Event of the week
The Weir
From Friday, August 8th until Saturday, September 6th, 3Olympia, Dublin, 7.30pm, €70.60/ €60.60/ €26.50, ticketmaster.ie
Conor McPherson’s play premiered in London’s Royal Court Theatre in July 1997, with its most recent Irish production two and a half years ago at the Abbey. A rather swift return, one might think, but not when the likes of Brendan Gleeson, Tom Vaughan-Lawlor, Kate Phillips and Seán McGinley (who was in the 2008 Gate Theatre production) are involved.
Relative newcomer Owen McDonnell (recently seen in Bad Sisters) completes the ensemble cast in a tale of compelling, often unnerving memories of loss imparted in an isolated rural bar somewhere in Co Leitrim.
Following its Dublin run, the play will transfer to London’s Harold Pinter Theatre from Friday, September 12th until Saturday, December 6th. McPherson, meanwhile, directs his play for the first time.
Gigs
Pierce Turner – Ó Riada
Tuesday, August 5th, Wexford Arts Centre, 8pm, €30, wexfordartscentre.ie
Wexford musical adventurer Pierce Turner rarely misses a trick when it comes to reframing his work. Presented as part of Wexford Fleadh 2025, Ó Riada will feature songs from his back catalogue that have been inspired not just by Irish baroque composer/ arranger Seán Ó Riada but also by Sligo harpist Turlough O’Carolan. Turner is joined on stage by cellist/vocalist Aongus MacAmhlaigh, uileann piper Ned Wall, and a local choir.
RM Block
We’ve Only Just Begun
From Thursday, August 7th until Saturday, August 9th, Whelan’s, Dublin, 7.30pm, €15/ €7, weveonlyjustbegun.ie
The 2025 edition of this three-night music festival sees over 30 performances (bands, solo acts, DJs) across two stages. The almost exclusively Irish female line-up is a poke in the ribs to festival programmers who, consciously or not, avoid gender balance.
Anyone with an ear for contemporary Irish music will know there is a wealth of emerging female talent, a fact that this festival makes blindingly obvious. Highlights are plentiful (no hair jokes, thank you), but must-sees include Florence Road, Negro Impacto, Hotgirl, Winemom, Sarah Crean, Annika Kilkenny, I Dreamed a Dream, ShmoneyDoll, Hannahbella, Becky McNeice, and For Nina.
Howth Roots and Blues Festival
From Friday, August 8th until Sunday, August 10th, Howth, Co Dublin, various venues/times/prices, howthrootsandblues.com
As if to further prove a point about gender balance in music festival programming, Paul Byrne, the organiser of this annual coastal, scenic shebang, has (apparently effortlessly) scheduled Muireann Bradley, Susan O’Neill, Mary Stokes, Bree Harris, Grainne Duffy, Susan Tomelty, Winter Wilson, Jam Tarts, Eeffaa, and several other women to perform over the weekend.
The bluesy/rootsy blokes are here, too, of course (including Mundy, Brush Shiels, Rob Strong, Mik Pyro, Boye Papagee, Ben Prevo, Dermot Byrne, and more), but it’s reassuring to see that there’s a will to be fair, there’s a way.
Arts Festival
Kilkenny Arts Festival
From Thursday, August 7th until Sunday, August 17th, various venues/times/prices, kilkennyarts.ie
Ten days of superb, different venues (from churches and courtyards to town houses and, yes, a castle), singular artistic collaborations, and a rare kind of audience-artist connection – what’s not to love about the Kilkenny Arts Festival?
Events to circle in red include The More Beautiful World, a specially commissioned alliance between composer/ multi-instrumentalist Sam Perkin, actor Ciarán Hinds, mezzo-soprano Sharon Carty, and US activist Charles Eisenstein (St Canice’s Cathedral, Sunday, August 10th, 8.30pm, €30/ €28), Martin Hayes & Friends (St Canice’s Cathedral, Saturday, August 16th, 8.30pm, €37/ €35), and This-Topia, a “part theatre, part rave, part group therapy” performance by choreographer/performer Jessie Thompson, visual designer Ross Ryder, and Irish band Meltybrains? (Watergate Theatre, Sunday, August 17th, 7pm, €25/ €22).
Visual Art
Art + Soul
Until Sunday, August 31st, Culloden Estate and Spa, Belfast, adm free, cullodenestateandspa.com
One of Northern Ireland’s leading cultural events, Art + Soul presents a remarkable opportunity to view works by the likes of notable international artists such as Tracey Emin, Banksy, Damien Hirst, Salvador Dalí, Bridget Riley, Andy Warhol, Picasso, and Joan Miró, and many Irish artists (including Patrick O’Reilly, Gordon Harris, and Anna McKeever).
There are also over 100 sculptures on display throughout the 12-acre grounds of Culloden Estate. Included in the exhibition period are artists’ talks and daily guided tours (12pm/ 2pm/ 4pm). Art+Soul is presented in partnership with Gormleys Art Gallery, Belfast and Dublin.
Stage
FrielDays: A Homecoming 2025-2029
Until Sunday, August 31st, various counties, artsoverborders.com
Presenting five Brian Friel plays in five weeks is an ambitious undertaking, but 29 of his plays over the next five years is surely beyond that (2029 is the centenary of the playwright’s birth in Omagh, Co Tyrone). The official opening for FrielDays features a performed reading of Dancing at Lughnasa, St. Columba’s School, Glenties, Co Donegal (until Sunday, August 17th).
Film
Boyne Valley International Film Festival
From Friday, August 8th until Sunday, August 10th, Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda, Co Louth, various times/prices, droichead.com
Four years in, and the Boyne Valley International Film Festival (BVIFF) is striding purposefully ahead with a programme that incorporates documentary, animation, shorts, and features. Films include Niall Duffy’s Galar, a true-life feature about Donegal’s Mica crisis, Aisling Byrne’s Oscar-longlisted and IFTA-nominated short Turnaround, and Sonya O’Donoghue’s Where the Old Man Lives, featuring writer Michael Harding in his debut acting role.
The Gala Screening is Four Mothers, co-written by Drogheda brothers Colin and Darren Thornton, and directed by the latter.
Still Running
The Little Shop of Horrors
Until Saturday, August 9th, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin, 7.30pm, €63.49/ €52.30/ €41.05/ €35.45, ticketmaster.ie
Loosely based on the 1960 cult comedy film of the same name, this musical, an all-Irish production, features songs composed by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman (Aladdin, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid) and lead performances by Irish actors David O’Reilly and Jacqueline Brunton. TheatreworX’s Claire Tighe directs, co-produces and choreographs.
Book it this week
- Séamus and Caoimhe Uí Fhlatharta, Siamsa Tíre, Tralee, Co Kerry, September 21st, musicnetwork.ie
- Benson Boone, 3Arena, Dublin, October 24th, ticketmaster.ie
- King Princess, Vicar Street, Dublin, December 3rd, ticketmaster.ie
- Kean Kavanagh, Button Factory, Dublin, December 17th, buttonfactory.ie
