Totally Dublin

The last show at the Project Arts Centre, Bogboy, was the follow up production by Tall Tales Theatre Company to last year’s Moment, not to be missed on its upcoming national tour. Written by its artistic director Deirdre Kinahan it was effectively about the disappeared, a group of people who went missing from Belfast and Northern Ireland in the early 1970s who were suspected of informing on the IRA.

But it also looked at the people who had disappeared through the cracks in our society; Brigit, a junkie on rehabilitation, desperate to get back on the straight and narrow to regain custody of her little girl and; Hughie, a confirmed, quirky bachelor whose dark past had frozen him in time. They clung to and collided with one another, desperate to keep their pasts submerged, yet your sins are only as bad as your secrets and they all came spilling out when the Gardai went digging in the bog near Hughie’s home.

The whole piece was presented on a bare stage, divided by two muslin panels with no props and very little movement, relying on the clarity of the actors’ diction and belief in what they were saying and seeing to make the piece come alive, with director Jo Mangan having the characters stare out into the audience rather than at one another. There was a somewhat overbearing soundtrack and a jarring use of visuals for the show’s climax but elsewhere the script was utterly bewitching, creating very real characters and very real scenarios, connecting A to B, without drowning us in detail.

Mary Murray as Brigit was terrific, a selfish if bubbly individual prone to flying to extremes when confronted with other people’s problems. She had enough of her own, and while we couldn’t help but warm to her we were never allowed forget that she was all about herself, not averse to using Hughie but wholly unwilling to take heed of him. Steve Blount as Hughie was perfectly insular, not so much as to disappear beneath his mumbled dialogue but not so little as to be overly affected, he created a character by appearing to do not very much at all but anchored the piece with a naturally, bumbling performance that was verily touching in its simplicity. We were all laughing at him until we were mourning for him.

Support from Emmet Kirwan, as the cartoonish scobe Darren, an underdeveloped sulk embittered by the responsibility thrust upon him, and Damien Devaney as Brigit’s social worker, was strong but this was really a three-hander between Brigit, Hughie and the looming presence of the body in the bog, what they had to say for themselves and how it reflected on the Now and on the Then.

Read the new issue? You might have noticed the above bulletin. Taking us up on the challenge? Your deadline is Monday April the 19th. Send all entries, or any question to us by then at editor at totallydublin dot ie and there might be several thousand copies of your creative rapidness all over Dublin next month. Entries can use any medium imaginable, so long as we can print it on our floppy paper. The design can be as simple or abstract as you like.

Grab our template right here.

You’re A Spar

Our launch party this edition was graced by the Rubberbandits, Wounds, a former Minister for Defence, one seriously impressive beard, and two Gardaí. And quite a lot of Dubliners. Special thanks to everybody who transcended the lack of free alcohol, to the vocal cords that sang along with the curse-y choruses (we’re not sure if Wounds’ ‘ALL OUR FRIENDS/DEAD DEAD FUCKING DEAD’ or Rubberbandits’ ‘Fuck yer Honda Civic, I’ve a horse outside’ was more popular) , and the young one who smudged her tits up against the smoking area window during the Rubberbandits (sadly, the eagle eyes of Sharp Shock missed, or chose to omit the Bandits’ “biggest fans”). Shout out, as ever, to Orlando and to Simon, and a gratitude to Wounds for tidying up after themselves, and the Rubberbandits for bringing their own bags.

More shots after the jump.

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Well, we’ve kept this under our Adidas hoods long enough - issue 67’s already on the streets and in the Tescos, but we’re launching it in louder fashion this Friday, with special help from Willie O’Dea’s favourite glue-fiends, the Rubberbandits, and the potentially-also-out-of-their-bin Wounds. We’ll have at least a million hundred thousand free drinks, our friendly neighbourhood DJ Orlando, and some special former-minister-for-defence-related sideshows on the night.

What?

We take a month off any you’ve already forgotten?

It’s completely free!

The Rubberbandits [http://www.myspace.com/rubberbanditspranks]
The mysterious plastic-bag clad Rubberbandits, or Blindboy Boat Club and Mr Chrome as are their individual aliases, pride themselves on being the ‘grand pricks of prank phone calls’. Having managed to bridge the divide between rap music and comedy their songs ‘Bag of Glue’ and ‘Too Many Gee’ have inspired a cult following that ensures sell-out appearances nationwide.

More at: http://www.totallydublin.ie/comedy-preview-rubberbandits—a-tesco-bag-clad-interview-231.html

Wounds [www.myspace.com/thewoundsband]

‘We’ll play in the seventh circle of hell, the violent one, you drag some of those screaming girls your talking about and we’ll sacrifice them or something ghoulish like that.’

Despite our lunchtime-talk half-plans, there’s no such institution as the Totally Dublin Awards yet. If there was, the first thing we’d do is invite Kanye. After that, we’d ask Wounds to play at the ceremony - they would be, after all, collecting our inaugural ‘Best Live Act’, ‘Dirtiest Riff’, and ’Most Likely To Be Signed To Vice Records’ awards.

More at: http://totallydublin.ie/blog/?p=447

ARE YOU A VIDEO ARTIST? We’ve got the running of a shiny super-sweet projector screen at Odessa Club going to waste on ‘Metropolis’ on constant loop - if you fancy flaunting your visual wares drop us a comment or email.

On his research trail for the upcoming Ricardo Villalobos gig in the Academy, our very own beardyman intern Paddy noticed a strange trend in Google Image Search’s results for the Chile’s best ambassador and one of techno’s biggest (longest) names - he’s more mangled in any of his shots than his audience. Here we salute Ricardo’s sweatiest moments.

Ledgebag.

Special thanks to everybody who stayed upon the news of no free whiskey, to Orlando’s Ennio and Lil Dave’s electro, to the able-bodied last-minute laptop of Stephen Foy, to the bewitching Children Under Hoof and their enlistment of Norman McLaren’s ballet dancers, to Colm Meaney for sticking his grizzled head in for ten minutes (even if he did think it was the jax), and to flashmaster Peter Fingleton for these:

Tonight, Odessa Club, 8pm.

Children Under Hoof live soundtrack films.

Orlando and Lil Dave spin cinema remixes.

Sparky the swearing parrot calls everybody a ballbag.

And you.

We said at least four fawning things about Untold and one about Jazzsteppa right here, so to recap in three easy-to-remember words: they’re fugging awesome. And they’re both visiting Kennedy’s Underground next Saturday, the 30th of January, for a tidy price of €12. You know, in case you don’t win our guestlist passes for the night.

All we want from you is a little email to editor at totallydublin dot ie with your full name and the answer to the following question, the answer to which certainly won’t be found in any hotlinks in this blog post: What is Mr. Untold’s real name. 

Competition closes Thursday the 28th, check back for the lucky winner and his lucky mate. Lucky.

Except now it’s a Sega Megadrive, so someone please bring Ecco the Dolphin. See yiz tonight!