On the Town:'Sixty to 70 per cent of all screenplays originate in literary works and this is to shed light on that relationship," said Johnny Gogan, filmmaker and chairman of Cinema North-West.
He was speaking at this week's launch of the programme for the third Adaptation film festival, to be held in Dromahair, Co Leitrim later this month. This year, the work of Irish writer Edna O'Brien is being celebrated, in its transition and translation to cinema.
Launching the event at the Irish Film Institute, Gogan addressed a mix of cinephiles and lovers of literature before a special screening of Zee & Co, a 1971 film written by O'Brien and starring Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Caine.
According to Alice Black, Regional Development Manager with the Irish Film Institute, this week's screening was an opportunity for people to sample the kind of work that will be shown over the three-day event, which runs from September 28th to 30th.
"We're giving them a taster and hoping that they'll come to Leitrim for the festival," said Black.
Attending the launch of Adaptation: Edna O'Brien on Screen, Esme Lewis, a member of the Irish Film Institute's Wild Strawberries film club for older people, was pleased at the choice of Edna O'Brien as the festival's featured writer this year. "I've loved her books from way, way back," she said.
Designer Fiona Arnold said she was looking forward to the screening of Zee & Co, a Brian G Hutton interpretation of a screenplay penned by O'Brien. "Any film that I've seen in this cinema has been worth looking at," she said.
Ruth Barton, Lecturer in Film Studies at Trinity College in Dublin, had attended advance screenings of the films involved in order to pen a piece for the festival's programme. She singled out a Granada Television production starring Cyril Cusack, The Wedding Dress, as her festival highlight. "It's my pick of the weekend," said Barton.
The Adaptation festival began in 2005 with the work of John McGahern, and last year featured William Trevor. This year, Cinema North-West, formerly known as Leitrim Cinemobile, will be bringing its mobile cinema to Dromahair, Co Leitrim, for the festival, offering a number of screenings, among them I Was Happy Here, starring Sarah Miles and Cyril Cusack, and The Country Girls, with Sam Neill and Niall Tobin.
Edna O'Brien herself will be there to introduce the screenings, and there will be public interview with the writer at the Abbey Manor Hotel in Dromahair as part of its programme.
Adaptation: Edna O'Brien on Screen , Sept 28 - 30 September, Dromahair, Co Leitrim
A Nigerian man, a Latvian man and an Irish man are working on a cross-border bypass when the former finds an ancient skeleton. It may sound like the first line of a Paddy Irishman joke, but it's the opening scene of Declan Gorman's new play, At Peace, which premiered this week at the O'Reilly Theatre in Dublin. With a multi-national cast of Irish, African and Eastern European actors, the play is the culmination of four years' work, research and travel for writer Declan Gorman.
Speaking at the opening night, Gorman said working with people from different cultures and with different languages provided its challenges. "We've had some hilarious moments of intellectual misunderstandings, and even some tensions," he admitted, adding that all had been ironed out before the curtain rose on the first performance.
Bisi Adigun, whose version of JM Synge's Playboy of the Western World, co-written with Roddy Doyle, opens at the Abbey on October 3rd, said he was gripped by the play. "It's mixing reality with a lot of spirituality," he said.
Attending the opening night, Latvian Ambassador Indulis Abelis invited audience members to a post-play reception on the premises, where he expressed his delight at hearing his own language spoken on an Irish stage. "I was very happy that an Irish director decided to invite Latvian artists for this show, and that he was brave enough to represent a bit of Latvian culture on the Irish stage," said the Ambassador, who was accompanied by his wife Silvija Abele.
Nigerian actor Tunji Sotimirin, who plays Ogunseyi in At Peace and is a well-known face in his home country thanks to numerous appearances on Nigerian television and stage, said working on this play had been a whole new experience. "I must say that it's quite challenging in the sense that I had to relate to other people from different backgrounds," he said, while paying tribute to Gorman's script, which he called "intellectually sound and deep".
Fringe Festival Director Wolfgang Hoffmann, Arts Council Director Mary Cloake and Jane Daly, a producer with the Irish Theatre Institute, were at the opening night, along with designer Paul O'Mahony and Carina McGrail, programme director of the St Patrick's Festival.
Anyone concerned that such a complex work may have left its playwright drained of inspiration would have been reassured to see that Gorman had a secret weapon to hand. "One of my actors - Andrejs [ Polozkovs] - gave me this, in case I run out of ideas," he said as he produced a light bulb from his pocket.
At Peace is at the O'Reilly Theatre, Dublin, tonight. Its tour finishes at Tallaght's Civic Theatre, Dublin on Nov 3. See www.upstate.ie
There was ceol, craic and even cake at the Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, Co Wicklow, this week for its fifth birthday. Mary Coughlan, Ronan Guilfoyle, Carmel McCreagh and Redmond O'Toole provided the musical entertainment, while local politicians mixed with artists and arts lovers to mark the success since the centre first opened its doors.
For Aideen Howard, Mermaid's artistic director for four years before moving to the Abbey as literary director, one of the highlights was "watching the local arts community embracing this place". Howard's successor, Maureen Kennelly, credited the centre's success to those working in it. "I feel like one of the luckiest people working in the arts because I work with an absolutely brilliant team," she said. She was joined by Mary Doyle, chairman of the Mermaid Arts Centre board, who was commended at the event by Wicklow County Manager Eddie Sheehy as a "wonderful ambassador for Mermaid".
Also at the party were Aideen Barry and Pauline Cummins, curators of Terms and Conditions, an exhibition of performance and video works which takes place in various areas around Bray today. Labour party TD Liz McManus, artist Kate Dick and performance artist Sandra Johnston also joined in the birthday celebrations.
They will continue throughout the weekend, with street theatre, dance and musical performances and workshops scheduled. There was a celebratory spirit in the sacred setting of the Unitarian Church on Stephen's Green, Dublin, this week when Arlen Publishing unveiled five poetry collections by Irish women as part of its 30th birthday festivities.
Launching the collections, poet Cathal Ó Searcaigh, paid tribute to the strong presence of Irish women in the country's poetic landscape. "It has taken a long time for women poets to place themselves at the centre of Irish poetry," he said, adding that in 1950s Ireland they were expected instead to "excel in the art of family life". With these five new collections "the female voice is at the heart of what's happening with Irish poetry now", said Ó Searcaigh,
Nell Regan was not just celebrating the publication of her collection, Preparing for Spring; she has been awarded a bursary by Dublin City Council. "It came out in the same week the book came out, so it was a good week all round," she said.
Mother and daughter Joan and Kate Newmann released their first co-authored collection, Belongings, which Kate described as one with "two halves, with each half modified by the other". Working with her mother was a positive experience. "I'm honoured to be published alongside Joan," she said.
Colette Nic Aodha, whose seventh collection, Between Curses/ Bainne Géar contains work in English and Irish, described how the language she wrote in often depended on the subject. "A lot of the nostalgic poems are in English because that was the main language I spoke when I was growing up. Ones about relationships and other issues, I find them coming out in Irish," she said.
Nuala Ni Conchuir's Tattoo/ Tatú and Deirdre Brennan's Swimming with Pelicans/Ag Eitilt Fara Condair were also launched at the event, which was attended by poets Eiléan Ní Chuilleanáin, Rosemary Rowley, Ted Deppe and writer Jennifer Johnston. Also there was Joe Woods, director of Poetry Ireland, the co-hosts of the evening.