Your comedy fortnight

Irish comedy writer, director and ex-Hot Presser Graham Linehan brings his adaptation of classic Ealing comedy The Ladykillers to the Grand Opera House in Belfast this fortnight. Linehan, who’s best-known for penning the excellent Father Ted and later, The IT Crowd, has reimagined the 1955 comedy – which starred Alec Guiness and Peter Seller – for the stage.

The Ladykillers tells the story of an eccentric old lady who lives with her parrot in a lopsided house in King’s Cross. Her life is turned upside-down with the arrival of a group of criminals who decide to use her as cover in their plan to hijack a security van.
Speaking about his adaptation last year, Linehan commented, “The classic 1955 film has a dreamlike, flowing quality, but with a robust logic that provided a safety net as I adapted it for the theatre. Anything was permissible, it seemed to me, so long as there was an innocent little old lady, a corrupt gang, their visionary leader, and five deaths.” Catch the play in Belfast on February 19, 20, 21, 22 and 23.
An old friend of Linehan’s from those heady Father Ted days, Brendan Grace, aka the jungle-loving Fr. Fintan Stack, heads out around the country this issue too. See the Dubliner in Ballina Arts Centre, Mayo (21); Regency Hotel, Dublin (22); Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray (23 & 24); Civic Theatre, Dublin (26) and Waterfront Hall, Belfast (28).
The Dublin regional heat of the Chortle Student Comedy Awards 2013 takes place this fortnight too. The 'search for the funniest students' - now in its 10th year – visits the Comedy Cellar, Dublin on February 20. Running in association with ALCATEL onetouch, there’s a cool €2,000 for the winner who’ll be following in the footsteps of previous victors like Simon Bird, Tom Rosenthal, Tom Deacon, Iain Stirling, Lloyd Langford and Kwame Asante. See chortle.co.uk/student for more.
Also enjoying something of a jet-set lifestyle – well, as jet-setty as racing up and down Ireland in a van can get – is Navan man Tommy Tiernan. He brings Stray Sod to Ulster Hall (14 & 15) and Slieve Donard Hotel, Down (16), before heading south for three shows in the People’s Republic (Cork Opera House; 21, 22 & 23), then back north for two Derry performances in the Millenium Forum (27 & 28).