Event of the week
Mary Poppins
From Wednesday, December 11th, until Saturday, January 11th, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin, 7.30pm, €75/€60, ticketmaster.ie
The world’s favourite fictional nanny arrives at a house on Cherry Tree Lane in London and transforms the lives of the Banks family through a blend of brusque common sense and extraordinary magic. Based on the books by PL Travers (but more so on Walt Disney’s 1964 film), Cameron Mackintosh’s West End production of the award-winning musical features the Australian actors Stephanie Jones and Jack Chambers as the titular nanny and her chimney-sweep chum, Bert. The family-friendly show features recognisable songs (Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious, Feed the Birds, Step in Time and Jolly Holiday), fleet-of-foot dancing and smartly executed trickery.
Gigs
The Magic Numbers
Saturday, December 7th, Button Factory, Dublin, 7.30pm, €25, ticketmaster.ie
Forget about Oasis and the Gallagher brothers. What about two brother-and-sister pairs? Romeo and Michele Stodart and Sean and Angela Gannon first met as neighbours in London in the late 1990s. By 2005 they had released their self-titled debut album, which celebrates its 20th anniversary next year. Sneaking in an early birthday show of their robust, harmony-driven pop-rock as a pre-Christmas present to their Irish fans (all of their first three albums dented the charts here), the band will perform songs from across their back catalogue.
Julia Holter
Tuesday, December 10th, Button Factory, Dublin, 7.30pm, €30, ticketmaster.ie
Julia Holter has many strings to her bow (record producer, soundtrack composer, academic), but is perhaps best known for her sequence of art-pop albums, from her first official studio release, Tragedy (2011), to this year’s sixth, Something in the Room She Moves. The most recent songs are inspired by the birth of her daughter (during the pandemic) and the associated experiences of motherhood, but also reference the recent deaths of her nephew and grandparents. Holter’s special guest is the Dublin-based American cross-genre composer and songwriter Jasmine Wood.
Rattling Ark
Wednesday, December 11th, Whelan’s, 8pm, €15, whelanslive.com
Rattling Ark is fronted by Kevin Murphy, a noted Irish cellist who has a garlanded history of founding experimental bands (Slow Moving Clouds, Seti the First), collaborating with Irish artists (including Iarla Ó Lionáird, Cathy Jordan, Lisa Hannigan and John Spillane) and performing with international acts (such as The National and Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan). Murphy’s latest creative venture is yet another genre-fusing exercise that blends UK 1960s folk (a la Pentangle), contemporary Irish music (a la The Gloaming) and drone/dark ambient (a la The Haxan Cloak). Special guests include the violist Lisa Dowdall and the guitarist Matthew Nolan.
Beauty & the Beast review: On the way home, younger audience members re-enact scenes. There’s no higher recommendation
Matt Cooper: I’m an only child. I’ve always been conscious of not having brothers or sisters
A Dublin scam: After more than 10 years in New York, nothing like this had ever happened to me
Patrick Freyne: I am becoming a demotivational speaker – let’s all have an averagely productive December
Soda Blonde
Saturday, December 7th, and Sunday, December 8th, Vicar Street, Dublin, 7.30pm, €35 ticketmaster.ie
The year ends on a high note for Soda Blonde, the Dublin band that sold out a summer gig at the National Concert Hall. For that show, Faye O’Rourke (vocals), Adam O’Regan (guitar), Dylan Lynch (drums) and Donagh Seaver-O’Leary (bass) performed their most recent album, Dream Big, accompanied by the National Symphony Orchestra. These two shows (in what has become a home from home for the band) strip it back somewhat, but not at the cost of presenting a night to remember. Along with tracks from Dream Big and their debut album, Small Talk, they will be performing a new single, The Saddest Thing. The band play another pre-Christmas gig on Sunday, December 22nd (Whelan’s, Dublin, 8pm, €36.50) for fan-club members and friends.
Comedy
Tony Cantwell: A Toy Show Done Right!
Thursday, December 12th, Vicar Street, Dublin, 7.30pm, €30, ticketmaster.ie
In May the Irish comedian Tony Cantwell presented the Bureau de Change Song Contest, which took strips off the Eurovision. For the season that’s in it, Cantwell returns with his new wheeze: his version of the revered national institution that is The Late Late Toy Show. Expect the evening to include several Irish comedians/actors gamely impersonating celebrities, original songs, spot prizes (one for everyone in the audience, naturally) and a host determined to make dreams come true. Roll it there, Collette.
Stage
From Eden
From Monday, December 9th, until Thursday, December 19th, Glass Mask Theatre, Dublin, 7pm, €20-€26, glassmasktheatre.com
Alex and Eva are two aimless, vulnerable souls involuntarily locked in a bathroom together an hour before the start of the New Year countdown. The pair delicately navigate mutual suspicion, gradually veering from confrontation to a level of understanding. Stephen Jones’s succinct, smart play (winner of the 2015 Stewart Parker Trust/BBC NI Radio Drama Award) is directed by Jed Murray. Jordanne Jones (perhaps best known for her role in Emmet Kirwan’s short film Heartbreak) and Rex Ryan star.
Visual art
Katherine Boucher Beug
From Saturday, December 7th, until Saturday, December 21st, Grilse Gallery, Killorglin, Co Kerry, grilse.ie
The American artist Katherine Boucher Beug has lived and worked in Co Cork for more than 50 years, spending most of her life surrounded by folds of countryside and weaves of nature. While her work is held in the collections of the National Gallery of Ireland, the Crawford Arts Gallery, the Arts Council and the Glucksman (as well as in private collections across the world), this exhibition launches her latest book, People, which highlights her methodical, creative practice through images of faces and individuals.
Still running
Bach’s Christmas Oratorio
Friday, December 13th, St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin, 7.30pm, €55/€40, eventbrite.ie
JS Bach’s choral masterpiece, composed as a celebration of the Nativity, is performed here by the Irish Baroque Orchestra & Chorus in two splendid venues (also Saturday, December 14th, Kilkenny Castle, 7pm, sold out). Peter Whelan directs, and the featured sopranos are Rowan Pierce and Aisling Kenny.
Book it this week
Throwing Muses, Whelan’s, Dublin, May 23rd, whelanslive.com
Tate McRae, 3Arena, Dublin, May 16th/May 17th, ticketmaster.ie
Patrick Kielty, Vicar Street, Dublin, June 6th/7th, ticketmaster.ie
All Together Now, Curraghmore, Co Waterford, July 31st-August 3rd, ticketmaster.ie
