Skyfall Review

At the end of their first meeting in this new incarnation of Bond, Ben Whishaw’s Q turns to Daniel Craig’s 007 and asks; “Were you expecting an exploding pen? We don’t go in for that anymore.” Which tells you quite a lot about this leg of the spy series, which celebrates its half-century with new film, Skyfall. The gadgets are subtler; the story draws on real life concerns while the ladies are more than playthings, clothed (for the most part).

In fact the only boobs I saw were in the audience chortling with discomfort at the homoerotic subtext of Javier Bardem’s terrific villain, Silva. That being said Sam Mendes’ intriguing debut as an action director gets rather entangled in its desire to sate so many tastes that, not only is it not a traditional Bond flick, it is not a wholly new creation either, making fudged reference to the series lineage and half hearted stabs at the coy interplay between Bond, the babes and the bad asses.

It’s an intelligent and enjoyable addition to the cannon that proves that its producers are at least trying to keep it relevant to these grim times without throwing out what made it so special in the first place. But those telling you it’s the best Bond yet-or worse, Oscar worthy, most likely have little experience of the series pre-Brosnan or movies made prior to the turn of this century.

The Dark Knight Rises Review

The problem with The Dark Knight Rises is not that it’s a bad movie, nor is it a lazy one. Rather it is overly ambitious, which in trying to tick so many boxes at once, confuses itself, and us. So instead of fusing a crime drama with a comic book caper it tries to be both concurrently, with overlaps that jar uncomfortably. At almost three hours in length it is a literal pain in the arse.

Prometheus Review

Ridley Scott recently told the NME that he didn’t give a crap about legacy. Which might explain why he has taken a colossal, explosive and very messy dump all over his, with the supposed Alien prequel Prometheus. Held to the decreasing standards of the original series this movie really is atrocious. However hold it to the standard of more recent box office fare and it’s just about average. Badly acted and poorly paced with a script that could double for Charmin Ultra.

Avengers Assemble Review

I guess it’s a matter of how low you set your expectations. I set mine to Hollywood Blockbuster: Got Good Reviews. I never figured that I’d been mislead by hype and that those behind this children’s comic book adaptation would dismiss the adults accompanying them so completely out of hand. Then again the €700 million its grossed around the world shows how much I know.

The Perils Of Going Alone

It seems as if the one man show is the new black. At least to theatre folk who have embraced the style as this seasons must try format. There are 19 such shows in the Absolut Fringe where the next generation of theatre makers sink their fangs into a vein more used to nourishing artists in the later throws of their career. With seemingly goading and irreverent titles like The Year of Magical Wanking and Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think Of You, scratch away at the artifice and you discover that still waters don’t just run deep. They run over. And their aim is to sweep you up in their flow.

 

Irish Language Theatre

No one could accuse the Irish of passing up on a little flagellation when their mother tongue is involved. And it’s easy to tut and nod along with the naysayers when looking specifically at theatre ‘tri ghaeilge’. In 2007 An Taibhearc, the countries national Irish language theatre was shut due to fire and since the present government reneged on an agreement made by the previous one (to split the refurbishment costs three ways) it remains closed. The Abbey Theatre has mounted just one full-length production in the past 15 years (Aodh O Domhnail’s Idir an Da Shuil, in December) while you’d have to go back to the 1960s to find the last in-house production on its main stage. And although The Arts Council says that it is in no way unwelcoming of Irish speaking applications, Foras Na Gaeilge’s 2007 calculations revealed that they gave a pitiful 0.001% of their total budget (€216.56 million) to theatre practioners working through the language.

Facts like these would make you think that, just like poor Peig Sayers at the start of her much maligned tome, theatre through Irish ‘has one foot in the grave and the other on its edge’.

Yet ask the artists themselves and they’ll tell you it’s never been healthier. The person with the most important theatrical post in the country, Fiach Mac Conghail, is a vehement and passionate Irish speaker; there are more companies operating through the language than there has been in years and, most importantly, there are people working within the industry, regardless of language, who are looking at new ways of presenting plays through Irish.

So what do they believe the problems facing them to be?

Bard to the Bone

“…the purpose of playing, whose end, both at the first and now, was and is, to hold, as ‘twere the mirror up to nature, to show virtue her feature, scorn her own image and the very age and body of the time his form and pressure.”
Hamlet, Act III, Scene II

It’s been like Groundhog Dane on the Irish boards of late with no less than four productions of Hamlet having run nationwide in the past 12 months. There was Pan Pan’s The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane- where three actors auditioned before the audience for the right to play the Prince; there was Max Lewendel’s British transfer which recently ran at the Tivoli while the other two productions derived from the one company, Second Age, who marked their 21st year last year with Marty Rea in the title role, a performance so acclaimed he won Best Actor at the recent Irish Times Theatre Awards. Since Conor Madden, to whom Marty passes the mantle, was one of the three wannabe Dane’s in the Pan Pan piece, there is a sense of ingemination symbolic of a play that gets its strength from repetition.

Currach Racing

The currach is as identifiable with the green, green shores of Ireland as the harp, the shamrock and the IMF bail out. And while no longer needed as a means of survival Danny O Flaherty has committed the last 20 years of his life to reviving the popularity of the boat. First by forming Coiste Lar Na gCurrachai (Central Currach Committee), with the objective of promoting currach racing in Ireland and then by forming the Celtic Nations Heritage Foundation, who host the annual World Cup Currach Regatta in his adopted home of Louisiana.

Willie Clancy Week

In his most notable hit ‘Lisdoonvarna’ the singer songwriter Christy Moore wrote, “If it’s music you want, you should go to Clare”. And while it was the now defunct titular festival he was eulogising, thousands of trad lovers will this week be following his advice for the start of the annual Willie Clancy Week. Based around the Willy Clancy School, where 800 students have signed up for lessons in music, song and dance, a further three to five thousand people are expected to pour into the tiny town of Milltown Malbay (population 600) to avail of the jigs and the reels and the many, many pints that will flow over the week long event.

The Dublin Roller Girls

A girl with Bosco red hair fly’s around the hall at high-speed on roller-skates, lapping her opponent and cheekily tapping her on the ass with her baton. The winning team cheer loudly only to be drowned out by the loosing side’s groans and moans as they trudge of to the side of the hall to do wall squats, placing their backs flat against the brick and pushing their knees out, their bodies consumed with a burning pain and uncontrollable shakiness. The main hall of the Poppintree Sports Centre, which traditionally plays host to ladies indoor soccer and volleyball teams, is a wash with purple leopard print, tattoos, piercings and fierce eyeliner as the Dublin Roller Derby Girl’s hold their “Fresh Meat”, a quarterly open day in which the established rollers put the newbie’s through their paces in the countries most exiting, fastest growing all female sport.