Stuff to occupy ya in Limerick this week, Feb 21 to 26

There’s a lot on this week, so I’ll try to give a brief run down...

The Belltable Arts Centre has a veritable cultural feast this week hosting film, theatre and literary events.

Fillums

The Cine Club is on tomorrow (Tuesday Feb 21) at 8pm with The Deep Blue Sea starring Rachel Weisz and Tom Hiddleston. The film is based on a play by Terence Rattigan where the wife of a judge lives a pampered but lonely life. She turns to her husband’s younger friend for comfort and the affair spurs a drastic change. The film deals with forbidden love, suppressed desires and the fear of being alone. On Saturday 25 at 8pm, it will screen Stella Days starring Martin Sheen and Stephen Rea. It is the story of a man whose love is the church and whose passion is the cinema. Set in the rural community of Borrisokane, County Tipperary in the mid 1950s - it views a world on the cusp of the modern era, a time stimulating both excitement and apprehension. Tickets for films are €8.50/6.50 (Special season ticket; 5 films for the price of 4 @ €34. Get one screening free).

Theatre
The fantastic play, Tom Crean: Antarctic Explorer, is on Wednesday 22nd and Thursday 23 at 8pm. Aidan Dooley’s multi award winning one-man play tells the heroic tale of Tom Crean—the intrepid, Irish Antarctic explorer. This play is truly moving and uplifting with an amazing true story. It’s so epic I’ve been to see it twice! The tickets are €18/22. www.belltable.ie

Kate O'Brien Weekend
From Friday 24 to Sunday 26, the annual Kate O’Brien Weekend is on—the first two days in the Belltable and on Sunday, the venue is the Lime Tree Theatre in Mary Immaculate College. The event is a celebration of Irish writing in honour of Limerick novelist, Kate O'Brien and will include recitals, discussions and lectures on the theme of ‘Tell it slant’. Speakers include the poet, Seamus Heaney; novelist, John Boyne and Irish Times columnist, Frank McNally and a host of others. For more info, see
www.kateobrienweekend.com.  

TAN! Theatre at The Loft

Promising local company, Wildebeest Theatre, will present a new comedy, TAN, at The Loft venue at 8pm in the Locke Bar Thursday Feb 23 to 26. It is written and performed by Ann Blake and Marie Boylan and directed by Myles Breen. Join Aisling and Siobhán, two Limerick girls, as they get ready for a night on the town. Putting on their make-up, discussing the ‘lads’, ordering the taxi, straightening the hair, then backcombing the hair, drinking the vodka, eyeing-up the Munster team, bitching about their other friends and applying that all important fake TAN! Tickets: €10 and booking is on 085-1462364.

Jazz and comedy at Dolan's 

Dolan’s Upstairs on the Dock Road plays host to the Limerick Jazz Society’s first gig of its spring season on Wednesday Feb 22 with the Louis Stewart Quartet taking to the stage at 9.15pm. Guitarist, Louis Stewart, is a bit of a jazz legend and he plays with Len McCarthy on sax, Peter Hanagan on bass and John Daly on drums. Tickets are €13/10. Comedian and keyboard enthusiast, David O’Doherty, also performs at Dolan’s Warehouse on Thursday 23. I’ve seen him doing stand-up before and he’s excellent. The show is billed at 7.30pm and tickets are €16. www.dolans.ie

Music at Bourke's Bar

The great, free music gigs on Thursday Nights @ Bourke’s will continue on Feb 23 with a double header—Squarehead and Grand Pocket Orchestra—with doors at 9pm.

Concerts, conferences and readings at UL

The Irish World Academy of Music and Dance in UL have three events this week—two concerts and a seminar. On Tuesday Feb 21, there will be a free traditional music performance from some of Ireland’s best traditional musicians from 1.15-2pm in Theatre 2 (the building is on the Clare campus, over the bridge; big dark wood and gold yoke).  On Wednesday Feb 22, there’s a seminar on performance/text/context there. If you’d like more information about this event, contact Ruadh Duggan (ruadh.duggan@ul.ie). On Thursday Feb 23, there’s another lunchtime concert (1.15-2pm) with pianist, Fionnuala Moynihan, playing two piano sonatas by Hadyn. www.irishworldacademy.ie

As part of the Millstream Writers Series at UL, the Belfast poet Ciaran Carson will read from his published work in the Millstream Common Room on Friday Feb 24.  The free event will begin with a wine reception at 6.30pm and the reading by Ciaran Carson will be at 7pm.  Parking will be available in the car park adjacent to the University Concert Hall. For further details contact Linda Stevens on 061-202433 or email linda.stevens@ul.ie. All welcome.

Visual art exhibitions--Object/ive Obsession and Bit Symphony

The exhibition, Object/ive Obsession, continues at the Limerick Printmakers Studio & Gallery on Sarsfield Street until March 3. Obsession is the domination of one's thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea or image, at Valentines we can easily relate it to obsessive love but for this exhibition we have invited artists to share what are their obsessions relating to their work. Each artist was given gallery space to display their chosen objects and obsessions. Then, several printmakers made a print in response to these pieces. The artists involved in this project are: Jacob Stack, Dawn West, Eoin Barry, Des Farrell, Alan Crowley, Catherine O Brien, Marie Connole, Brian O Shea, Carl Doran and Paraic Leahy. The printers are: Des Mc Mahon, Dan Kenny, Pamela Dunne, Suzannah O Reilly, Emily Doyle, Fiona Quill and Gary Dempsey. www.limerickprintmakers.com

In celebration of the purchase of the neighbouring Opera Centre site by Limerick City Council, Ormston House on Patrick Street is presenting Bit Symphony, a solo exhibition by Liam O’Callaghan, which will also run until March 3. The show is an audio-visual installation consisting of an assemblage of turntables, amplifiers and speakers, reconfigured and manipulated so as to autonomously perform a complex musical composition of looping records. Liam O’Callaghan creates the sound by forcing loops, changing speeds, warping and physically scratching records, fading volume in and out and altering tones. Through these simple techniques the original sound is altered to be unrecognisable from its source and transformed into something new entirely: a series of unique sonic/music compositions.
www.ormstonhouse.com/