arts festival

QUEER NOTIONS
7 - 11 December 2010

Project Arts Centre, Dublin 2.
Book HERE or 01-8819613
Tickets €4 - €14 // Festival Pass €60

GLORIOUS OUTSIDERS. BOLD INVESTIGATION. RIOTOUS FUN.

 

Peggy Shaw // Jonny Woo // Eddie Ladd Dickie Beau // Mark O’Halloran
Neil Watkins // Una McKevitt
Qasim Riza Shaheen 

PLAYS, ART, MUSIC, LECTURE, DANCE, FILM & POLITICS;
THISISPOPBABY & PROJECT ARTS CENTRE PRESENT A CELEBRATION OF QUEER IDEAS AND PERFORMANCE FROM IRELAND AND BEYOND

PROGRAMME

A PLATFORM FOR GLORIOUS OUTSIDERS

DANCE/MULTIMEDIA (wALES/UK)

The Bobby Sands Memorial Race

Created and performed by Eddie Ladd
Tues 7 December // 7.30pm
€12 / €8 concession

BOOK TICKETS HERE.

Bobby Sands was a long distance runner as a teenager. During his time in the infamous Maze prison in Belfast, Sands wrote articles and essays on endurance and running. His essay, ‘The Loneliness of a Long Distance Cripple’, is the inspiration for Welsh choreographer Eddie Ladd’s extraordinary show The Bobby Sands Memorial Race.

Bobby Sands died on hunger strike in 1981. His aim was to win back political status for the republican prisoners, in pursuit of the longer-term aim of a united Ireland.

Set on a 12ft X 6ft running machine, Ladd’s stunning solo piece follows the sixty six days of the hunger strike and considers the long-distance goal of resistance.

Eddie Ladd is one of Wales’ most exhilarating artists. She makes breathtaking performances that combine dance, text, music and new media technologies.

“A uniquely physicalised distillation of the life and death of the IRA man who died on a hunger strike in Belfast’s notorious H Blocks in 1981. Impressive…compelling.” The Times

THEATRE/WORK IN PROGRESS (IRELAND)

The Big Deal

Directed by Una McKevitt
Wed 8 and Thurs 9 December // 7.30pm
€10 / €6 concession

BOOK TICKETS HERE.

I’ve always been a woman.

All this time I’ve had a penis and to be fair he never did me any harm. In fact he worked very well, but I've waited my whole life to have my own vagina.

This is my first email to you. I hope it doesn’t in any way shape your thoughts on what you should do. If there is any chance it might, please don’t read it.

It is the night before my operation. I am remarkably calm. Shouldn’t I be crying my eyes out or having second thoughts? Shouldn’t I be doing something with my penis on his last night on earth? Shouldn’t this be a really big deal?

Any pain I’m experiencing is in my mind, rather than my body. But, of course, the mind is where we actually live, isn’t it?  

Anyway, enjoy this, if you can X

Following the recent hit show 565 at the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival, and nationwide success with Victor and Gord, Una McKevitt directs this poignant and gritty work-in-progress showing based on letters and emails between two real life friends undergoing male to female gender reassignment.

Performance / Live Art (England/uk)

Retroflection

Created & Performed by Dickie Beau
Thurs 9 December // 9.30pm
€12 / €8 concession

BOOK TICKETS HERE.

Reframing the myth of Narcissus for the YouTube generation, Retroflection is a sensual shape-shifting one-man show made up of many faces.

Drag Fabulist Dickie Beau is a London-based performance artist whose work is an avant-garde blend of cabaret, drag, music hall, theatre and clowning; merging the sensibility of contemporary culture with queer twists and informed echoes of the past.

In the Irish premiere of his acclaimed piece, this master performer reintegrates the role of the Chorus, gives body to the lost voice of Echo and delivers from the shadows what remains of a softly spoken, splintered soul.

"Sublime, funny, moving, tragic and darkly poignant, Dickie Beau breathes electrifying new life into an age-old art form. Modern, retro and utterly relevant to the ailments of today, he's a star of the future." Attitude Magazine

“Phenomenal talent… A powerful and moving artist… breathtaking” Time Out London

“Superb. Astonishing technical competence and conceptual ambition” The Guardian

Visual Art (uk/ireland)

Lilliqoi Blue – God Made Me A Boy

Qasim Risa Shaheen
Presented in partnership with CityArts
Curated by Liz Burns

Tues 7- Sat 11 December
5pm-11pm
Free

In 2009, Qasim Riza Shaheen, a Manchester-based British visual artist was invited to develop work that responded to the changing demographics of Dublin City Centre, where an abundance of hair dressers, beauty parlors, restaurants and karaoke bars have emerged over the past ten years, created by and catering largely for the new immigrant populations.

Qasim connected with members of the transgendered Filipino community in Dublin through the north inner city hair salon they frequent, and through these connections developed Liliquoi Blue: God Made Me a Boy. The piece consists of three video adaptations titled Father I have sinned I, II and III that explore ideas around beautification, gender, memories and fantasies, while also telling very personal stories of longing and transformation.

A SPACE FOR BOLD INVESTIGATION

Performance (USA)

Swagger – The Best of Peggy Shaw

Written and performed by Peggy Shaw
Sat 10 December // 7.30pm
€14 / €10 concession

BOOK TICKETS HERE.

A one off chance to see living legend and sublime gender bender Peggy Shaw performing in Ireland for the first time with a full show. A truly iconic lesbian performer in the height of her prowess, Swagger is Shaw’s favourite moments from her worldwide hit solo shows - You’re just Like My Father, Menopausal Gentleman, To My Chagrin and Must.

Founder of the Wow Café (NYC) and the acclaimed Split Britches performance company, Shaw has been described by the Edinburgh Times as: “Truculent and funny, swaggering and sensitive… extraordinary. Dressed in a natty suit and tie, with her salt-and-pepper hair cut short, she looks and acts like an older Sean Penn, were he to have been cast as a hard-boiled private eye in a 1940s noir thriller. Sharp comic lines and ideas flow out in a stream of heightened language.”

Transgressive. Explosive. Superb. THISISPOPBABY is proud to present this outstanding performer in her Irish theatre debut.

New Writing/Rehearsed Reading (ireland)

TRADE

Written by Mark O’ Halloran
Directed by Tom Creed
Fri 10 December //7.30pm
€8

BOOK TICKETS HERE.

In a run down B B in the north inner city, a chaotic and vulnerable rent boy meets with a middle-aged, happily married client. At first their meetings are simple, money/sex exchanges, but as they get to know one another, the man experiences a troubling burden of care and a moral awakening that threatens to pull his domestic life apart.

In this searingly honest look at the murky relationship between money, sex and desire, leading Irish writer Mark O’Halloran (Garage, Adam & Paul) explores the nature of desire, the shifting sands of the morally ambiguous transaction and the overwhelming need for power and control.

Directed by Tom Creed (Rough Magic, Playgroup), Trade is an emotionally jarring, morally challenging and sexually explicit journey into the city’s dark underground.

Mark O’Halloran hails from Ennis, County Clare. He is the recipient of the Evening Standard Award for Best Screenplay for Adam & Paul. The Dublin Film Critics Circle named Mark’s films Garage second and Adam & Paul joint first in the top ten Irish films of the last decade.

“Mordantly funny and unexpectedly poignant” Time Out New York on Adam & Paul

 

Dicussion/Talk (Ireland/UK)

Queer Spiel

Wed 8- Sat 11 December
6pm //€4

BOOK TICKETS HERE.

Hearty discussion and cheap talk; Queer Spiel is a series of robust chats by leading queers on hot topics. Irreverent, nostalgic, divisive and enlightening – this intimate series will fire up the neurons and spark debate.

Wed 8 at 6pm
Qasim Riza Shaheen: Sexual Revelation – The Relationship between Sexual Identity and Art

Thurs 9 at 6pm
Willie White, Fiach MacChonghaile: Public Outcry – The Changing Face of Queer Performance at Project Arts Centre 1976-2010

Fri 10 at 6pm
Tonie Walsh, Impure and Revolting: A history of gay cruising in Ireland. 

Sat 11 at 6pm
Marie Mulholland and Una Mullally: Dykeotomy – How Irish Lesbians stopped being invisible

Panel Discussion (Ireland/uk/usa)

Queer Futures: Rehearsing the (Im)Possible

Fri 10 December // 3.30pm
Free, Open to the public

Venue: Neil/Hoey Lecture Room, The Trinity Long Room Hub, Trinity College, Dublin. // Duration: 120mins

A rare opportunity to encounter groundbreaking artists, working with different media, as they discuss their queer cultural interventions. Panellists from Ireland, the UK and the USA will consider the queer currents of their work by reflecting upon themes, concepts, aesthetics and audiences. Discussion will focus on the past achievements, current urgencies and future possibilities of queer arts practices.

Speakers include Liz Burns (Curator, Ireland), Mark O’Halloran (Actor/Writer, Ireland), Stacy Makishi (Live Artist, UK), and Peggy Shaw (Artist/Performer, USA). The event will be chaired by Dr. Fintan Walsh (TCD).

Part of ‘Queer Theory, Culture and Society’, a year-long interdisciplinary seminar series hosted by The Trinity Long Room Hub which is open to the public. Sponsored by The Trinity Long Room Hub and a Visual and Performing Arts Fund (TCD).

A WEEK OF RIOTOUS FUN 

Theatre (Ireland)

The Year of Magical Wanking

Written by Neil Watkins
Directed by Phillip McMahon
Fri 10 and Sat 11 December // 9.30PM
€12 / €8 concession

Book Tickets HERE.

Neil Watkins has wanked more than is healthy, allegedly.

In 2007, Neil woke in the night to be greeted by the vision of Amma, ‘the Hugging Saint’.  She'd hugged him in Dublin the night before.  Standing at the foot of his bed, her face changed into that of Jesus and back again. "Do you still want to kill yourself?” said the vision, “because you can come with us now."  "No," said Neil, shitting it that his number was up, "I want to stay”. "Well then...tell your story." 

On orders from heaven, this is Neil's story through the wilderness of queerness: from Catholic Ireland to the cruising bars of the world; from Finglas head shops to Native American ceremonies.

Bitterly funny, devastatingly tragic but always entertaining, Watkins explores what it is to remove the resistance in his life and reach his highest potential. 

"A pyrotechnical performer.... a writer to be taken seriously".  The Irish Times

Neil Watkins is an playwright and performer, MC of WERK at the Abbey Theatre, co-star of RTE's The Savage EYE, and Alternative Miss Ireland Winner Heidi Konnt.

Performance (UK)

FAGGOT

Written and performed by Jonny Woo
Wed 8 December // 9.30pm
€12 / €8 concession

Book Tickets HERE.

Take a rollercoaster ride into the mind of London club land’s brightest star Jonny Woo.  Making his Irish theatrical debut, Woo’s legendary performances are packed with wonderful euphoric highs and deliciously dark lows. An icon of London’s East End fashion, performance art and gay scenes, Jonny has thrown parties for Sharon Osbourne and supported Peaches at the Royal Festival Hall as well as having a number of sold out runs at the Soho Theatre.

Jubilant gay anthems, twisted storytelling, sucker punch poetry, sublime characterisations and deranged drag are all ingredients in the Jonny Woo show cake. You’ll leave wanting more, more, more.

‘A tranny superstar - When it comes to alt-drag, performance art and modern cabaret, Jonny Woo owns them all."  ***** - Time Out

Live Art happenings

Queer Encounters

Wed 8-Sat 11 December // 7pm
Free // Project Arts Centre

Stop. Your heart beats faster and your pupils dilate. It’s over before it sinks in that it’s really begun. Catch your breath and continue on, your day a little stranger, a little richer, a little wilder than before. Start.

Queer Encounters is a series of free live art happenings around Project Arts Centre building at 7pm during the Festival. Featuring Fanci Smanci and Anne Fetamine, Fionn Kidney and Caroline Campbell, Shane Byrne and special guest artist Stacey Makishi.

SPECIAL EVENT

book launch (ireland)

QUEER NOTIONS -
New Plays & Performances From Ireland

The Queer Notions play anthology, edited by Dr Fintan Walsh, is a record of some of the most important performative ideas and embodied interventions that have shaped queer culture and performance practice in Ireland in recent times, principally in the years following the decriminalization of homosexuality in 1993, up to the present. The anthology includes plays, experimental performance documentation, and a visual essay that reveal the impassioned creativity that illuminates and invigorates the margins of culture.

Contributors include Loughlin Deegan, Deirdre Kinahan, Neil Watkins, Verity Alicia Mavenawitz, Phillip McMahon, Niall Sweeney, Úna McKevitt and Panti.

The book will be officially launched during the Queer Notions festival 2010, and copies will be available to purchase from Project Arts Centre box office at a special festival price of €25.