Cork Festival 2007

hazbot

[ is there a thread on this already? can't see one ]

Took a good look yesterday at the list of events around the city - wow. Great to see all this cool stuff happening right here.

I'm really looking forward to Woyzeck in Haulbowline, it should be fantastic. I saw Merchant of Venice two years ago and it was amazing. Apart from the play itself, it's great fun to visit places you normally don't get to see

So Woyzeck was an easy choice, almost at random I picked a bunch of other stuff to check out.

Guests of the Nation, because it's famous but I've never seen it
Sarah McQuaid, coz I never heard of her and sounds interesting
Cleansing of Constance Brown - no idea, sounds a bit freaky, which is good

Also wanna see Eyes Of The Docks, should be a nice bit of history.


Anyone else going to any of the festival shows?

Judes

Oh yeah - I love the Midsummer Festival.

Seeing Guest of Nation on Wednesday, then Bath of Baghdad following week -both at Everyman. Also going to Docklands event next week the Circus at the Spiegeltent on Thurs and Corcadorca event on the Sat. Unfortunately, I'm away this weekend in Dublin so missing some of the events. But will catch up on a few more next week.

And there's the Marquee concerts. Maybe one day Cork Midsummer Festival will be as popular as the Edinburgh Fringe!

Enjoy the shows.

Blitzkrieger

I'm going to skip bathing for a week and go to 'Held'........

hazbot

Judes wrote:

Seeing Guest of Nation on Wednesday, then Bath of Baghdad following week

Nice, I am curious how the subtitles are going to work

Judes wrote:

Enjoy the shows.

You too

Cheers
Ferg

Judes

Went to see "Guest of the Nation" last night at the Everyman Palace - 45 minutes, one man show - Denis Conway is absolutely brilliant - very moving. It's on twice a night 18.30 and 20.00 - and ends Saturday. I highly recommend it. Check out the website below and enjoy! J

http://www.everymanpalace.com/pages/posts/guest-of-the-nation91.php

Judes

Saw "Bath of Baghdad" last night, the Everyman Palace - very stirring - 1 hour 20 mins, no interval. Unusual production - and worth seeing. But you won't leave giggling! Ends this Saturday. Check out website below:-

http://www.everymanpalace.com/pages/whats-on.php

hazbot

I went to see Guests of the Nation last Friday, and have to agree it was terrific. I remember reading the short story in school years ago and could sort of remember what it was about but seeing it on stage really brought it to life. Very atmospheric presentation considering it was basically one man and a few chairs!

Also went to see Sarah McQuaid last week. She sang solo with a guitar (sometimes without any accompaniment) and covered a range of Irish Trad and American Folk type songs, with even a Bob Dylan song in there somewhere. Terrific voice, and the nicest person you could ever meet. It's a shame there was such a small audience there, barely more than a dozen.

While at the Triskel that night I heard that Christ Church next door (the old church next to Bishop Lucey Park) is going to be renovated as a concert venue! That will be amazing I'd say.

Last night then was the Cleansing of Constance Brown in the Granary (or at least, a room in the UCC buildings next to the Granary). I got to admit, I didn't really know what was going on most of the time It was performed without any dialogue, just a lot of actors moving about in a long corridor with doors on each side. The cast portrayed scenes from various eras, including a hilarious office party that looked like it was set in a stock brokers firm in the 80s If anyone else has seen it and figured out how all the scenes hung together, I'd love to know...

Oh and while waiting in the lobby of the Granary, there were some very weird noises coming from the performance of Meat that was going on inside...

Judes

I read a review of Constance Brown and it more or less said the same thing, sounds like a lot of people left confused.

I booked tickets for the Tusk Pain Free Circus at Spiegeltent for what I "thought" was Thurs but turned out my tickets were for Fri - so felt a bit, well totally STUPID!!! Anyway, having tried to plead my case with some members of the staff and being told to come back at 21.00 - but still wasn't sure if they could do anything for me, I decided it wasn't worth all the hassle of queueing and begging to get in. So I missed the show and can't see it tonight as I'm at another event. Oh well, easy come, easy go.

Mind you, I did check out a website of this troupe yesterday and the show looked very unpleasant, i.e. a man eating a plate of worms - whereas when I originally read the programme it sounded exciting and a bit different to what this clip showed.

Did anyone go see it - what was it really like???

jArgHA

Going to see Fire Tusk Circus this evening @ 7pm followed by Constance Brown. @ 9pm. After reading that about yer man eating a plate of worms I better go on an empty stomach!

Judes

So how good/bad/ugly was the circus???

Finally saw Wozyeck on Saturday night - brilliant production - it rained most of the evening, but that didn't dampen our spirits. What a performance.

Ah well, back to normal this week, mind you The Kinsale Arts Festival begins this weekend and "The Art of Swimming" is being shown there, it got great reviews for Midsummer!

pro_gnostic_8

hazbot wrote:

Also went to see Sarah McQuaid last week..... the nicest person you could ever meet. It's a shame there was such a small audience there, barely more than a dozen.

Indeed she is, Hazbot. I was talking to her for a longish time when she came in to do soundchecks etc., and she was the most open, warm-spirited artiste I have ever come across. I really do mean that. Some of these musicians/artists are so far up their own ar$e you can't see 'em. But not her, genuinely friendly and conversational.
(I was the guy selling the tickets at the desk on the night -- probably sold you your one! )

hazbot

Judes wrote:

Finally saw Wozyeck on Saturday night - brilliant production - it rained most of the evening, but that didn't dampen our spirits. What a performance.

That's funny, I was there Saturday too. Shame about the weather but I suppose that's the chance you take.

I'm afraid I didn't enjoy the play as much as Merchant of Venice... the staging and production was terrific of course but I think the play itself was just a bit too depressing It's a sad story and I suppose the surroundings and wet weather didn't help in that regard.

Oh well, roll on next year, can't wait to see what they come up with.

[ I did like their references to "the lights of the town" in two of the scenes down by the water ]

hazbot

pro_gnostic_8 wrote:

But not her, genuinely friendly and conversational.
(I was the guy selling the tickets at the desk on the night -- probably sold you your one! )

I believe you did, I was the one who left with the autographed CD :cool:

And no I didn't sell it on eBay yet!

Fergus

jArgHA

the Fire Tusk circus was a bit meh, some of it was quite entertaining but there was a good bit of filler also (performers dressed up as an elephant and a squirrel running around in circles). In fairness tho the main performers looked absolutely excellent and were pretty good at what they did.

the Cleansing of Constance Brown blew me away, I thought it was an excellent producation and was performed brilliantly. The music was a bit deafening at some points but it was pretty powerful in building up the scenes. Not sure I understood all of the sequences but most of them were pretty clear and the transitions from one scene to the next were very smooth - sometimes too seamless (I found myself still chuckling away after the office party sequence and then realised I was watching an Abu Ghraib sequence)

EDIT: there was no worm eating in the circus, booooooo!

Judes

Ah well, my stomach could have handled the circus then - disappointed I missed it!

Yes, Wozycheck was depressing vs. some of there more recent productions -but it was so well done. Yes, I too liked the bit about the town in the background (I live in Cobh, so my house was one of those twinkling lights, felt like part of the set!!!). But when he killed her in the end, it was devastating (a real Bill Sykes/Nancy moment).

Going to London at the end of July and will probably go to The Globe - for a bit of Shakespeare, standing - but in one spot vs. the Corcadorca wandering.

And as much as I've thoroughly enjoyed every Corcadorca production I've gone to in the past few years, I'd like a night where I didn't have to wander or worry about the weather. I love the unusual locations but sometimes I want to sit down and be entertained! (So, sometimes I'm lazy). I'd like Corcadorca to put on more productions, I saw "Bruen's Twist" a few years back and thought it was excellent. (Last time I had my bum on a seat at one of their productions).