Culch.ie

A magic evening at the launch of the Absolut Fringe Festival

We went to the launch of the Absolut Fringe Festival 2009 last night (though its official name is Absolut Fringe), we being meself, Anto, Steph and the wonderful Jack Wise, just to add that bit of magic.

Held in the Twisted Pepper, the evening was one that was random, to say the least. Let me show you who set the evening off – The Blanch – starring Bryan Burroughs, Jaimie Carswell and Amy Conroy which is a ‘grotesque comedy about shopping’.

Moving on, Róise Goan, Fringe Director spoke, as did representatives from Absolut and the Arts Council, about how, despite the difficulties in funding, there’s immense hope, creativity, enthusiasm, affection and warmth behind the goings on at Fringe.

After the applause, I grabbed Róise for a talk and then we went for a wander to see who we could meet, chat and do a bit of magic with…

On the videos you’ll see Ann and Barry (they like cake and jam), the beast woman of the Phoenix Park, The lovely Mimi and Fionn from Partiemonster, Matt and Andrea from Dublin Streets and more. It was a lot of fun!

For details on the Absolut Fringe programme, read on…

There’s so many shows happening in this year’s Fringe, it really is difficult to know what to choose:

What do you want to do in your city? From a barge on Grand Canal Dock to an abandoned ward in St Brendan’s Hospital, from a pastoral meadow on Dame Street to a looming shadow over west Temple Bar; this festival is all over and all about Dublin.

One of the great things is that price wise there’s free shows, there’s ones for under a tenner and then ones that will involve active participation from the audience. Those who want to find shows in the most unusual and extreme locations should check out the Totally Fringe shows and those who know it well could check out the Fringe Favourites.

This is unfortunately the last year of the Spiegeltent and the multi award winning La Clique. Hugely recommended for those who haven’t been before:

There’s also,though, A Useful Play, which I told you about recently, which promises to be one of the highlights.

Picking shows is almost impossible at this stage. Would Red Lola, a show where Red Riding Hood meets Lolita, via South Park and Freud be suitable? Would Ann and Barry: What time do you call this? be any good? Even though it’s Samuel Beckett, would I like Act without Words II? Even though it’s free and involves simple dance, would The Readers be of interest to me? Hard to know. They all look so good.

I’m liking the sound of All Human Life Is Here

The brand new comedy sketch show from the creators of the 2007 Fringe hit, Gerry and the Peace Process. Meet a bunch of hilarious new characters: a security guard has relationship issues with his love doll, a Dutch mountaineer develops a taste for human flesh, Orson Welles goes undercover with the Chelsea Headhunters and Louis Theroux spends weird weekends with notorious historical figures. Not to mention the first traveller Taoiseach, who vows to fight his way out of the recession – literally…

but there’s also Synth Eastwood has you surrounded (on Thurs 10), the ever beautiful Camille O Sullivan (Wednesday 16 at 9.30pm), Carpet Theatre’s The Blanch (Monday 7 to Sat 12), Who is Fergus Kilpatrick, the riveting-looking, almost stalkerish Point Blank, The Infant, as you may have seen in the videos, Group Therapy For One, Rough, Scar Stories, The Gorilla Chorus and YOU – which has its own blog… How does one choose?

One easy choice will be the Barry’s Tea With… series.

Here there’s a mini-series of talks, discussions and debates, aimed at informing and inspiring. We have Elbow: In Conversation – a discussion with Guy Garvey, lead singer of Elbow and their manager Phil Chadwick, about the development and experiences of the Manchester Band. There’s Recession:Opportunity Knocks – how we should look at addressing the recession as a fresh opportunity and The Value Of Art? discussing the value of, well, what we consider to be art!

You know me, I could go on all day, so instead I’ll direct you towards the various places you need to go:

• Download the programme here
• Check out the free shows here
• Check out the Under-a-tenner shows here
• Check out the Facebook page here
• Check them out on Twitter here
• and finally their website is at http://www.fringefest.com

It’s going to be quite the experience, isn’t it? Confront, Embrace, Defy – ABSOLUT FRINGE is here.