs (Food impressario Conrad Gallagher’s recent culinary venture on Aungier St.) For €45, you can get 3 courses
  • A complimentary bottle of wine
  • A chaffeure service to bring to you to the Project
  • Your ticket into the Colleen Bawn

This is quite an impressive offer by any standards and it’s good to see that Salon des Saveurs is offering this deal as an ongoing Pre-Theatre menu and chauffeur service. The menu’s pretty good too with some tasty looking salmon dishes, scallops, beef and quail and whatever anyone wants to say about Gallagher and his financial exploits, it doesn’t seem like he was ever the type to turn out sub standard food.

To their credit, the Project have been quite industrious with attracting a crowd in and regularly features pre theatre offers in conjunction with Milano’s, the restaurant franchise which seems to be popping up all over the country.

As a side comment, the Ulster Bank Theatre Festival have developed accommodation deals with a number of hotels across Dublin during their festival period, but I think it would be great to see something similar in terms of restaurants or gastro pubs for the audience members in Dublin or even a special offer on tickets – maybe mid week buy one ticket get a second half price but maybe they have a big enough audience and won’t need to worry about getting bums of seats. Either way I’m close to broke but still willing to dish out for the Colleen Bawn!

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