ArtScape: While there are no Irish comics among the Perrier nominees in Edinburgh, Irish talent is doing well awards-wise, and there's certainly a strong Irish presence at the festivals this year - people have been commenting that it's the year of the Irish and the Poles.
CoisCéim's Chamber Made and Mark Doherty's Trad both won Fringe First awards this week. Chamber Made - which is part of the Traverse season but takes place, as always, in the intimate space of a hotel room (at the Caledonian Hilton) - got four-star reviews in both the Guardian and the Scotsman. And all involved in the Galway Arts Festival production of Doherty's first play are over the moon after the show's double whammy - Doherty also won The List's Writers' Guild Award for New Writing this week. Corn Exchange will discover tomorrow how Dublin by Lamplight fares in the Best Ensemble section of the Stage award, for which it was nominated. Janet Moran, who's in the show, is also busy producing her own one-woman show (one of Alan Bennett's Talking Heads series), which opens in Bewley's just after she gets back from Edinburgh. Colin Teevan's Missing Persons - Four Tragedies and Roy Keane, also has a Stage nomination: Greg Hicks for best actor.
Acerbic comedian and conjurer Jerry Sadowicz was raving about Jack L, who he saw in Edinburgh, and Camille O'Sullivan is back at the Fringe just before her film debut in Mrs Henderson Presents, released later this year, where she plays Will Young's partner (the film stars Dame Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins). The London production of Tom Murphy's The Gigli Concert, starring Lorcan Cranitch, Alistair McKenzie and Alison McKenna, has been getting five-star reviews and great audience reaction. Meanwhile, the Druid gang has arrived in town and the first full-day Synge Cycle is at the King's Theatre today as part of the Edinburgh International Festival.
Comedy-wise, Andrew Maxwell is very hot this year, and there was some disappointment he - or indeed David O'Doherty - didn't make the Perrier shortlist.
The shortlist this year makes a change from recent years, as it includes character and sketch comedy as well as stand-up. And some of the names are less familiar than usual (nominees are Chris Addison, Dutch Elm Conservatoire, Jason Manford, Jeremy Lion and Laura Solon), while some of those who cropped up on the newcomer list (for example Mark Watson, Rhod Gilbert, Tim Minchin) might have been thought of as main award possibilities.
Camera crews are following both Dara O Briain and Tommy Tiernan around the festival - Hector is hangin' with O Briain, and a crew is following Tiernan for a year of his life - but so far the two crew entourages haven't collided. O Briain (off the crutches now as there was no sympathy in it) was delighted to be the second-biggest selling act on the Fringe this year (after The Odd Couple), and when he passed the 15,000 sales mark he was tickled to top the population of Bray. Jason Byrne does a dance in his act this year and ends the show with fireworks. Michael Mee's show, Confessions of a Swot, is a story about severe bullying, and pretty heavy stuff, while still funny. David O'Doherty talks about his fringe experience during his show - and, he reminds the audience, Jesus got only one star. Eddie Naessens's Little Terror! was described by The Stage as "exquisite work" which can "squeeze humour out of a surgical scalpel".
Some people have commented that the Fringe is getting too big, too unmanageable; but others still feel it has the edge in edgy work. The sheer amount of artistic work of all hues in the various Edinburgh festivals is certainly overwhelming and at times overfacing. Even the number of awards could get out of hand.
The best-known are the weekly Scotsman's Fringe First Awards for best new writing, and the Perrier Award for outstanding up-and-coming comedy, now in its 25th year and the winner of which is announced at midnight tonight.
There's also the Carol Tambor Edinburgh to New York Award (launched last year and bringing shows to NY); the weekly Herald Angels Awards, culminating in the Devil award; Perrier Best Newcomer; So You think You're Funny; the Richard Pryor Award for Ethnic Comedy; The Stage Awards; Total Theatre Awards; The Tap Water Awards (arising from a 2001 boycott of the Perrier because it's a Nestlé product); Jack Tinker Spirit of the Fringe Award; the WR Foundation Award; the Dubble Act Award; the Actors Centre Award; the Amnesty International U Win Tin Freedom of Expression Award; Allen Wright Award; 2005 New Scottish Eco-Prize for Creativity; the Dupliquick Publicity Awards (The Zebras); Mervyn Stutter's Pick of the Fringe; Writers' Guild of Great Britain and List Awards 2005. And that's just the ones the Fringe festival itself is aware of.
Intriguingly, there's some research (done by the Edinburgh Tourism Action Group, under the aegis of the Scottish Executive) showing that 30 per cent of the 2.6 million attendances at last year's festivals in the city were from Edinburgh. And 90 per cent of hotels believe having a variety of festivals on at the same time adds to the overall appeal of the city - a statement that Edinburgh residents strongly agreed with.
Having several festivals in one relatively small city obviously works for Edinburgh, which has built that tradition. They're interesting statistics but you have to wonder if they have any relevance here.
The Dublin Fringe Festival this year decided to reschedule to run earlier than the Dublin theatre festival, presumably so as not to overlap and split the audience.
But it makes you wonder: where do Edinburghers get all the time?
Guests of the island
Ireland has been the story of the summer of 2005 in Brittany, writes Jane Coyle. It was the featured region of the 35th Festival Interceltique de Lorient, which ended on August 14th, and this weekend is the guest of honour at the 7th Salon du Livre Insulaire on the tiny Breton island of Ouessant. Irish writers such as Jennifer Johnston, Diarmuid Johnson, Desmond Egan, Michael O Conghaile, Dara Ó Conaola, Vincent Woods, Dermot Healy and Anne Heusaff (who is originally from Brittany)
are joining counterparts from some of the most remote and exotic places in the world. The president of this year's seven-member judging panel is Desmond Kenny, an inveterate francophile, fluent
French speaker and, of course, a member of the ruling dynasty of Galway's world-famous Kenny's Bookshop.
"This is an excellent festival," he says. "The event on Ouessant is entirely devoted to literature and we're delighted that Ireland has been invited to be at the forefront this year. We have taken over a group of distinguished Irish writers and I'm hoping to sell a few books there, too."
The annual festival is organised by the Association of Culture, Art and Letters of the Islands (Cali), set up in 1999 to promote the literary traditions of the world's islands, and based in Ouessant.
Prior to this year, featured islands have included Tahiti, New Caledonia and the islands of the Indian Ocean. The 24 finalists for the Prix du Livre Insulaire include Desmond Egan's Music and Other Poems. The criteria for entry is that the writers either live or work on an island or that their vision is inspired and influenced by island life.
Dublin Youth Theatre is back on the streets this weekend after a 10-year break, with an ambitious multicultural, multimedia show on the theme of faith and angels, as part of Temple Bar's Diversions. The show combines music, digital media and live performance; the last show is tomorrow night; it's free but ticketed (from Temple Bar Properties).
The fabulous O'Donnell + Tuomey-designed Lewis Glucksman Gallery at UCC has been deservedly shortlisted for the RIBA Stirling Prize, the UK's most significant architectural prize, which is open to projects by RIBA members anywhere in the EU.
Others on the shortlist of six buildings include Zaha Hadid's BMW factory in Germany and the new Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh.
The winner will be announced on October 15th, live on Channel 4. The prize is awarded annually to the architects of the building which has made the greatest contribution to British architecture in the past year.
www.architecture.com/go/ Architecture/Also/Awards_2006.html