Admin

We have a tie...

Posted by Admin at 11:40 am Uncategorized No Responses »
Jan 092012

We have a tie between two prospective bloggers for next season so we have opened the poll back up for one day. Who will be next season’s My_Project Blogger….Nicole or Liza…Voting closes at 4.30pm today ( Monday 9th of January)

_______________________________________________________

 

Nicole Flattery

 

 

About Nicole:

I am a Trinity drama graduate currently working as a theatre and film critic for Meg.ie. I am very interested in theatre criticism and would really appreciate the opportuniy to develop my skills with the Project Arts Centre.

Review: HEROIN

As I walk into Smock Alley theatre for TheatreClub’s Heroin, you are greeted by two young boys whose sole purpose appears to be to casually berate the audience. Telling us ‘to find a seat-it’s not hard’, wolf-whistling and being audacious to the point of being rude, it’s a fitting start to an incredibly moving piece of theatre. Despite being unflinching and honest in its depiction of the soulless cycle of addiction, Heroin always retains a certain fondness for its subjects. Taking us into a reality where horrible things happen to not very horrible people, and where drug taking is only morbid in its absolute mundanity, Grace Dyas and company are concerned with not only taking down the net curtains, but setting fire to them and forcing us to look inside.

Guiding us through the decades by the use of a very nice musical device, Heroin is unrelenting in its desperation and bleakness. By showing us that drug taking is a sickness that manifests in shabby rooms, punctuated by the noise of radio adverts that promise escape, it strips away the media hype and finds the sadness inherent in addiction. Frozen by a sense of ritual and weak ’not tomorrow night’ promises, the characters are caught up in dangerous and irrational violence. They tell us that their parents did the best job they could while knowing they did not, and beg us ‘to come at them.’ Theirs is a frantic search for feeling, an escape from arbitrary numbness and they believe heroin offers the ultimate form of emotional getaway. Yet, these are not excuses-tabloid childhoods invented to ease a sense of guilt-this is their reality and they state plainly ’we took drugs because we wanted to take drugs.’ As Barry O’ Connor begs Lauren Larkin and Gerard Kelly ’not to do that in front of me’, there is a sense of growing incomprehension and palpable unease. He is speaking for society, a society that does not want to see bodies being butchered but his pleas go unanswered. Certainly the role society played in breeding this illness and the responsibility we have to a community we ignore, is a demanding truth that is impossible to dismiss.

With this explosive subject matter, it would be tempting to resort to melodrama but Dyas draws emotive, natural and affective performances from her cast, who are all equally outstanding. Larkin is wonderfully childlike in her innocence, and her subsequent corruption is disturbing to the extent that a few audience members were visibly upset. O‘Connor‘s anger is righteous, unashamed and perfectly played, whilst Kelly elicits sympathy as the boy without a backbone. The lighting and mood changes are evocative and powerful, and Doireann Coady’s set demands special attention, as the more furniture that is added the sparser it seems to become. Herin leaves you with a huge sense of loss-but it does not leave you. Find a seat. It’s not hard.

 

___________________________________________________________

.

Liza Cox

 

 

 

 

About Liza:

Although my major is English literature, my main obsession in theatre. I am currently coediting the theatre section in Trinity News’ culture supplement, TN2. I also recently directed a very successful adaptation of Jocelyn Clarke’s adaptation of The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien in Players Theatre. I’ve been involved in Players Theatre in a variety of contexts, from directing to lighting, sound, and set design, as well as crew and technician.
I am well able to express myself in writing and on camera, and have a lot of experience reviewing shows in my capacity as theatre editor. I also have a real enthusiasm for theatre, and specifically for the Project Arts Centre; I love its innovation, everything it represents in terms of being a space for experimental, exciting theatre.

 

Review: Slattery’s Sago Saga

What happens if, in the middle of a play, the characters, to their distress, realise that they are fictional? And what happens when they decide to take matters into their own hands, and seize control of the writing of the script? Slattery’s Sago Saga, brilliantly staged by The Performance Corporation, and directed by Jo Mangan, is an absurdist comedy, as energetic and imaginative a piece of theatre as one would hope from Arthur Riordan. He has succeeded in turning what was initially an unfinished novel by Flann O’Brien into a play that manages to be both contemporary, and faithful to O’Brien’s very distinctive style.

The plot, involving a maleficent Scotswoman, a human-sized leprechaun, a beautiful and mysterious typist,, and an evil plot to subjugate the nation of Ireland, is ridiculous, of course, and spirals out of control completely once the characters get involved, each manipulating events to suit their own various purposes. It’s all very meta-theatrical. But it never becomes too convoluted, managing to hold the audience’s attention throughout.

The cast of five all give strong performances, outstanding among them being Kathy Rose O’Brien as Imelda, the substitute author who takes over the writing while its real author is otherwise occupied, and Michael Glenn Murphy in four distinct roles; the idiot butler, the opium-fiend professor, the corrupt T.D, and the Irish-American millionaire.

It’s fast-paced, tongue-in-cheek, entertaining, and completely nonsensical, in a way that somehow makes sense, in keeping with Flann O’Brien’s absurdist logic. Conventionally, theatre attempts to induce in its audience a suspension of disbelief. Slattery’s Sago Saga inverts this, asking the audience to suspend belief, and challenging their perceptions of authorship, performance and reality. O’Brien would have been proud.

And the three finalists of the 1st My_Project Blogger of 2012 are...

Posted by Admin at 3:36 pm Uncategorized 11 Responses »
Dec 222011

 

Read the three finalists entries below and vote for next season’s My_Project Blogger in our poll in the right hand corner. Whoever gets the most votes wins. Good luck to all the finalists!!

 

 

Thomas Nashe

 

About Thomas

I’m a writer/actor/director. Having studied English Lit, History of Art and Philosophy my interests are broad to say the least. The main reason I apply to this blogger competition is my friends told me to, which is really to give them some peace from my waxings, though they won’t admit that.

I don’t get to see enough theatre, especially of the kind I prefer: experimental, collaborative, and yoghurt-like. And I love to talk about it after, to digest it verbally.

Review: The Making Of Tis Pity She’s A Whore

‘Tis a Pity ‘tis Over

In we step into the smoky, jazzy (thanks to the music playing) miasma of The Making of ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore. Imagine a renaissance drama crossed with Felleni’s 8½? If you can, then you’ve a sense of it. The whole show moves around the broody Director who also plays Giovanni. Even the style invoked it, the glasses he wears, the type writer, his clothes, even his hair echoed the style of Mastroianni’s, not copied I have you understand, but styled like. The association is kept subliminal – Italian sixties cool.

So, to make it simple: a film is being made of the play, and the Director, as the filming progresses, becomes possessed by the spirit of, becomes usurped within by the character of Giovanni in some type of method directing gone awry. Yet, lest you assume it, Ford’s text is not set within a new text and therefore the Making of narrative relies solely on action, on show. Combine this with the difficulties of comprehending early seventeenth century dramatic verse, and the melding of life and drama became rather unclear at times. And in light of the extracting of mere pieces of the original text the result was naturally disjointed.

Next, is that really, in truth, this should have ‘dance’ in the title as there was much of it. Though it seemed a way of disguising prop movements and set changes, it was dance nevertheless. Add that some of Ford’s verse is set to music and sung, and you have what in many ways is a song & dance show. Expect it basically.

Of course then there is the subject matter, the plot. Lets us not forget: it is incest between a brother and a sister and in some way this was not touched though the whole play is about it, it’s everywhere, yet it never arrived. I suspect that the language and the notoriety of the play ironically masked it – like going to Oedipus Rex: incest is a given. No eye brow raised. But maybe that’s asking too much of renaissance drama – incest is ironically not the issue but staging renaissance drama is. How you do it.

The problem is always the arm’s reach that such drama keeps much of the audience at, the verse, the reversed and inverted syntax that keeps meaning like the sound behind a jet fighter – always lagging behind, trying to keep up. And as the text is merely pieces of the original you’d imagine a difficult time, but no! Not so. The one delight, the one overwhelming delight is that it works, it really does work. The use of music is deviously clever for the music, constant music it seemed, held you up, suspended and carried you over the breaches in narrative. And the use of multimedia, shot sequences, characters kept in the can as it were, worked perfectly. Simon Delaney, I realised, was born to play the fop – brilliant. In fact all performances were strong and affecting.

One gets the sense of justice being done to Ford’s work. Akin to a novel to film, some just hit the beats they have to hit – the novel comes across. We say: ‘Yes. It worked.’ I say: ‘Yes it worked’. And in lieu of knowing its next outing, I can’t say ‘go and see’, which is a pity…

 

 

 

 

 

___________________________________________________________

 

Nicole Flattery

 

 

About Nicole:

I am a Trinity drama graduate currently working as a theatre and film critic for Meg.ie. I am very interested in theatre criticism and would really appreciate the opportuniy to develop my skills with the Project Arts Centre.

Review: HEROIN

As I walk into Smock Alley theatre for TheatreClub’s Heroin, you are greeted by two young boys whose sole purpose appears to be to casually berate the audience. Telling us ‘to find a seat-it’s not hard’, wolf-whistling and being audacious to the point of being rude, it’s a fitting start to an incredibly moving piece of theatre. Despite being unflinching and honest in its depiction of the soulless cycle of addiction, Heroin always retains a certain fondness for its subjects. Taking us into a reality where horrible things happen to not very horrible people, and where drug taking is only morbid in its absolute mundanity, Grace Dyas and company are concerned with not only taking down the net curtains, but setting fire to them and forcing us to look inside.

Guiding us through the decades by the use of a very nice musical device, Heroin is unrelenting in its desperation and bleakness. By showing us that drug taking is a sickness that manifests in shabby rooms, punctuated by the noise of radio adverts that promise escape, it strips away the media hype and finds the sadness inherent in addiction. Frozen by a sense of ritual and weak ’not tomorrow night’ promises, the characters are caught up in dangerous and irrational violence. They tell us that their parents did the best job they could while knowing they did not, and beg us ‘to come at them.’ Theirs is a frantic search for feeling, an escape from arbitrary numbness and they believe heroin offers the ultimate form of emotional getaway. Yet, these are not excuses-tabloid childhoods invented to ease a sense of guilt-this is their reality and they state plainly ’we took drugs because we wanted to take drugs.’ As Barry O’ Connor begs Lauren Larkin and Gerard Kelly ’not to do that in front of me’, there is a sense of growing incomprehension and palpable unease. He is speaking for society, a society that does not want to see bodies being butchered but his pleas go unanswered. Certainly the role society played in breeding this illness and the responsibility we have to a community we ignore, is a demanding truth that is impossible to dismiss.

With this explosive subject matter, it would be tempting to resort to melodrama but Dyas draws emotive, natural and affective performances from her cast, who are all equally outstanding. Larkin is wonderfully childlike in her innocence, and her subsequent corruption is disturbing to the extent that a few audience members were visibly upset. O‘Connor‘s anger is righteous, unashamed and perfectly played, whilst Kelly elicits sympathy as the boy without a backbone. The lighting and mood changes are evocative and powerful, and Doireann Coady’s set demands special attention, as the more furniture that is added the sparser it seems to become. Herin leaves you with a huge sense of loss-but it does not leave you. Find a seat. It’s not hard.

 

___________________________________________________________

.

Liza Cox

 

 

 

 

About Liza:

Although my major is English literature, my main obsession in theatre. I am currently coediting the theatre section in Trinity News’ culture supplement, TN2. I also recently directed a very successful adaptation of Jocelyn Clarke’s adaptation of The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brien in Players Theatre. I’ve been involved in Players Theatre in a variety of contexts, from directing to lighting, sound, and set design, as well as crew and technician.
I am well able to express myself in writing and on camera, and have a lot of experience reviewing shows in my capacity as theatre editor. I also have a real enthusiasm for theatre, and specifically for the Project Arts Centre; I love its innovation, everything it represents in terms of being a space for experimental, exciting theatre.

 

Review: Slattery’s Sago Saga

What happens if, in the middle of a play, the characters, to their distress, realise that they are fictional? And what happens when they decide to take matters into their own hands, and seize control of the writing of the script? Slattery’s Sago Saga, brilliantly staged by The Performance Corporation, and directed by Jo Mangan, is an absurdist comedy, as energetic and imaginative a piece of theatre as one would hope from Arthur Riordan. He has succeeded in turning what was initially an unfinished novel by Flann O’Brien into a play that manages to be both contemporary, and faithful to O’Brien’s very distinctive style.

The plot, involving a maleficent Scotswoman, a human-sized leprechaun, a beautiful and mysterious typist,, and an evil plot to subjugate the nation of Ireland, is ridiculous, of course, and spirals out of control completely once the characters get involved, each manipulating events to suit their own various purposes. It’s all very meta-theatrical. But it never becomes too convoluted, managing to hold the audience’s attention throughout.

The cast of five all give strong performances, outstanding among them being Kathy Rose O’Brien as Imelda, the substitute author who takes over the writing while its real author is otherwise occupied, and Michael Glenn Murphy in four distinct roles; the idiot butler, the opium-fiend professor, the corrupt T.D, and the Irish-American millionaire.

It’s fast-paced, tongue-in-cheek, entertaining, and completely nonsensical, in a way that somehow makes sense, in keeping with Flann O’Brien’s absurdist logic. Conventionally, theatre attempts to induce in its audience a suspension of disbelief. Slattery’s Sago Saga inverts this, asking the audience to suspend belief, and challenging their perceptions of authorship, performance and reality. O’Brien would have been proud.

Vote for the next season's My_Project Blogger

Posted by Admin at 11:44 am Blog 18 Responses »
Oct 042011

 

Read the three finalists entries below and vote for next season’s My_Project Blogger in our poll in the right hand corner. Whoever gets the most votes wins. Good luck to all the finalists!!

 

 

 

Thomas Nashe

About Thomas

I’m a writer/actor/director. Having studied English Lit, History of Art and Philosophy my interests are broad to say the least. The main reason I apply to this blogger competition is my friends told me to, which is really to give them some peace from my waxings, though they won’t admit that.

I don’t get to see enough theatre, especially of the kind I prefer: experimental, collaborative, and yoghurt-like. And I love to talk about it after, to digest it verbally.

Review: The Speckled Play

And here I am, like a school boy down the back of the bus, relieved to be seated watching others undergo the ordeal of eyes at the opening night of the Gate’s The Speckled People. The world première of the author’s adaptation of his own ‘extraordinary work’ and the Gate’s offering for the theatre festival.

Now, I could go on about the conflict of cultures, identity, and other thematic elements, and I have copious notes on set design, props, staging etc which I intended to lavish lovingly on you, setting the scene and what not, but, forget it.

There was a cast of nine, and one elephant. The elephant was having a grown man, and not a particularly youthful one, play a boy. Picture it: a man, some what of a five o clock shadow, being caressed and cared for by his thirty something mother! The mind gets the narrative, the dramaturgic device, but the unconscious is reeling and recoiling from the stimuli. I’m not asking for a seven year old, but would a thirteen or fourteen year old not have been a little more convincing? Yes yes: I understand the needs from the writing perspective as the character of ‘Hanni’ is the main narrator and therefore carries the play in many ways. But surely, dramaturgically, structurally it was an error.

So aside from the elephant, they speak in English but are supposed to be speaking in German, or is it Irish? When Mrs Hamilton speaks to the shopkeeper her English takes a German accent, meant to mean she is now not speaking in German, which is English, but is speaking in English with a German accent. Clear? Good. For when young Hanni is asked by an aunt, on his father’s side, who refuses to indulge her brother’s Irish fetish, what did he get for Christmas he then answers in syntactically backward English with a strong accent, meaning he is now attempting to speak English and the English he has spoke to us all along has been German, or is it Irish? Confused? So was I.

A little more thought into extracting a ‘play’ from the novel rather than trying to dramatise the novel would have been a safer option. But then, that would have required a playwright… The fact is nothing works in it, and doesn’t because without dramatic conflict everything else is simply ‘stuff’ as the Elizabethans would say. Commendable effort by the actors, but when you’re in a sow’s ear you are, and no amount of acting will change that.

I don’t care. Make it rough, make it clumsy, make anything but please make it something dramatic.

This is a cash cow for the Gate during the festival when fans of the book will surge and cluck towards it and, lest you think it, come away satisfied. They relive the joy of reading the book. I have not read the book, but after the ‘play’ it seems to me a middle class Angela’s Ashes, and is tonally reminiscent of Barry at his worst.

Go see it, just for the elephant.

Tiebreaker: Modern art is like yoghurt – it is good for you, but tastes bad going down.

You may not like it, but in the end it’s good for you, as anything truly transformative in the arts is. It has to break the mould and mould breakers are never popular with the vast majority.

Yet I beg to differ. Who says it tastes bad? There are others who, like masochists and pain, enjoy that ‘bad’ taste so that bad comes full circle and is considered ‘good’.

And as for the digestive metaphor, I know some who love the taste but cannot stomach yoghurt. Some will always have an intolerance no matter how much they like the taste.

___________________________________________________________

Catherine Dennehy

About Catherine:

My name is Catherine and I would love the chance to be a blogger for the Project Arts Centre. I’ve had a long-time love affair with the arts, stretching back to when I starting treading the boards of my local theatre as a little kid. I enjoy all things art, music, comedy and theatre. I’m a journalism student and writing is a major passion of mine so being able to write about the things I enjoy most would be an amazing opportunity; to see and meet those behind the scenes, and help spread the word of the world of culture and entertainment on our doorsteps.

 

 

Review: Juno and the Paycock.

Staging a dramatic return

Juno and the Paycock is back on the Abbey stage

Abbey Theatre, September 2011

Directed by: Howard Davis

As exciting as it is to witness new work, there is something very satisfying about seeing an Irish classic, particularly when it is staged in the same settings as its very first performance. On Monday, March 3rd, 1924, Sean O’Casey’s tragedy in three parts, Juno and The Paycock, was unveiled to audiences and now, almost 90 years later it returns again to the Abbey Theatre.

 

The second in O’Casey’s ‘Dublin Trilogy’, the play tells the story of the Boyle family, juggling the life of the Irish working class, the influence of the Catholic Church, the ever-present reliance on alcohol, all in the aftermath of the 1916 Rising.

 

As soon as light filled the stage, I felt like I was dragged into the bleak living conditions and intoxicating pessimism of 1920’s Ireland. Tall ceilings, flaking wallpaper and heavy, bare furniture filled the wonderfully authentic set. Hunkering characters came alive and thick Dublin accents burst from them.

‘Captain’ Jack Boyle (Ciarán Hinds) and his wife Juno (Sinéad Cusack) live with their two children, Mary (Clare Dunne) and Johnny (Ronan Rafferty). Juno’s daily routine involves constant attempts to get Jack to work, with his unwillingness to do anything except loitering in the ‘snug’ with pal and drinking buddy, Joxer Daly (Risteárd Cooper), proving a challenge.

 

Luckily for Jack, it seems as though his family’s worries are over when a relative leaves a considerable inheritance to him. Caught up in the glamour of their promised riches, Juno and Jack begin to live a life of luxury before their new perfect life begins to crumble. Although dealing with some of the darker sides of life, such as violence in Ireland, alcoholism, and the harsh views of extramarital sex, humour and tragedy is married seamlessly and the audience can go from holding in tears to laughing aloud in a matter of minutes.

 

Ciarán Hinds steals attention in many scenes with his delightfully warm portrayal of the jovial, yet hopeless ‘Captain’ Jack. He is convincing as the happy-go-lucky joker of the piece right through to Jack’s descent into solitude. Along with Risteárd Cooper and his “darlin’” catch phrase, the pair make a charming comedy duo.

Clare Dunne’s performance as love-struck Mary and Sinead Cusack as the ever-suffering Juno are both heartfelt. The once-strong mother and daughter are broken down as the story unfolds and both actresses beautifully display the heart-breaking trials they have to endure.

An excellent ensemble cast, beautiful set and timeless dialogue, Juno and The Paycock is a stylish, emotionally charged version of a classic. Humour is weaved delicately through the dark themes. Pride, shame and violence are traits that still speak to us today. As ‘Captain’ Jack himself says: “Th’ whole worl’s in a terrible state o‘ chassis”

Tiebreaker: Modern Art is like yoghurt – it’s good for you but tastes bad going down

Modern Art is like that carton of natural yoghurt sitting in a shelf of your fridge. You got it because you felt like you should, that you should behave yourself and steer away from the sugary, chocolate flavored ones.

 

The thing with natural yoghurt is that while we might not want to glug it down on its own, we use it when making so many other things. We have a taste for it without even realising. Modern art is something we enjowithout even knowing it ourselves

 

___________________________________________________________

. Francis Wasser

 

About Francis:

I am a practising artist based in Dublin currently studying a MFA at the National College of Art and Design. I wish to take part in this project to further develop my writing and research methodologies. I believe that the review acts as a rendering of liminal territories that form between all parties within the arts. The review is the space between the audience and the event, the artists and the venue, reception and criticism. The review is a platform to further forge the necessity of engaged critical thinking within our many cultures. If selected I will utilise the blog to help make visible the vibrancy of activities, people and events that make the Project Arts Centre everything that it is, an essential arts centre in the heart of dublin with its doors open to all.

 

Review:

A Review of Liam Gillick’s A Game of War Structure at Imma, running now -October 31st 2011

I asked Liam Gillick in the toilets of Imma ‘How did Guy de bord die?’ to which he replied ‘Well, that’s an interesting question you know, because he never really did die.’ It is not widely known that Guy de bord of the Situationist Internationale(SI) met his demise by his own hand. De Bord shot himself in the heart at his property in Champot, France , on November 30, 1994. Gillick continued by saying that over lunch with several theorists he had prompted De bord’s death but no interest was expressed in this troubling fact. The conversation continued from the sinks across the courtyard to the bar. The topic of conversation was Simon Critchley’s 2008 book ‘The book of dead philosophers’. Critchley’s text centres on philosophy and the fundamental problems of our society globally. Citing Seneca ‘He will live badly who does not know how to die well.’ Critchley declares that ‘to philosophise is to learn how to die’.

A Game of War Structure, a new work by Liam Gillick is a configuration of Guy de bords 1977 war game ‘the kriegspiel’ translated as a ‘game of war’. De bords inspiration for the game came from 18th century french military theory. The game is played over 500 squares of 20 by 25. The objective is to destroy the opposition by either eliminating your opponents forces or deactivating their arsenals. The first move in chess is often considered as an immediate advantage. This game differs from chess in that each of the two players begin the game by placing their pieces wherever they want to.There are three boards placed around the courtyard of Imma and the pieces and instruction manual are obtained by handing over government identification at the main reception.

Games can take time. Gillick has never produced a piece like this before however throughout the duration of the game certain formal aspects of the work become apparent. The height of the board results in leaning on it as you would lean on the counter at a bank or a fast-food restaurant. The slick finish of the board has an effect as such that it feels that the game is a negotiation of something that is actually at stake be it a mortgage or collecting the dole. Gillicks milieu is ever present, furthermore it is a functioning construct but by no means a metaphor.

De bord produced the game at the age of 46, a decade after the events of May 68 of which he and the SI played a pivotal role in.One can imagine De bord sitting down after all is said and done, in a similar manner to duchamp dedicating his later life to the playing of chess. It is in this that Gillick’s passing comments on Critchley seem to fit. Notably, Gillick is also the same age now that De bord was when he set up his game company.

A Game of War Structure is a refreshing installation counterpointing the over saturated and needlessly metaphorical narratives, objects, situations and events currently running around Dublin…specifically.

Tie Breaker: “Modern Art is like yoghurt – it’s good for you but tastes bad going down”

I am not in favour of metaphor, this one in particular I find immensely problematic. Who wrote this? That said, I’ll go along with it. So Imagine me saying all of the below in a highly sarcastic accent, not that I am a fan of sarcasm:Modern Art may have been like yogurt in so far that it came in so many different flavours, if it is not well refrigerated it goes off and curds, and every now again you prepare yourself for the taste of chocolate and have to deal with the criminal texture of hazelnut….yuk.

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Congratulations to Zara Doddy!

Posted by Admin at 10:15 am Uncategorized No Responses »
Jul 152011

Project Arts Centre's New Blogger July - Sep 2011

 

OUR NEW BLOGGER FOR THIS SUMMER 2011

 

The votes are in, the tally’s are counted, our new blogger for this summer is Zara Doddy! We are looking forward for this summers events as well as reading our new blogger’s reviews! Congratulations Zara!

 

Vote For Our New Blogger!

Posted by Admin at 11:22 am Uncategorized No Responses »
Jul 042011

Grainne Lynch

Grainne Lynch is 29 old theater fan who lives in Drumcondra and spends a lot of time at Project. She loves Project Brand New weekends and the festivals Project hosts, like Queer Notions and The Theatre Machine Turns You On.

Zara Doddy - Project Arts Centre's Blog Participant

Zara Doddy is 26, an art school graduate in painting and multimedia who still makes her own work. She has her own personal blog that is under a pseudonym.

Leah Yeung

Leah Yeung is 23 with a B.A in Journalism and an M.Sc in Multimedia. She is currently working in television production and would love write to improve her skills and get a little more cultured while doing it.

 

“The reason I’m entering this competition is because I’d really like to write for someone else. I want to share my love of the arts and I want an excuse to go to more events. I do not want to boost my own profile. I do not want to write one of those art blogs where 60% of the blog is photos of the author with their arms draped around a curator, 30% is a list of names of vaguely-famous opening-night attendees, 5% is a elegy to the free cheese cubes and 5% is about the art. I’m actually really shy. See photo. That said, I’d really relish the opportunity to speak to artists and performers in person, armed with whatever meagre authority the position of blogger might afford me. The opinions, interpretations and preconceptions of critics so much inform public opinion that the voice of the artist rarely gets a word in edgewise; I’d love the chance to get a sense of what today’s working artists believe in and worry about and consider to be the function of art in Irish society.”

- Zara Doddy

“I would love to keep writing to improve my skills and get a little cultured while I’m at it. I’m more tech savvy and not so artsy or creative so this is a very appealing project. I’ve a lot to bring to the table and would put all my multimedia skills to good use during the project but I’d be writing on something out of my comfort zone so I’d say it would be as challenging as it would be rewarding.”

- Leah Yeung

“Becoming the My Project blogger and knowing I have to see every show at Project would be a dream come true for me. And if I can encourage a few more people to go to the theatre through blogging about it, that’s definitely an added bonus. I like bringing friends along to the theatre, especially when it’s something they wouldn’t go to themselves and aren’t sure what to expect. They are usually surprised by how much they enjoy it.” 

-Grainne Lynch

 

Meet Eims

Posted by Admin at 4:06 pm Blog 6 Responses »
Mar 182011
Eims O Reilly

Hi my name is Eims O’Reilly. I’ve always been drawn to the arts, particularly at a local and grassroots level. Over the years I’ve have endeavoured to be actively involved in and engaged with the organisation that goes into bringing a piece of art to an audience. However it’s writing about the arts that I find most rewarding. I believe there’s room in writing and reviewing for a balance between criticism and personal response. I’d absolutely love the opportunity to blog for the Project Arts Centre – To review art, highlight the work of the people behind the scenes and make people aware of both local and international art that is right under their noses. I understand the importance of representing both venue and artists, and the delicate balance between objective criticism and personal response when writing on the arts, especially in the engagement and entertainment of readers through the medium of the blogosphere.

…And I’ve resisted the urge to make a Yoghurt/Art ‘culture’ analogy in my tiebreaker below.

 

Read Eims’ Review: AT SWIM TWO BIRDS

The very prospect of seeing a staging of a work that’s so shrouded in labels of meta-fiction,  post-post-modernism and other such academic buzz words can leave you feeling somewhat apprehensive.   For those who have yet to fully grapple Flann O’Brien’s novel At Swim-Two-Birds (myself included) it leaves you wondering; how do you approach viewing a dramatization of a book within a book… Within a book?  Moreover how does a theatre group even begin to conceive a theatrical staging of it?

Thankfully my apprehension was completely misguided.

O’Brien’s work excels in brash wit, muddied realities and dynamic rhythm.  The Blue Raincoat Theatre Company deliver all this and more – The perplexing circus of characters, a mashing of autobiography and fiction, sharp execution and jarring developments, it’s all there.  It quickly becomes clear that for all the contention that surrounds the theatrical interpretation of a novel, it is on stage that this story truly is reborn.

At Swim-Two-Birds centres on a young UCD student who harbours a questionable literary romanticism, with a less than keen interest in his studies.  His pretensions lead him to creating the character Dermot Trellis who in turn is writing a work concerning a veritable hodgepodge of familiar fictional characters.  Trellis and his creations all reside together at the Red Swan Hotel where he can keep a watchful eye on their immoral behaviour.  Confusing?  Probably, but a concise understanding soon becomes irrelevant as what follows is a sequence of lucid tales that elicit as much comical absurdity as it does disorientation.

And it’s here that Blue Raincoat’s production soar.  The audience enter into a theatrical sphere that is simultaneously pared down and extravagant.  Hurtling between paces, characters, costumes, and of course, realities; the cast create a whirling vaudeville act and the result is compelling.  Fiction is built and torn down again.  It is a work of a work in progress and it’s because of this premise that it transcribes so well on to the stage.

For all its elaborate weaving of plots and character development, the actual components of theatre are stripped bare.   The narration enters from off stage and as the plots twist and gather pace the voices swap back and forth, accosting the audience from all angles.  Indeed even the change of the scenes, locations, costumes, and the characters themselves, diverge into a flurry of both on and off stage transitions, punctuated by booming music that guides a sporadic and dramatic rhythm.  Both the direction and production capture the very essence of a work in progress that underscores the brilliance of O’Brien’s writing.

Perhaps what makes the work so entertaining is the fact that it relies heavily on the nature of storytelling.  Our own particular brand of story that is so embedded in our Irish culture is constantly highlighted; both drawing from its history and playfully parodying it, and yet consistently employing the art of the storyteller to highly entertaining effect.  The core of this play rests firmly in the ferocious energy with which each cast member races between characters, summoning wild caricatures in the blink of an eye and seamlessly threading them into the drama.

To experience At Swim-Two-Birds is thrilling.  It’s also exhausting, but like the framework for the intricacies within the novel, the play succeeds in coming full circle.  It ties together the beginnings and endings astonishingly neatly within the confines of a staged play.  Tonight I’d witnessed an ensemble of stout swilling characters, Irish legends, pookas, fairies and cowboys from Ringsend.  It glorious and debauched yet clever and always respectful of its literary beginnings.  I felt like I had just been to a carnival; Blue Raincoat channelled the vivacity of O’Brien’s characters, pushing the boundaries of the theatre experience.  And that is no mean feat.

 

Eims’ tiebreaker: “Modern Art is like yoghurt – it’s good for you but tastes bad going down”

Modern art is like Natural yoghurt – We’re all well versed in its nutritional value but it doesn’t exactly whet the appetite. Without some new found health craze would we even acquire a taste for it? Without a purported artistic inclination or education would we truly appreciate modern art? …Except yoghurt isn’t a new fad, it’s been around for centuries, millennia even. It’s the basis of numerous dishes, and countless delicious varieties. Rolo yoghurt anyone?
Modern Art is merely a platform for artistic and emotive possibilities, we all have a taste for it, we sometimes let a little pontificating put us off but whether or not we’re aware of it, we all experience it.

 

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