The Community Games

Oh no – it’s the C word.
Flick open the brochure for this year’s Festival at Queen’s and there it is, that familiar, dreadful term – fouling up the joint as it gracelessly shoulders its way into the centre of proceedings and makes itself at home.
The theme, we are told, for this year’s programme is ‘Families and (wait for it) Communities’, and who now amongst us doesn’t want to run for the hills?
Of course, it’s an open secret that one needs only to type the word co..co..com (sorry, I can’t), to reap an avalanche of arts funding up here. But, really, you’d think even the concept itself would tire of all the publicity and attention it gets.
After all, it has more parties thrown in its honour than Posh Spice.
Thankfully, a cursory glance through this year’s line-up suggests that the usual publicly-funded take on the subject (i.e – there are two communities up North and they’re both great), has been rejected for something a bit more subtle.
The drama section is clearly the strongest and most intriguing of this year’s festival.
Daragh Carville will premier his new play, Family Plot. Richard Dormer, meanwhile, shows yet again that he’s undaunted by huge, chaotic personalities in his one-man show, The Half. The Belfast actor, who made his name playing Alex Higgins in the brilliant Hurricane, has recently returned from a triumphant West End stint as Lucky in Waiting For Godot (verbal incontinence, eruptions of violence, big hats – am I the only one who sees a connection between the two parts?), and is ready to reveal his latest project – a show (Weds 19 – Sun 23) about an actor slowly unravelling at the prospect of playing ‘The Dane’.
It should be an intriguing prospect, especially when you consider that the Lyric are pulling out all the stops for a full production of Hamlet itself (Wed 26 – Sat 19 Nov).
Patrick O’Kane, an actor who has effortlessly transcended the obligatory Belfast tough guy roles that took up much of the early part of his career, tackles the role of Horatio’s best mate. Expect a rugged and broodingly violent interpretation.
Musically, there’s a nice variation of acts on offer. On October 22, Michael Nyman is due to perform against the backdrop of Jean Vigo’s A Propos de Nice, while Marianne Faithfull will play with the Ulster Orchestra on the previous night.
I used to spend my Sunday mornings in Clonard Monastery, wondering how the Springfield Road had managed to pilfer a church from the Vatican City without anyone noticing. Haven’t been back in a while, and I have missed its grandeur and stately acoustics. So, although I’ll gladly admit to knowing nothing about composer Alan Hovhaness, or his Magnificat and Symphony No. 50, I’ll be there on October 28 to see how the old joint is looking (and sounding) these days.
Equally deserving of worship is ex-Auteur Luke Haines, who will be making a very welcome appearance at The Empire on the 24. Jimmy Webb (Elmwood 28 ), Grandmaster Flash (Mandela, 26), Mylo (Spring and Airbrake, 31 ), Duke Special (Empire, 26 & 27 and Polar Bear (Spring and Airbrake, 30) will also be worth popping along to see.
Michael Longley, Dermot Bolger, Sebastian Barry and Nick Laird are amongst the writers taking part, while the comedy section is filled out by the likes of Stewart Lee, Rich Hall and the usual Amnesty International ‘Stand Up For Justice’ show.
Queen's Film Theatre, as ever, rises to the challenge brilliantly, taking the ‘Families and Communities’ theme as an opportunity to show some of the most brilliant cinematic eviscerations of both concepts. So, we get Douglas Sirk’s Imitation Of Life,, dovetailed with Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing (21). There’s a dusting-off of Powell and Pressburger’s one-off techno-colour pot-boiler, Black Narcissus (Tues 25 – Thurs 27) – the greatest (over the counter) film ever about sexual hysteria in a Himalayan nunnery, while the always welcome Joseph Cotton provides a typically stabilising presence through Orson Welles’ famously butchered (but still visually opulent) The Magnificent Ambersons (30).
If you are feeling evil, you can buy your mum and dad tickets for Ozu’s heart-rending Tokyo Story (Nov 1), and if you want to be freaked-out yourself, then the timeless, dread-fest that is Onibaba makes an appearance on Halloween night. Moral – stay away from girls who live with their mother-in-law.
And if you like all that – why don’t we form our own community?