Archives for February 2011

The Lyric Theatre has just announced that it's first ever Playwright-in-residence is David Ireland. He's due to start the year long post in May when the new building opens.

It's a really exciting appointment. I'm a big fan of David's work, especially. "Arguments for Terrorism" and "Everything Between Us". He's also a really strong, local voice that mixes contemporary subjects with wit and more than a hint of sinister subtext.

It's a real shot in the arm for the Lyric's Artistic Director Richard Croxford. The Lyric is a producing theatre, but there have been rumblings in the past as to why the London and Dublin stages see premiers of plays by Northern Irish writers first.

There will be a lot of interest in David's tenure and a new era of confidence in staging new writing from here. 

It's funny what makes you laugh and what makes you cry. I saw "Tangled" recently and sobbed towards the end. It was the moment the handsome young cartoon man sacrificed his life for the impossibly pretty Princess Rapunzel. Of course, the happy ending was just a few frames away, and he would live, but I don't know what happened to me but I wept. Not a wee wipe away trickle of a tear but a "where is that tissue, blow my nose loudly" kind of cry. The 6 year olds I was chaperoning laughed at me!

Yesterday I cried again. This time with laughter. I was sitting at my desk watching a preview dvd of "Mrs Brown's Boys", the age old stage comedy by Dublin comedian Brendan O'Carroll, which got its BBC network premier last night. I know the jokes are so old there are hairs on them as my dad used to say about jokes but it made me laugh. Out loud, in an open plan office, to the bemusement of colleagues. One watched it last night and said she didn't get what I thought was funny. I hate when people do that . You begin to doubt whether you know what's actually funny. Then I read the reviews, mixed to say the least. One Facebooker said to me that it "belongs in the 'Fifties on the stage of the old Gaiety Theatre or some-such. Dreadful." For me it was pure panto, pratfalls, man in a dress, and except for the liberal use of the F word, it could have been Christmas in a church hall in rural Ireland. I'm not sure it's going to be BBC's answer to "Fr. Ted" though.

Brendan O'Carroll isn't Dermot Morgan. But what I liked was the knowing look in O'Carroll's eye. As though he was saying, I know you think this is just Oirish, paddy whackery stuff , feck it, but I'm the one with the big tv gig. And I'm the one laughing all the way to the bank.

I hosted an Arts Extra Cuts Special last week. 24 minutes of passionate debate, which didn't stop after we went off air. Another 30 minutes in the studio of what 23% public spending cuts to the arts budget is going to mean to artists working here. Their plans, ambitions, staff, productions. A slow erosion of output over 4 years. A proposed £4.2 million reduction.

Before we went on air, I used the Arts Extra Facebook page to ask what value we put on arts and culture here? Alan McKee a Belfast based writer and performer posted this on our page :-"We have to rid ourselves of the idea that arts funding is some sort of begging bowl. Every pound invested in the arts generates three pounds in the wider economy. Only in Northern Ireland do we have to continually rehearse this argument, this is accepted in the rest of Europe".

Consultation on the NI executive's draft budget for 2011-2015 closes tomorrow, the 9th February. Then there is a week to respond. The Arts Council of Northern Ireland is spearheading a high profile "Fair Deal for the Arts" campaign :- by letter, petition and Facebook. 

They say a week is a long time in politics as we wait for the NI Executive's decisions on the 16th February. A week is also a long time for the people who work in the creative industries here to find out what their future holds. As we head into the Cultural Olympiad 2012 and the UK City of Culture in Derry in 2013, some might say how can reputations be maintained in the face of the most swingeing cuts in a generation?

So I got a real sense, earlier today, of how powerful music can be! I'm in the front row of an empty Ulster Hall. In front of me a big screen. On it a still of the creepy looking vampire from the 1922 horror movie Nosferatu. And behind the screen, various organ sounds coming from the Mulholland Grand Organ. Some are soft and menacing, shivers down your spine sounds; others are, "stops pulled out" kind of stifle your screams, nervous giggle, grab the person beside you! Not that I did, as the person beside me was a complete stranger. Martin Baker, the Master of Music at Westminster Cathedral. He was calling out various instructions to the person behind the screen, who, it turned out, was Belfast City Organist Colm Carey. 

Tomorrow night, Martin will be behind that screen for a special screening of Murnau’s classic 1922 Vampire movie - considered by many the first and greatest adaptation of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, even if Stoker's estate wasn't best pleased!

Anyhow, while the film is played, Martin will be playing a live, improvised score. And he's still not sure what notes he'll be playing. This is a man who takes his improv very seriously. It's a respite from his day job. Reading Martin's biog, he's a pretty significant figure in English Roman Catholic liturgical music. He's commissioned and directed the Cathedral choir in the premieres of a number of new choral masses, including works by composers such as James MacMillan, Peter Maxwell Davies, Judith Bingham and John Tavener. And he's hung out, so to speak, with the current Pope in the Sistine Chapel.

As he calls out to Colm, behind the screen, with various organists' technical inspeak, Martin seems to know what he's looking for. He's played the Mulholland before. Back in the 90's but this will be his first time since then and since it was refurbished. At one point, in response to a particularly "let it rip" sound from Colm, he says "that sounds exactly like Notre Dame". But now Charles Laughton's Hunchback of Notre Dame and Max Schrek's Nosferatu are sharing space in my head. For someone who couldn't watch Dr. Who in the 70's, this is very scary stuff indeed.

Before I interview most people in studio, the radio engineer will always ask for a "bit of level". That's industry speak for "stop talking and get the guest to talk so I can adjust the volume".

So I always ask people what they had for breakfast. It's a great icebreaker, and quite revealing. It varies from nothing to a full fry. A memorable one once was 2 weetabix and 2 cigarettes. 

Today Cahir from Derry band "Fighting with Wire" had wholegrain cereal with banana, very rock n roll! Cellist Julian Lloyd Webber had Special K ; Derek Keilty whose book "Will Gallows & the Snake Bellied Troll" has been chosen for the Richard & Judy's Children's Book Club puts uncooked porridge oats into a bowl, then cornflakes on top; and Mike Ward, tv critic with the Daily Star makes his own muesli! What happened to the days of whiskey chasers and cold baked beans eaten out of the saucepan? Or the story of one very famous Northern Ireland pop star who said he had porridge and red wine once for his breakfast in a Dublin hotel?

So what did you have for breakfast? It's only for level!