49 and counting
The Dublin Theatre Festival is fast approaching its 50th anniversary, but the organisers haven’t let anticipation of next year distract them from the task in hand. There’s a rake of quality shows to check out over the coming weeks, from Ibsen to Leonard Cohen.
Joe Jackson, 31 Aug 2006
Although this is the 49th Dublin Theatre Festival, and there was much talk at the launch about next year’s 50th anniversary celebrations, that should not detract from the fact that artistic director Don Shipley and his colleagues have put together a killer line-up for this year’s event.
For many music fans a definite highlight will be the inclusion of the The Point as a venue for the first time, staging Came So Far For Beauty: An Evening of Leonard Cohen Songs. Originally commissioned in 2003 by the Celebrate Brooklyn Performing Arts Festival (what the hell is Lenny’s link to Brooklyn?), this production includes the likes of Laurie Anderson, Nick Cave, Jarvis Cocker, Gavin Friday, Lou Reed and Beth Orton performing songs by one of rock’s most lyrical and (let’s face it) theatrical songwriters.
Why do you think the guy wrote on his bathroom wall in the 1963 documentary Caveat Emptor? He later explained it as ‘buyer beware’ and is a man who is fully aware of the poses a songwriter must sell – even in search of truth and beauty. A must see show.
Besides, Cohen needs the money – he was, after all, ripped off to the disharmonious tune of five million dollars by his former manager and lover. Ouch!
The Abbey, meanwhile, is presenting another epic production, Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler as directed by Thomas Ostermeir. Now more than a century old, Hedda Gabler is described as ‘a provocative indictment of the bourgeoisie ... that still retains its capacity to shock.’ Specifically vis-à-vis its central character, a spoiled, self-absorbed, social-climbing woman who within the space of one day destroys everyone around her, including herself. Sounds like a Cohen song.
Also at the Abbey will be Druid’s latest production Empress of India, directed by Garry Hynes and written by Stuart Carolon.
This tells the fascinating tale of a celebrated Irish actor who ‘watched his wife die and, abandoned to grief, took no further part in the lives of their children.’ In this play the actor is called Seamus Lamb but no doubt part of the fun will be trying to identify who, if anyone, the part is based upon.
Joe Jackson
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