Tn2 issue 3, 2015-2016

NOVEMBER 2015

INTERVIEW WITH CRITICALLY ACCLAIMED RAPPER VINCE STAPLES. 1

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CONTENTS 04 06 07 25 32 34

JUMBLE SEX HOMEGROWN REVIEWS CALENDAR STAFF PICKS

EDITORIAL TEAM EOIN MOORE SORCHA GANNON SARAH MOREL HANNAH AMADAEUS HARTE MEGAN BURNS JOHN TIERNEY RACHEL GRAHAM CONOR SCULLY RACHEL CUNNINGHAM ANNA GORDON NICHOLAS KENNY BUD MCLOUGHLIN TANYA SHEEHAN MICHAEL MULLOOLY FINNÁN TOBIN JOSH KENNY ELISABETH ROCHFORD OISÍN VINCE COULTER J. FINBAR LYNCH LEONARD BUCKLEY MUBASHIR SULTAN HELEN FEE HUDA AWAN EAVAN MCLOUGHLIN CLAIRE DOWLING ORLA KING EMILY SMITH DESIGN BY MIKE DOLAN, UNA HARTY & EOIN MOORE

PRINTED BY GREHAN PRINTERS

VINCE STAPLES “My favourite artists all have a very strong identity and sense of self-awareness in their music.”

IRISH BOOK AWARDS

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tn2 speaks to some of the nominees of the Irish Book Awards 2015.

12 BODY POLITICS “The female nude in art and visual cultures has always been a political battleground.”

14 ROBERT SHEEHAN tn2 talks to Irish actor Robert Sheehan about performing on screen and for the stage.

16 PHOTO ESSAY This month’s photo essay is of the landscape of the Pacific North West, by Eavan McLoughlin.

18 GAELIC ESCARGOT “The Irish public is essentially unaware of snails as anything other than garden variety pests.”

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WAKING THE FEMINISTS “I think it was important to give everyone a chance to physically show their support for each other.”

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MUSIC: LABEL INTRO: BLUE NOTE RECORDS

GAMES: WEB SUMMIT The Web Summit has grown and grown from its humble beginnings five years ago, and now it’s finally grown too big for Dublin. September’s announcement that the Web Summit 2016 would be held in Lisbon could hardly be viewed with surprise, given the many problems that had plagued it over the last few years. Of these, most notable was the Wi-Fi failure at the 2014 Web Summit, though this year’s also received criticism for its Wi-Fi coverage. It’s hard to deny that the move is a blow for the Irish tech industry, despite the event drawing criticism for being both overhyped, and not worth the high entry price for startups, with many developers voicing their dissatisfaction on social media. However, despite these complaints, this year more than 44, 000 people attended the Web Summit over the course of the three days that it ran, spending money and bringing media attention to Dublin. Next year, they won’t be.

WORDS BY NICHOLAS KENNY

In jazz, a “blue note”, is a note that is sung or played at a slightly different pitch than standard. It is also the name of one of the most illustrious record labels of that genre. Blue Note was founded by Alfred Lion and Max Margulis in 1939, with Francis Wolfe getting involved shortly afterward.

At one time or another the label was home to jazz behemoths such as Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, Art Blakey, and Herbie Hancock (who most recently appeared on Flying Lotus’ You’re Dead). Blue Note has been principally associated with the hard bop style, which combined bebop with soul, blues, and gospel. The label has also released some essential avantgarde and free jazz albums, from the likes of the saxophonist, Ornette Coleman, and multi-instrumentalist, Eric Dolphy. The cover art for Blue Note’s albums are as iconic as the music itself, with artist Reid Miles becoming celebrated for his use of tinted black and white photographs, a restricted colour palette, and the creative use of sans-serif typefaces. In more recent times they have released albums by artists such as Norah Jones and Van Morrison, and this year they have signed the Manchurian piano trio, GoGo Penguin, whose new album Man Made Object is scheduled for release early next year.

WORDS BY JOSH KENNY

ART & DESIGN: GRAND CANAL SQUARE

The looming red sticks of Grand Canal Square have become one of the most iconic landmarks of the Southside City Center. Indeed, few residents of Dublin would be unable to recognize these oversized glow sticks, which form a part of Martha Schwartz’s architectural masterwork.

Light, installation, architecture and nature collide in a single area making for a beautifully designed public space, yet it also serves as a means for accelerating Grand Canal Dock into a thoroughly contemporary era. Certainly, the Grand Canal Square is an integral piece in Dublin’s reconstruction of the docks, with the area even being cited as Ireland’s “first 21st century destination square’’.

At 10 thousand square meters, the square is one of the largest paved public areas in Dublin. A red “carpet” made up of resin-glass paving and angled light sticks runs directly from the entrance of Daniel Libeskind’s Grand Canal Theatre straight towards and over the edge of the dock. Another green “carpet” made up of paving and “polygon” planters filled with vegetation crosses the Red at an angle. Crisscrossing these in turn are granite pathways allowing movement in every direction, making for quite a dynamic public space. Martha Schwartz plays with the metamorphosis between light and dark. While the space appears quite reserved during the day, the neon greens and reds of the installations turn the space into something quite theatrical, bathing the area in a colorful glow. Though it has in the past been a contentious addition to the Dublin landscape, one cannot deny the innovative quality of Grand Canal Square and its accompanying architecture.

WORDS BY ANNA KOHANOFF PHOTO BY SARAH MOREL

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GLOBE-TASTING: XICO

FRONT SQUARE FASHION

Xico on Lower Baggot Street visually fulfills all you’d expect from a Mexican Restaurant: faux stone walls, rusty iron bars and alcoves reminiscent of The Alamo. Despite its instant charm however, it failed to serve up traditional Mexican food. Any Mexican restaurant should have enchiladas, quesadillas, and fajitas, if nothing else. Ultimately, Xico is international cuisine masquerading as a Mexican style restaurant. For example, the Bah Mi Taquitos, a play on the traditional Vietnamese dish, or the De Pocos Amigos Tostadas, which is simply the Italian style Caprese salad in a crispy tortilla.

The Camarones Taquitos, which consisted of three small soft corn tortillas with blackened shrimp and two types of salsa, lacked the traditional Mexican seasonings and were altogether underwhelming in flavor and quantity. Although the presentation was striking, it was a little messy to eat out of. Originally popular for their drinks and nightclub venue, Xico have an impressive cocktail and drinks menu of reasonably priced and unique beverages. The frozen margaritas were a treat (and are on the strong side) so rest assured you’re getting your money’s worth.

Sean Ceroni , JF Art History and Philosophy What are your style interpretations?

Well, there’s a lot of them… Really it’s a mix between Italy in the 70s and Jennifer Lopez.

Coat - American Apparel, Jeans - Topman, Shoes - China Blue, Bag - Vintage Esprit Earrings - Claire’s, Scarf and jumper were gifted

WORDS BY MEGAN O’DONOGHUE KLEEMAN

WORDS BY JOHN TIERNEY PHOTO BY GRACE DE BLáCA

DUBLIN IN FILM: INTERMISSION

Bound up with the search for love and the pursuit of wealth, Intermission is a dramatic portrayal of the lives of a few down-and-out Dublin inhabitants, and how those lives mesh together to complete one another. The film’s setting is an integral part of the film’s characterisation, from the characters’ heavy (if slightly exaggerated) North-side accents, to the night-life and Dublin city buses rolling through Tallaght. During the cat-andmouse banter between cop Jerry (Colm Meaney), and hooligan Lehiff (Colin Farrell), the topic of drug dealing in the city is explored, and the conflict between the two ultimately draws them closer to one another.

Intermission may seem to be primarily focused on crime and police corruption, but in addition to those aspects, Intermission defamiliarises the concept of finding love. Sally (Shirley Henderson) struggles against coming to terms with her “ronnie”, John (Cillian Murphy) throws his relationship to the dogs by testing the strength of his girlfriend’s love for him, and Oscar (David Wilmot) has trouble with the more physical sides of love. Dublin’s dating scene is portrayed as a breeding ground for the sleazy and slightly past their prime - but the film also recognises that within such unlikely places, true love can ultimately blossom.

WORDS BY COURTNEY BYRNE 5

“I have always been fascinated by music. I remember the first time I thought ‘God, I wanna be a musician’. I was young, maybe eleven. My parents had a big party and one of their friends was in a band so they asked them to play at the party. The day after, the drummer left his kit there, and for some reason didn’t come back for it for two weeks or a month.” Samyel described his fascination with the drum kit: “this thing in my house, I’d never really touched such a thing before. I loved drums. I loved percussion. My granddad is brilliant on the spoons so when I was a kid I would ask him to teach me how to play. That’s how it started, just rhythm.”

Samyel, real name Samuel Arnold Keane, says he started playing guitar around the age of twelve. “I taught myself and I did some lessons after playing for a year or so, but the fastest growth in my playing was when I started playing with other people…just friends in school and friends of friends who were musicians. It became a big part of friendships forming—it was all kind of intertwined.”

Describing himself as a “singer-song-scribbler”, Samyel’s debut album Tickly Teeth boasts songs in several languages: English, French, Spanish, and Irish. French is his first language. When he arrived in Ireland at the age of twelve, he had a “strong French accent and hardly any English, but I picked up the Dublin accent pretty fast!”

“I’m trying to learn Irish at the moment. I’ve been trying to learn for the past couple of years. I suppose just being fascinated by music when I came back to Ireland, I was really into discovering Irish traditional music and with that I became interested in the Irish language as well. I was exempt from Irish in school—I had to do English classes while the other kids were doing Irish, but I still went to the gaeltacht!

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HOM EGR OWN They gave me an exemption because they were like, obviously you just arrived in Ireland but you wanna make friends, just come to the gaeltacht. So I went. Ever since, even though I didn’t do it for my Leaving Certificate, I’ve always loved picking up little phrases here and there. There’s one song on the album that uses bits of Irish—it’s fun to have.”

Samyel, fully bilingual in French and English, says “sometimes I feel like I can only sing about certain things in French—not even certain things, but my mindset is slightly different, more serious actually. I can be more playful in English. I’m not always playful, but I can be. In French I find it hard. I find it’s easier to be more serious.”

Samyel lists an eclectic mix of influences from Gainsbourg to MC Solaar, from Andre 3000 to Prince. He talks about jazz, Latin, and Moroccan music but he was most passionate when talking about Devendra Banhart.

“Devendra is a massive influence…I adore the guy! Especially…well especially all of his music—maybe the earlier stuff, but actually not really—Cripple Crow would be a great album, that would be a big influence.”

The title track of his album Tickly Teeth is about his dog, Chance. “You have to listen to the song to find out [Chance’s story],” he joked.

“He’s a rescue dog. He had an accident when he was younger and he’s got three legs now.

He’s just such a strong character.” When he was a puppy, “he used to play bite and I used to always say ‘tickly teeth’ because it tickled. So that was kind of his nickname.” He wrote the song quite a while ago: “it’s probably one of the first songs I finished after ‘kind of ’ going solo”. He explains that “I’m a solo artist in that I go under my own name but I still play with lots of other musicians.” He collaborates with well-known musicians on his album, including Steve Cooney and Cathy Davey. The latter asked him to include his song Tickly Teeth on the compilation album, Oscar the Hypno Dog (and other tails), all proceeds going to Dogs in Distress.

While travelling between and releasing music in France, the US, Canada, and South Korea, he still finds time to record new material. He will be releasing a new EP in December. Even with all of his travelling, Ireland is still close to Samyel’s heart. His song West Always West is “about that pull towards the west coast.

I’ve been surfing since I was a kid. When I’m leaving Dublin and I just close the door behind me to get the bus, get the train to Galway or drive down with friends, that pull is constant towards the West. Even when you reach that part of land, just keep going until you reach the waves. Yeah, I suppose that’s a very special song for me—it’s a strong pull.”

Samyel plays the Harbour Bar, Bray on December 28th.

WORDS BY PAUL SCULLY PHOTOS BY RACHEL GRAHAM

poly politics My first (and so far only) monogamous relationship was not well executed.

We never took the time to lay down the law. The two of us met through a mutual friend, and then spent a flirtatious long weekend in Autumn crammed into a dirty car driving to Bennington, Vermont. He lived far away in Colorado, stuck in a suffocatingly Christian part of the country, while I was busy living it up at a liberal arts college. I didn’t realize that what I was doing, (sending nudes, rubbing my hips up against other 20 somethings at parties) constituted as “cheating”, until a year later when I asked my college housemate whether she would be upset if her live-inboyfriend danced with someone else on a night out.

“No.” She paused, “Okay no, but only if it’s, like, platonic.”

“Have you guys talked about that?”

“Yes. We were at Spring Formal and this girl who he hooked up with, like, half of last year was like super close to him, so I thought I should bring it up.”

I set up a Tinder account almost as soon as I arrived in Ireland. I have cousins, family here, but a couple months ago had few acquaintances beyond that. Everyone I spoke to suggested I join societies in order to meet people. However, casually dating, and then later befriending a variety of weird kids had proved successful in the past. Tinder in Dublin seemed like a quick way to figure things out, see which one-liners people were pasting to the bottom of their profiles, get a handle on what folks were looking for.

I found out rapidly that there was a pocket-dictionary’s worth of slang I had never heard of (acting the maggot?), and that here, like at home, few people were interested in anything with strings.

I have found that it’s not uncommon to swipe past a selfie of someone I’ve met during my time here, someone who I know to be in a fully committed, exclusive relationship. My tally is bordering on half a dozen and I have the screen-caps to prove it. I am not the right person to talk to about what constitutes or does not constitute as a monogamous relationship, but looking from the outside in, keeping your Tinder account active, while in the throes of passionate and monogamous young love, does seem somewhat nontraditional.

Non-monogamous relationships are far less sexy than folks imagine them to be. With the exception of maybe 50-something year old swingers, there are far fewer threesomes than there are DMC’s, far more talking about the possibility of casual sex, than actually having it. Non-monogamy, particularly polyamoury requires negotiation; boundaries have to be

established, some ground rules need to be laid out. It requires that you ask yourself and your partners questions about what you’re respectively comfortable with: “It’s important to me to hear from you regularly”, “I ask that we spend major holidays together whenever possible”, “I don’t want to hear about the specifics of your sex life outside of our relationship”, “Tell me about new, exciting people you’re dating”, etc. It demands candor of you and your partner. Being forthcoming is what prevents polyamoury from sliding towards duplicitousness.

I put “Queer & Poly” at the bottom of my new Dublin Tinder profile below some select candid shots, the requisite outdoorsy photo, and a prime selfie taken on a top notch eyebrow day. Not unsurprisingly, most of the initial messages I received were vocabulary questions easily summed up as “Wait, wah?” Between being queer and being polyamorous, I found myself not only in the minority, but in a small subset within that minority.

“So, like Sister Wives?” was how one Tinder fella responded after I gave him my 10 second poly synopsis: “I have a partner of a year and a half back in the Bay Area. We’ve agreed together that openly seeing multiple people is okay with us”.

No, not like Sister Wives. Unlike the notorious TLC reality television show centering on one man, his four wives, and their 17 kids, no one is getting married. Polygamy is structured in a way that would make ethically non-monogamous people squirm; it’s often patriarchal, hierarchical, and non-consensual. Well executed polyamoury looks far more like an open, honest, and monogamous relationship.

The central tenet of ethical non-monogamy, what stops it from being infidelity, is a high level of consent. Partners, be they sex partners, romantic partners, or otherwise, are all informed, and have agreed to the possibility that people they’re involved with engage in multiple intimate relationships.

Actions that have not been mutually agreed upon as acceptable, or actions that seem like they should be okay but have the potential to upset your partner could constitute poly-infidelity, or at the very least, a breach of trust. Commonsense logic says that poly people are commitment-phobes.

The truth of the matter is, that healthy polyamorous relationships, like all healthy relationships, demand real commitment, and real honesty.

WORDS BY JULIA KENNY RICHARD ILLUSTRATION BY DANIEL TATLOW

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never played it by the book Deputy Editor Sorcha Gannon speaks to Vince Staples, rising star of West-Coast Rap, about race, social media, and artistic integrity.

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he cover art of rapper Vince Staples’ album, Summertime ‘06, is a visual reference to Joy Division’s album, Unknown Pleasures. On his Instagram, Staples explains the resonance of Joy Division’s 1979 album for his own: “Summer of 2006, the beginning of the end of everything I thought I knew. Youth was stolen from my city that summer and I’m left alone to tell the story”. The city Staples references is Long Beach, California, where he grew up, and the summer his thirteenth.

He expands, with reference to the song Love Will Tear Us Apart and lead singer Ian Curtis: “Nov 30th, 2005 was the beginning of the loss. The following summer multiplied it. Beaten paths, crowded with the hopeless.

Same song every day, listening to the words of a dead man destroyed by his own mind and body”. A succession of influences down the years: Ian Curtis’ words to thirteen year old Staples, whose experiences provided the material that crafted Summertime ‘06 nine years later: “Cut class ‘cause it wasn’t bout cash / School wasn’t no fun ‘cause I couldn’t bring my gun / Knowing change gonna come like Obama and them say / But they shooting every day ‘round my mama and way” (from the track Norf Norf).

In a Rolling Stones interview earlier this year, Staples made the sardonic comment in response to those who presume his taste, “‘Oh, you listen to Joy Division?’ Like, why can’t I? Because I’m black?” - a presumption that his Instagram post more than debunks. Speaking to tn2, Staples expands on his creative influences, his artistic process, the politics of music, and his place in the cultural landscape of the US. In the early days of his career, Staples was a close affiliate of the Los Angeles based hip hop collective Odd Future, which includes members Tyler the Creator and Frank Ocean, working closely with Earl Sweatshirt and Mac Miller. Summertime ’06, Staple’s first studio album, is a double sided LP and an impressive statement of his artistic ability. It is pretty much devoid of features from any recognizable names ( he “didn’t want any”). For three of the tracks - Surf, Norf Norf, and Summertime - Staples worked with hip hop producer Clams Casino, which came about when they were in the studio for Clam Casino’s album and the two ended up collaborating on Staples’ LP. Building on an array of mixtapes, collaborations, and 2014 EP Hell Can Wait, Summertime ‘06 arrives in a year which has seen a slew of major hip hop releases, which Staples claims he doesn’t pay a huge amount of attention to: “I don’t pay much attention to things of that sort. But I can say that some of my favourite music that I’ve ever heard has been coming out recently.” In terms of female musicians whose work Staples admires, “there are so many”, but of those playing at the moment, he mentions Kali Uchis, St. Vincent, Syd of The Internet, Adele, and Little Simz. The list is largely one of musicians who, like Staples, have risen to prominence at a young age: Kali Uchis, the US raised Colombian singer, is 22 years old; Syd of the Internet, another member of Odd Future, is 21; and Little Simz, the

rapper from Islington, London, who at the age of 21 has a commanding stage presence to rival most experienced MCs out there.

Staples has described Summertime ‘06, released this June to critical acclaim, as very much a reflection of a past time in his life - which runs arguably somewhat deeper than the obsessive 90s nostalgia in hip hop he called out earlier this month, to the scandal of many. Rather than treating 90s hip hop with the usual untouchable reverence, Staples, standing by the fact that he listens to his contemporaries, pointed out that as he was no older than seven during the decade in question, 90s music has never been contemporaneous for him, nor his foremost influence. Staples didn’t back down as the hysteria ensued: “Go raise your kids. Music will be okay” as his Twitter put it (into perspective). Earlier this year Kendrick Lamar’s song Alright from To Pimp A Butterfly took on the role of a statement of community and hope in the context of the ongoing police brutality against people of colour in the US, in a powerful example of how the politics of music run much deeper than simply paying lip service to the appropriate artists. Staples’ idea of the cultural relevance of music extends beyond uncritical acquiescence to the popular, to the roles that musicians play in their communities. Indeed, whether it’s gratuitous 90s nostalgia, the glamorisation of drugs and drinking by some members of the hip hop community (which he, vocally, does not partake in), or the objectification of communities in terms of race and class in America, Staples takes a discerning look at the prevailing narratives that shape our perceptions of them all.

“Music videos are some of if not the most important aspects to music in today’s generation. Easiest way to garner someone’s undivided attention in a time when no one cares enough” 9

An impressive facet of Staples’ creative output is his music videos. The visual accompaniments for Blue Suede, Señorita, and Norf Norf have a collectively striking black-and-white aesthetic. Particularly powerful is the video for Señorita, which presents an apocalyptic vision of an incarcerated suburban community, riffing on ideas of a ghettoised society surrounded by surveillance. Asked about the significance of music videos in his creative process, Staples explains: “Music videos are some of if not the most important aspects to music in today’s generation. Easiest way to garner someone’s undivided attention in a time when no one cares enough”. Señorita sees a man leading a procession of others through the suburban landscape, clutching what looks to be some kind of bible, inscribed with the initials “V.S.”. Staples’ lyrics are permeated with religious references, but in a way that apparently rejects Christian doctrine entirely: “Never played it by the book, because the book was full of lies / And the preacher full of shit, and the teacher full of shit” (from his track Turn).

Staples, it seems, adheres to no one’s version of reality but his own. The final image of the Señorita music video is a reflexive comment on how his own music might be consumed: it is of an idealised, white middleclass, nuclear family, sitting in front a screen, behind which is the music video we have just watched. It raises some of the tensions in a mediafacilitated and profit-driven music industry, whereby those who are far removed from the experiences that have shaped the music, the experiences that shaped Summertime ‘06, largely comprise its audience. The strong narrative of this music video played out in tandem with this unforgiving social commentary, operates the way that Summertime ‘06 often does, with incisive lyrics, both cynical and humorous, set to compelling, often catchy music.

Check out Vince Staples’ twitter, and you will find tweets calling out selfrighteousness and hypocrisy at every turn. Staples, without a doubt, with his direct and irreverent approach, critiques a society that simultaneously listens to black musicians, appropriates black cultures, and perpetuates systemised police violence against such individuals and communities: “I don’t think that credit is given where it is due to black people in general.” When asked his views on social media’s potential for expression and communication, Staples replies: “Twitter is stupid. The internet is misused in almost every way possible. More information and access, dumber people.” A characteristically critical reply; although arguably a 10

social media presence like his own is refreshing in such a context. The self-avowed ideal listener of his music is “An open minded one”. Staples seems to demand integrity above all else, including from himself: “My favourite artists all have a very strong identity and sense of self-awareness in their music, so I would only hope to do the same.” Staples has spoken in the past about the misrepresentation of communities in the media and culture more generally, but when asked about the impetus behind his art to changing such representations, he is hesitant to ascribe such as role to his work: “I don’t necessarily know if it is or if it isn’t. My focus for my music is to keep it as near to me as possible, so that when I listen to what I create, I see a reflection of myself or my former self.” This rapper clearly has a moral message but adopts it without a moralising stance, aware of the responsibility to the communities he comes from , as well as the community of his music’s audience, critical of those - the artists and industries - who would forgo such responsibility.

Currently on tour - having played his first Irish show earlier this month at Hidden Agenda’s Metropolis Festival - Staples doesn’t seem to be slowing down any time soon, recently announcing the extension of his tour and collaborating on a track with Childish Gambino and Jhene Aiko released last week. He views each project independently in his creative development: “Each project stands on its own but progress is inevitable.

Whether the progress is forward or backwards…it’s progress.” When asked what the sound of today is compared to Summertime ’06, he replies, “A happier one” And what keeps him grounded? “Myself.” Ever self-assured, his pervasive confidence and clarity of vision is refreshingly lacking in egotism - impressive regardless, but especially for a 22 year old enjoying newfound international fame. Reflecting on how his thirteen year old self, the boy who lived the experiences that would later become Summertime ‘06, would have reacted if he could see himself now, Staples decides, “I would have laughed it off.” When asked what his plans are for the coming years, musically or otherwise, he says, “I can’t tell what the future holds but I can say that I will try my best to achieve whatever there is ahead of me.” No doubt he will. As both a unique artist and articulate cultural critic, Vince Staples is someone who is decidedly carving his own way in music.

WORDS BY SORCHA GANNON

“My focus for my music is to keep it as near to me as possible, so that when I listen to what I create, I see a reflection of myself or my former self.�

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“A generation of post-Tiger writers are exploring and dissecting the current state of their country with gusto.�

The Irish Book Awards 2015 The post-crash stars

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Literature Editor Michael Mullooly interviews some of the nominees in the upcoming Irish Book Awards.

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his year marks the tenth anniversary of the Irish Book Awards, and five years since Bord Gais Energy became headline sponsors, bringing with them financial security and the potential for the awards to grow into the opulent occasion they are now. In the Awards’ first year, a group “no larger than one you might see at a suburban dinner party” according to the Awards’ website, gathered in a Dun Laoghaire Yacht Club to congratulate John Banville, Brian Dillon and Kate Thompson. For the last few years, with the help of Bord Gais, the Awards’ annual Gala dinner accommodates upwards of five hundred people; writers embrace each other as old friends while media crews soak up the atmosphere. The guest list has been graced with Taoiseachs and Nobel Laureates, not to mention almost all of the greatest writers in the country today.

This is not some stuffy literary occasion however; there is an enthusiastic, red carpet feel to the event. Speaking about the awards, Paul Howard, the creator of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly, said that it was a great chance to meet other writers outside of work: “You’re all dressed up for a night out and there’s a lovely meal and you can have some fun.”

The shortlisted books, announced in the beginning of November, feature both established and upcoming authors. The “Children’s Book of the Year (Senior)” shortlist includes category titans such as Derek Landy, Eoin Colfer and John Boyne, alongside relative newcomers Louise O’Neill and Shane Hegarty. Speaking to Tn2, Hegarty, whose novel Darkmouth: Worlds Explode, the second in his series about a young and reluctant Legend Hunter, talked about his delight to be considered alongside such huge figures of the literary scene, and of the improving image children’s fiction has in this country “I think a lot of us are past the point where we see kid’s writing as secondary to adult’s writing.” The selection of books shortlisted really serves to show the quality of writing. Every one of those could be read I think and enjoyed as much by an adult as any kid. I think the level, just in terms of the quality of the writing for young people is so high now, and I feel privileged to be in a category that shows that.”

Certainly children’s fiction in Ireland has punched well above its weight in recent years, with the work of Darren Shan, Eoin Colfer, Derek Landy and many others achieving international acclaim and success. Newer successes such as Hegarty’s Darkmouth series show that there is no halt to the country’s tremendous output in fiction aimed at a younger audience, but their relative minority every year on the shortlists compared to more established names must be noted. This is a problem across almost every category.

The same names grace the shortlists of the Irish Book Awards year after year in several categories- not just the children’s category. In some respects, the awards can be seen as an exclusive writer’s club; though difficult to be shortlisted and nominated the first time, once you’re in, you’re in. While it is important to recognise continued achievement, it is very easy for stagnation to kick in when the same authors are being nominated year in and year out, while newer writers are left on the side-

lines, choked out by the regulars. This repeat annual nomination has led to a sense of expectation among some authors.

“You know in your head you’re waiting for the call like,” explained Paul Howard in the official promotional video for the 2015 awards, “you’re waiting for the phone call to say you’re on the list this year”. This repeat headline act of authors at the top of most categories begs the question: are the awards a false representation of the literary scene, whose exponential success has come from their financial partnership with Bord Gais instead of any great surge in the quality of Irish literature?

Another problem in taking the Irish Book Awards as an accurate sample and representation of modern Irish literature is the insistence, year after year, of performing a publisher’s roll call in the shortlists. With the exception of Gill & Macmillan, no publishers are repeated in each category of the shortlists. Are we to believe that every other publisher in the country produces only one book worth noting each year? Scrolling down the shortlists recalls to the mind the “everyone’s a winner!” events from primary school sports days. It’s a small country, and as one journalist told tn2: “it’s a lot easier to make enemies than friends in this industry”. By adhering to a standard of unrealistic fairness where everybody gets a pat on the back, no small amount of doubt is thrown upon the accuracy of the Awards’ shortlists.

The one category where new writers don’t have to compete with established giants is “Newcomer of the Year”. Featuring debut writers backed by smaller, often more adventurous publishers, the category gives readers the best impression of the current literary scene. There is a freshness to the category that the rest of the awards lack, however it is still plagued by the same problem of artificially equal representation among publishers. Regardless of this, the category allows Ireland’s newest wave of talent - the “post- crash stars”, as the Guardian referred to them - to shine.

Strong writers fill this year’s shortlist, all of them female. Anne Enright, talking to the Guardian, spoke of “a confidence in female voices that I haven’t seen ever before – a hugely important thing. Traditionally, Irish writing has been about breaking silences. The biggest silence has continued to be about the real lives of women”. One only has to look at Louise O’Neill’s examination of the realities of rape in small town Ireland in Asking for It, or walk the post-crash streets of Dublin with Caitriona Lally’s main character Vivian in Eggshells to hear these silence-breaking voices.

Speaking to Tn2, Lally talked with delight about being shortlisted. “[It’s] still a shock. It came out of the blue, I presumed Eggshells was going to die a slow gradual death and then both the Irish Times Book Club Choice and the shortlisting came all at once.”

There is a growing level of excitement and innovation in the Irish literary scene. Numbers attending book launches are up. A generation of post-Tiger writers are exploring and dissecting the current state of their country with gusto. The Irish Book Awards’ tenth anniversary, despite certain flaws, promises to be a spectacular occasion that will simultaneously venerate the established greats, while welcoming new bright young things into the limelight. It is unquestionably an exciting time to be an Irish writer.

WORDS BY MICHAEL MULLOOLY 13

BODY POLITICS Art Editor Hanna Amadeus Harte considers the controversial role women’s bodies have played in the world of art, both as objects of the male gaze and as mediums for political expression.

Do women have to be naked to get into the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York? Less than 4% of the artists in the Modern Art section are women, but 76% of the nudes are female. This is the dictum of the New York Guerrilla Girls campaign which has been repeated three times since 1989. In fact, since then, the representation of female artists, in this apparently world-class institution, has dropped in numbers. Outside such institutional contexts is where the nude is used by women to convey more than just sex appeal.

The #freethenipple campaign began in Iceland in 2014 when a college feminist society decided to protest Instagram’s censorship policy. In response, thousands of women posted pictures of their bare breasts in protest to what they deemed a double standard of censorship, which forbid the posting of female nipples on the basis that they are inherently sexually explicit. This includes photos of women breastfeeding, which have been 14

deemed too obscene for the public eye. Of course, this idea comes from a heteronormative framework in which female bodies exist primarily as sexual objects of desire for straight men, whilst male chests are constructed as innocent, lustless, simple skin. Coupled with the fact that these images aren’t marketable commodities as is the case with the majority of visual economies of the female flesh, it makes sense that Instagram’s rigid stance on the issue is not subject to change any time soon.

Yet nudity in this context is not just vague subversion for subversion’s sake; there is a relevant contextual backdrop. This web of political complexities is thickened when we consider the intersection of representations of the naked feminine body with race, ethnicity, and culture of origin in art and galleries. The same politics of the female nude apply in the realm of visual cultures such as photography, advertising, and social media.

“The absence of black women’s bodies as purveyors of respectable beauty affects not just mainstreams visual cultures, but also carves a haunting hole in the art world.”

Through depiction in art, media and other forms of visual cultures, stereotypes, roles and standards are formed which become crystallised in our social consciousness. In which case, power relations are fundamental to the concept of visual representation, especially concerning sites of vulnerability such as the nude. According to the feminist politics of positioning, the “bearer of the look” - in other words, the artist or photographer and their gaze - holds more power than naked subjects being conveyed in the resulting images. That’s why when women take the camera into their own hands and shoot themselves: they are using it as a technology of resistance.

Bare chests became a focal point of Western feminist online activism for a host of prominent celebrities such as Cara Delevigne, Rihanna and Miley Cyrus. Yet one thing is clear: #freethenipple is vastly composed of white, thin, conventionally beautiful, perky and respectable racks. This is precisely the problem with white feminism: those who have the privilege of navigating patriarchy with a social visa of whiteness and a beauty that mimics standardised airbrushed media norms tend to conveniently forget their sisters whose bodies don’t. These are their sisters who are black and brown, fat, differently abled, hairy, and who are underrepresented because they exist on the outskirts of representational convention. They also tend to live outside the kinds of Western societies where the censorship of a nipple is deemed worthy of such activist energies.

The absence of black women’s bodies as purveyors of respectable beauty affects not just mainstreams visual cultures, but also carves a haunting hole in the art world. Art historian Judith Wilson did a study in the 90s on images of blackness in Western art; a vast archive of over 25 thousand images revealed that black female nudes were rarely painted by African American artists in the 19th century. The only recorded image she could find in this century was of a black female nude painted by a visiting Swiss artist. Only in the 20th century did the black female nude become a permissible subject of depiction in Western art.

Postmodernist African American painter Emma Amos claimed that when a black female nude is represented in art, there are disparate connotations between portrayals of white female bodies: “It means something else when a black woman has no clothes on, it means that you are for sale.” The powerful work of artist, Nona Faustine, in her photographic series White Shoes explores the legacy of New York’s slave trade by positioning herself completely nude, except for a pair of white high heels, in parts of the city built on the sweat and blood of slavery. The shoes she wears represent the patriarchy which we cannot escape, but it is significant that she is using her body to reclaim this oppressive grip by walking on it. She uses her bare flesh to lament the legacy of slavery and resist against the white standard of female beauty which plagues our media.

Perhaps one of the most subversive acts of resistances using one’s naked body as a political canvas comes from Egyptian ex-Muslim rebel Aliaa Magda Elmahdy, who had to seek political asylum in Sweden for her tactics after uploading a naked photo of herself to her radical women’s rights blog, A Rebel’s Diary. Why nudity? In a raw blogpost, Elmahdy answers with her story of “abuse directed at my body, which is just the average story of any Egyptian woman....I got sexually harassed tens of times daily, which still gives me nightmares, but I only have time to mention a few incidents here. When I was a small child, another small child kept touching my ass in a market. [My parents] said it was normal and my father should walk behind me to prevent it. In middle school, I was sitting next to a boy when he groped my breast in front of a teacher who told me to stop when I yelled at the boy. Another time, another boy verbally harassed me, and another teacher told me I should wear looser shirts. More frequent were the insulting comments ... “What are you wearing, slut?” … “I saw your ass.” … “I wanna fuck you.” … “Hey, stupid gal!” ... “Can I pop this plastic bag in your face?”

After posting her self-shot nude on her blog, which also contains videos of women walking naked and dancing on the streets of Iran in protest of the repressive state, Elmahdy was kidnaped twice and faced an attempted rape for her “crime”, before fleeing to Sweden. She continues on her blog, “Nudity is used in art to express different things. In my photo, I express my defiance for the view that a female body is a commodity to be owned and controlled.” As a response to Daesh (aka ISIL) who use rape as a weapon of war and hold hundreds of women hostage in sex slave captivities, her most defiant shot to date was her collaboration with another ex-Muslim from Femen, a feminist direct action group known for their nude protest repertoires. Pictured, she menstruates proudly on the Daesh flag, whilst her collaborator defecates and shoves two fingers in the face of this misogynistic regime.

Noted Egyptian-American journalist Mona Eltahawy claimed that Elmahdy “is the Molotov cocktail thrown at the Mubaraks in our heads – the dictators of our mind – which insists that revolutions cannot succeed without a tidal wave of cultural changes that upend misogyny and sexual hypocrisy”. Elmahdy is thus committing cultural warfare, a more militant side of resistance through reclaiming her body, which serves as a loud reminder that stereotypes of Middle-Eastern women as submissive and passive are ill founded. The female nude in art and visual cultures has always been a political battleground, yet most of the shots have been fired not from the confines of the male gaze, but when women reclaim their flesh and use it to get their voices heard.

WORDS BY HANNAH AMADEUS HARTE 15

FROM STAGE TO SCREEN

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Fresh off his performance of Richard III at the Rose Theatre, Kingston, Robert Sheehan speaks with OisĂ­n Vince Coulter and Sorcha Gannon about living in London, working with Trevor Nunn, and the differences between acting in television and theatre.

How do you like London?

I love London. I’ve lived there for the best part of five years. Well, I mean before I started the Shakespeare thing I was in Los Angeles for a year, standing around, doing a little bit of work.I did a couple of films out there, but then came back to do this Shakespeare thing and in all truth, kinda came back and just sort of breathed, sort of exhaled: ‘I feel closer to home again’.

In all seriousness, it’s funny; LA can seem so utterly foreign, you know. I’ve been out there and back so many times and then went and actually lived there but it seems more foreign now than it does when I first went there.

I suppose it’s just lost a bit of its pizazz, but London just continues to gain pizazz – and, to do Shakespeare in London is incredibly meaningful, under the lovely Trevor Nunn.

Is this your first Shakespeare performance? And you’re the villain?

It is, and I am the villain. We’re sort of thrown in at the deep end in many ways, because we had nine weeks to rehearse all three plays, a Shakespeare adaptation of Henry VI parts one, two and three, and Richard III, all of which are mammoth plays in themselves.

So Peter Hall and John Barton back in the 60s took it upon themselves to adapt those four plays into this daylong trilogy that you could start at 11AM and power through right to 11 o’clock at night.

How did you maintain your stamina for that? …a lot of caffeine?

You know what, during rehearsals I didn’t have any caffeine, because when you’re relying on something like that – false energy – can let you down at the best of times, or sort of bring you on this roller coaster of energy which isn’t good either. I try and eat as much as I possibly can, and that requires getting home wrecked after a day and making a packed lunch, and making a sort of a supper, and food for the next day.

Especially on trilogy days – which happened on a Thursday and a Saturday – we’d all come in with big boxes of pasta. I’m a skinny guy anyway, but I’ve lost weight doing this thing because the Richard in our sort-of-adaptation is incredibly agile. There’s loads and loads of sword fights, snarling and biting and crying and sweating, and by the end of it I’m just a shadow of my former self.

You’ve been called a sex symbol. What was it like playing a physically impaired person?

Trevor – Sir Trev – very much wanted to encourage and accentuate the kind of youthful sort of exuberant Richard. Very much charismatic, very much a child when you first meet him in the second play of Henry IV and then you watch him experience the death of his father and go through all these really harrowing things. You know, at the beginning of Richard III he’s sort of going “What the fuck am I going to do now?” So he decides to just kind of turn everything upside down again.

So there was this sort of cheeky, young, brash thing that Trevor was constantly bringing out. So as an example, there was points when even when I’ve won my first sword fight I kind of do this great big like jump in the air, like a kid. It’s just really un-Shakespearean, un-Richard-like and really irreverent, that was very accentuated. As far as the deformity, I’m sort of hunched, my bodies kind of twisted into this chaotic thing, my arm is withered across my body. I’ve got a built up shoe on one leg for a limp, and a brace all up this leg. It’s very tough on the lower back.

You really became a big name as a result of your TV work: Misfits in the UK, Love/Hate in Ireland. Would you consider going back to TV? I have no qualms! There’s no exclusivity when it comes to platform, if there’s a good televisual project or a film project, you just sort of have to take it as it comes and usually the stuff that is worth being in requires a lot of fighting for, and the stuff that kinda comes your way is usually the stuff that could be seen as unambitious. It’s only once in a blue moon that the stuff that’s really great is also the stuff they really want you for; it’s so very rare.

You kinda have to keep singing for your supper. And that can come in all forms! The next few things: I’m doing this movie that I’ve talked about a few times, called the Statistical Probability of Love at First Sight, which is kinda an exploration of the science of love and attachment, basically. It’s about this young girl, she’s like 19, and she’s flying back to London to her dad’s second wedding, and her family was torn apart by the fact that her dad left her mum, and she has a lot of resentment.

And then she meets this young man in the airport who is a psych-major at Yale, this English guy, who very much believes the same thing and they sort of talk about how love is insanity, and the wreckage it leaves in it’s wake. But also while they are talking about this they’re starting to feel attachment throughout the whole thing. So it’s a very science-proofed love story. That was directed by a guy called Dustin Lance Black who directed a few films but he’s more known for writing – he wrote Milk, J Edgar - he’s quite politicised - so this is something completely unpolitical for him as well.

What Irish actors and directors are you interested or inspired by at the moment?

At the moment, Irish actors, Michael Fassbender, Cillian Murphy are definitely my two guys at the moment. Although, you know, I saw Colin Farrell in the Lobster last night and he was fantastic and he’s so very unColin Farrell, he was great in that, definitely.

Interview and Photographs facilitated by the Hist.

WORDS BY OISÍN VINCE COULTER AND SORCHA GANNON PHOTOS BY OISÍN VINCE COULTER

“The stuff that is worth being in requires a lot of fighting for, and the stuff that kinda comes your way is usually the stuff that could be seen as unambitious. It’s only once in a blue moon that the stuff that’s really great is also the stuff they really want you for; it’s so very rare.”

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Pacific North West Photographer: Eavan McLoughlin Camera: Canon 5D MKIII

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“We have everything in Ireland to breed snails. If the French, Germans and Italians can do it then why can’t we?”

g n i z a l b l i a r T d o o F h s i r I 20

Food Editor Rachel Cunningham speaks to Eva Milka, the woman behind Gaelic Escargot.

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n Irish business that has taken off at decidedly more than a snail’s pace, is the Carlow-based Gaelic Escargot. In Ireland, snails are better associated with (eating) our cabbages than with (being eaten on) our dinner plates, a notion that Gaelic Escargot seeks to overcome. Eva Milka arrived from Poland towards the end of 2006 to work in the Irish hospitality sector. Although escargot is not a popularly consumed product in her native Poland, she and her partner Lucas Kurowski found that they could not get enough of the delicacy after first sampling the gastronomic gastropods in France.

Initially, they began breeding them in their one-bedroom apartment in Kilkenny simply to satisfy their own appetite but they soon saw the potential for growth in the project.

Eva spoke enthusiastically to tn2, expanding on the surprising health benefits linked with eating escargot. They are apparently low in fat and calories (with much less than beef and cheese), full of protein, high in Omega 3 fatty acids and packed with amino acids that are essential for the body. Evidently, the Dublin-born chef Richard Corrigan agrees, given that they featured on his menu when feeding the Irish Rugby team during their pre-season this year. This is the knowledge that Gaelic Escargot hopes to spread, aware that the Irish public is essentially unaware of snails as anything other than garden variety pests. Milka believes that because of their healthy and nutritious components, escargot will begin to grow in popularity as a naturally sourced ingredient in food supplement in the next five years.

She points out that no part of a snail goes to waste, explaining that the meat and eggs, or “snail caviar,” can be used for consumption, while the slime, or “extraction”, is utilised in the pharmaceutical sector. In cosmetics snails are finding rising popularity in Japan and in snail mucus facials that are now available in Thailand. Even the shells contribute to a calcium enriched fertiliser and the liver that must be removed before cooking the larger farm variety has recently begun to be incorporated into a pâté.

Although sustainable creatures, beginning the farming process requires quite a bit of shelling out with little guarantee on return. It costs €3,000€4,000 per tonne of snails and, with 400 snails kept per m2, the initial setup is expensive.

Next year, Gaelic Escargot intend to source their snails in Ireland, thus cutting back on some of these costs. However, Milka admits that, as it

is a trial and error process, they have spent a fortune on mistakes. Their farm has been divided into 16 sections, with separate experiments taking place in each to ensure the best quality is supplied. This is where the Irish have shown them their support, giving them the confidence to know that it’s not just the two of them who believe in this venture. They’ve won numerous prizes for their enterprise, including the Bank of Ireland startup award in the Food & Drink category, the Best Young Entrepreneur Award, and they have been funded by both the Arthur Guinness Fund for entrepreneurs and their local Carlow Enterprise Office.

After spending time gathering information, they quickly learned that differences in Irish climate and topography meant that the previous breeding systems established by Poland, Italy and France were not applicable here. Not only are they paving the way as the first snail farmers in the country, but they also consider themselves to be a research and development centre. Milka says “the work is extremely enjoyable but it’s a challenge to build a system from scratch without expertise”, going on to say that, as a farming country with excellent resources, “we have everything in Ireland to breed snails. If the French, Germans and Italians can do it then why can’t we?”

That Gaelic Escargot can boast their product as free-range and Irish grown certainly works to their favour in the continental market. As it stands, they’re operating through a Polish supplier to run a purely export business, giving the term snail mail a whole new context. They supply mainly to France, Italy and Spain, and a snail shortage in Europe means that they have a guaranteed demand. They have also been investigating the Irish market and although the interest is too small at this early stage in their production - they’re in their second commercial year - Milka claims that there has been some notable interest in both Galway and Cork.

Those looking to learn more are encouraged to attend their seminar in Carlow entitled Introduction to Snail Farming in Ireland, an “intense half a day” where initial set-up factors for heliculture (snail farming) as well as markets, costs and sponsorship opportunities are explained. They consider education to be the key for progress, hoping that it will lead to a thriving Irish industry in the future. What baffles Milka is how the Irish, particularly on the west coast, are willing to eat periwinkles (sea snails), and yet they continue to regard the land version as vermin. She sees the establishment of other farms as the only way forward in Ireland, as it would lead to competitive prices for the consumer, and an opportunity for the breeders to learn from each other.

At the moment, with only herself and Kurowski working on the farm, Eva feels that they currently “wear too many hats” to give cracking the Irish market their undivided attention, but she is hopeful that it will happen in time.The market trials they have done, in Dublin’s Restaurant 41 and at Carlow Food Festival, have proven to them that the Irish resistance is largely psychological as customers seem to enjoy the taste once the product is disguised. Her next aim is to find an Irish ambassador, be it a recognised chef or a renowned rugby player, to support what they’re doing, promote them as a healthy food source and ultimately break the stigma around the consumption of snails.The self-proclaimed “mother of Irish snail farming” concludes by saying that she is proud of the trail Gaelic Escargot has blazed to date and although the journey to solidify their name in Ireland will be long, she’s positive that they are taking baby steps in the right direction.

WORDS BY RACHEL CUNNINGHAM ILLUSTRATIONS BY MUBASHIR SULTAN

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Every Person,

Without Distinction of Sex Caitlin Scott speaks to Lian Bell and Melissa Sihra about #WakingTheFeminists, the movement that’s challenging the Gender Bias in Irish Theatre.

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n the 28th October 2015 Fiach Mac Conghail, Director of the Abbey Theatre, announced the Abbey’s programme for the 1916 commemorations, entitled Waking the Nation. Intended to “interrogate rather than celebrate” the Rising, the ten-play lineup includes both newly commissioned plays and the “best plays of the last 100 years”. However, the programme has generated some controversy with its selections. Surprising some and confirming others’ fears, women, it seems, have been left out of the bill. Only one out of the ten playwrights is a woman; only three of the directors are female. The uproar the announcement received sparked a rebuttal of Waking The Nation and a surge of female empowerment in theatre: #WakingTheFeminists was born.

Lian Bell, a set designer and arts manager, is a prominent spearhead of the campaign. Her frank, honest and open discourse has inspired individuals across the country and the world to join the debate. Dr Melissa Sihra, author of Women in Irish Drama and lecturer at Trinity College Dublin, has been inspiring similar discussions amongst the student body. Their call to action has been heard and, thanks to #WakingTheFeminists, gender inequality in Irish theatre is finally being discussed.

Gender-bias in Irish theatre is nothing new. Twitter erupted in the weeks following the announcement with comments of disgust over the Abbey’s blatant disregard of the integral role women played in both 1916 and in Irish theatre. A shocking expunge of women from Irish history, Waking the Nation was the final straw of a long-biased tradition. Working in theatre, inequality, like in many other industries, is commonplace. As a female set designer and arts manager, Lian has battled with bias both externally and internally: “I think I unconsciously pushed against being seen as ‘just’ a girl. - which says as much about my own unconscious gender bias as that of the world around me.”

For Lian, gender inequality often manifested in subtle and unconscious ways: “I don’t know if I can pinpoint specific stand-out examples of bias or marginalisation happening to me. I think it’s more insidious than that, and only becomes clear when you take a step back and look at things in a broader sense. I know that, without meaning to, I can change the way I speak when in meetings with men when I get the sense that things will go more smoothly and get done more quickly if I don’t look as smart as I am.

I don’t like that I do that, and I try to stop myself. Thankfully it doesn’t

happen that often. It’s an awful feeling doing it, and to know that it works but I don’t think it’s that uncommon a thing for women to do.”

Melissa agrees that this bias is deeply rooted in Irish theatre, and casts doubt on the legitimacy of the festival’s “interrogation” of the Rising: “It is simply an injustice which does not interrogate the Rising in any way but rather re-affirms the insidious, ingrained, gendered bias of Irish theatre, culture and politics. The promise of equality in Article 3 of the 1922 Irish Constitution, which stated that ‘every person, without distinction of sex, shall... enjoy the privileges and be subject to the obligations of such citizenship’, was not followed-through in the following decade. The falsepromise/myth of equality upon which the Irish State was founded has been carried-through in this contemporaneous re-enactment of sexism where women simply do not figure as subjective human beings.”

It’s impossible to tell how much talent the industry has lost to sexism. Lian says: “A lot. I’ve had many messages over the past week from older women who have stopped working in theatre, and hadn’t really talked about it because they felt it was entirely their own failure. I’ve had messages from younger women who have been considering giving up because it’s been so hard. I’ve had messages from students who are worried that they’ll never get work.” Speaking at the launch of the Abbey’s programme, Tánaiste Joan Burton stated the importance that the 2016 Centenary Programme is “inclusive and reflective of all narratives on this island. We, as citizens, owe it to the Republic that we live in today to allow political debate, discussion and analysis of all the threads which have led to the creation of our modern State.” If 2016 is supposed to belong to everyone, it is baffling that a national, state-funded theatre can completely overlook gender equality, a seemingly basic concept.

The perplexity continues when it is considered that the theatre that has neglected the female voice was itself co-founded by a woman. Melissa was disgusted by the omission of Lady Gregory from the programme: “She co-wrote, with WB Yeats, the most significant Irish play: Kathleen Ni Houlihan, which, for better or worse, inspired young men and women to mobilise for an independent Ireland, to join the IRB and to fight in the 1916 Rising. Gregory is central to the era, to its representation and its transformation in art and political change and yet, she is completely excluded from the Abbey stages in 2016 - annihilated from all recognition

“I’ve had messages from younger women who have been considering giving up because it’s been so hard. I’ve had messages from students who are worried that they’ll never get work.”

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as an artist-activist, theatre manager, playright, Abbey founder and boardmember. She was a gifted dramatist and purveyor of Irish folk tradition, and yet she is 100% absent from the Waking the Nation Abbey program.

For this shocking elision, The Abbey Theatre must be interrogated. Further we must not forget that not one of her plays was produced on either stage at The Abbey for the 2004 Centenary program.”

According to Lian, the reaction to #WakingTheFeminists has been overwhelmingly positive. “There’s a sense that this has really been a very long time coming and that’s why it was so close to the surface. A number of directors of companies, venues and festivals have come out publicly saying that gender equality is important for them and their organisation. We’ve had large numbers of messages of support, as well as individuals publicly writing testimonies. The media attention in the past week has been huge and is continuing - we’re also getting quite a lot of international attention, thanks to the support of people like Meryl Streep, Nicole Kidman and Wim Wenders on Twitter.”

The strength of the campaign was clear to see last week when #WakingTheFeminists took over the Abbey for a day of protest. As Lian said: “I knew we needed to take the conversation off social media and into the real world, even for a short while,and using the Abbey Theatre was hugely symbolic. I think it was important to give everyone a chance to physically show their support for each other. Which is the only reason this whole thing has happened - by people deciding not to be afraid, and by other people supporting them in that decision.” For Lian, the task is not to debate equality: “Equality is not up for debate. What we need to do is plan real strategies and policies that we can stand by and will serve us. Speaking entirely for myself, I’m not interested in hearing an apology - I don’t think anyone can apologise for the breadth and extent of gender bias in our society, and I’m not sure what good it would do. I’m far more interested in people and organisations making a commitment to implement change.”

The Board and Director of the Abbey have admitted that Waking the Nation neglected gender equality, and have committed themselves “to develop a comprehensive policy and detailed plan to help address gender equality with the cooperation and input of the wider Irish theatre community”.

However, Lian believes, that the further change can be spread, the better: “If there’s a way to make it a sectoral change, that would be great. If it

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“If there’s a way to make it a sectoral change, that would be great. If it spread further than just in the theatre, that would be amazing.” spread further than just in the theatre, that would be amazing.” Criticism has been expressed about the disparities in the Irish film industry in which it has been suggested that a mere 13% of produced screenplays between 1993 and 2013 were written by women. Lian was among the many who were heartened by the Irish Film Board’s recent statement, acknowledging the major underrepresentation of women in Irish film and announcing its new strategy which will “declare its strong and heartfelt commitment to gender equality and diversity as a strategic priority”.

The future is positive for women in theatre and beyond, but Lian warns that we must not become complacent if we are to do justice to those whose work we have neglected in the past, have yet to see, or yet to cultivate: “I think that the most poignant, heartbreaking and hopeful image that came out of Thursday’s meeting was one where playwright Anne Devlin, whose award-winning plays have never premiered in Dublin and never been produced by the Abbey, is walking towards the front door of the theatre, with the #WakingTheFeminists team smiling out from the first floor window.” #WakingTheFeminists looks forward to the day when Devlin, and the work of so many others, will finally be given a just place on the stage that it deserves.

WORDS BY CAITLIN SCOTT AND ELISABETH ROCHFORD PHOTOS BY BRYAN O’BRIEN AND Fiona Morgan

REVIEWS JESSICA JONES NETFLIX ●●●●●

Last April the inevitable happened. The two most unrelenting movements in pop culture at present, The Golden Age of Television and The Golden Age of Superhero Adaptations, joined forces to bring us Daredevil. Daredevil was the first of four individual superhero series to be commissioned by the Marvel-Netflix axis; this with the intention of bringing them all together in one Avengers-style mega-series called “The Defenders”. The Marvel universe is vast, expanding and, at present, all consuming.

Its “character library” boasted over 7,000 members at last count. So why is Jessica Jones, a one-time superhero pursuing a career as a private detective, worthy of headlining the next Marvel cashcow?

Daredevil’s first season was a revelation. This was predominantly down to its exhilarating fight scenes, the likes of which have never been seen before on television. However, the show’s own brand of cocaine-ballet often served compensation for some of the show’s weaker aspects. Daredevil is, for all intents and purposes, a tonal disaster. The gouts of blood and head-stomping always sat uneasily with the office shenanigans that went on in the B-Plot. By comparison, Jessica Jones is utterly assured in its intentions. The show riffs off a lot of different noir tropes, from its bleak, tinny score, to Jessica’s hard alcoholism to her weary, laconic voice-over (which is thankfully used rarely enough that it doesn’t get annoying).

Krysten Ritter, best known as Jane from Breaking Bad, is supremely competent in this role. Jessica has been consciously written as

quite a reserved character but there is the sense that, like all great noir detectives, there is an ocean of rage and melancholy thrashing about beneath the surface, and this gives the show its dramatic tension. Her combined workaholism and alcoholism act as a stopgap, enabling her to (barely) keep herself together. But what is eating Jessica Jones?

From the pilot episode we know that it involves a very creepy English guy named Purple Man (David Tenant). Purple Man is without a doubt the greatest villain that Marvel have brought to our screens, small or big, thus far (sorry, Wilson Fisk). Much like Voldemort, part of what makes Purple Man so frightening is how sporadically he appears in the opening proceedings. In the first couple of episodes, he is somewhat ethereal; you rarely see his face and in the majority of cases, he is merely alluded to by the other characters.

What makes Purple Man truly terrifying however is the nature of his superpower: mind control- the ability to make anyone and everyone do his bidding. This concept has some really horrifying implications, particularly with regard to sexual consent. Purple Man predominantly uses his “gift” for petty abuses of power, in one case making a room full of people shut up because he needs to read a text message. However, these abuses happen early and often, and they serve as a constant reminder of his capabilities.

Really, the show’s handling of superpowers in general is what sets Jessica Jones apart from its numerous contemporaries in the

Marvel universe, particularly when it comes to Jessica’s own powers. Jessica spends most nights documenting the sordid affairs of Hell’s Kitchen-based businessmen at the behest of their wives, and drinking herself into a stupor.

She’s not, strictly speaking, a superhero. She does possess a “gift” though; superhuman strength. In flashbacks, we see Jessica trying out “this whole superhero lark” for the first time, but something about it isn’t very convincing.

What Jessica Jones poses is a third option to the typical superhero/villain divide: what if you got superpowers and used them only sparingly, and spent most of your time trying to put bread on the table and swigging Jim Bean?

By comparison, Matt Murdock’s (The Daredevil) character arc has an element of infuriating inevitability about it. He gets some radioactive gunk in his eyes as a kid, he gets a mentor who teaches him to fight until he is a certified badass and then what else will Matt Murdock do but go out and fight some goddamn crime? As the predominantly Trinity Arts Block based audience that this publication yields will surely attest, one does not necessarily leave education and go straight to becoming a useful member to society. Jessica is not a superhero, or even a regular hero.

She is a good-for-nothing, binge-drinking, millennial washout who can’t even remember to buy toilet paper let alone save the day. Jessica Jones may not be the superhero-turned-private investigator that we deserve, but she is most certainly the one we need right now.

WORDS BY J. FINBAR LYNCH

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THE JAPANESE LOVER: A NOVEL

Ever since the publication of The House of the Spirits, Isabelle Allende has become one of the most prominent and influential Latin American writers of our time. Her latest novel, The Japanese Lover: A Novel, published by Atria Books, was one of the most highly anticipated books of 2015. While not of the same standard as Allende’s earlier work, The Japanese Lover is a compelling story that is worth a read.

ISABELLE ALLENDE ●●●●○

Like some of her earlier novels, The Japanese Lover tells a story that spans decades with a large, vivid cast of characters. Irina Bazili, a care worker in Lark House Nursing Home becomes the secretary of one of the residents, Alma Belasco. Together with Alma’s grandson, Seth, Irina discovers that Alma immigrated to the US in 1939 to avoid the outbreak of World War II, and fell in love with Ichimei Fukuda, the son of her relative’s gardener. However, Alma and Ichimei were kept apart throughout their lives by Japanese internment during World War II, and later by race and class issues.

The novel is an enjoyable read; the characters are complex and vividly portrayed, which

immediately draws the reader into the plot.

Allende has a gift for taking sprawling narratives and presenting them in a clear and compelling manner, and this book does precisely that. The Japanese Lover deals with a dark, complicated period in world history, and it does not shy away from some of the more uncomfortable legacies of that era. For instance, while the topic of internment camps in the US during World War II can be a difficult subject to approach, even today, Allende does not shy away from portraying them. The novel’s keen awareness of social issues sets it apart from many other historical novels. However, it must be said that the writing is not quite as rich and subtle as Allende’s earlier work. Admittedly, this could be an issue with translation, as opposed the quality of the original writing.

The Japanese Lover is an alluring book that deals complexly with social and historical issues, as well as more intimate matters of family and romance. While it may not live up to expectations, it is nonetheless a satisfying read.

WORDS BY TANYA SHEEHAN

SPRING/SUMMER 2016 COS

●●●●○ For Spring/Summer 2016, COS has decided to go back to basics, in a sense. The reinterpretation of classic pieces and staple fabrics are core concerns for the brand this season. Denim, for example, plays an important role, particularly in the womenswear collection. By utilizing such an everyday fabric in items such as an apron dress, that can be worn four ways, and a jumpsuit, COS demonstrates how functional pieces can translate to eveningwear. Similarly, the classic

white shirt is given new life in a tunic with bell sleeves and in dresses with an origami feel. This unconventional use of fabric extends to the jewellery, with denim tightly compressed to look like a semi-precious stone.

The womenswear collection also enforces the idea that traditionally structured pieces can remain effortless. One dramatic linen silk skirt is intricately draped to create a relaxed shape. Elsewhere, a sand coat and blazer, both constructed from flowing viscose, are simplified and tweaked with dropped shoulders. This approach to craftsmanship and comfort finds its most beautiful expression in an asymmetrical backless silk dress, its smooth lines emulating the sand dunes in the work of landscape photographer Renate Aller, one of the many natural references COS draws from this season.

This spirit of reinvention flows through to the menswear collection. Box shirts and boat necks demonstrate how core garments can be revived through alternative tailoring. Traditional craftsmanship and modern textiles collide in one of the most impressive pieces from the entire collection: a translucent grey plastic mac with seams welded using a long-established technique. This industrial, yet totally organic, approach to design can also be seen in the repeated hand-drawn line print coat which takes its inspiration from the minimalist artist Jan

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Schoonhoven.

With this collection, COS continues to build on its ethos of luxury meets functionality. The great success of this season is the ability to produce garments that are at once light and extremely wearable, while also being truly inventive in terms of fabrication and construction.

WORDS BY JOHN TIERNEY

GARDEN OF DELETE

ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER ●●●●●

Daniel Lopatin has been recording as Oneohtrix Point Never since 2007. His career started out in ambience and drone, and as such he seems to be a world away from where he began on Garden of Delete, his latest LP. Listening to the record is like being swept up into an digital maelstrom. It’s an aggressive, abrasive, and unrelenting record that offers little in the way of room for the listener to breathe, and the whole album sounds like a computer in an extended meltdown, desperately spewing out clips of melodies and glitchy snatches of metallic noise. The title of the album is a reference to Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights, and this triptych is in itself a good visual depiction of the chaotic and hellish landscape that Lopatin has now unleashed. It’s almost impossible to pigeonhole the album in terms of genre - at times its brutality makes it sound like metal, while at other times it seems to be some perverse form of EDM. Attempting to dissect any track on the album poses an arduous task - there are simply too many elements to each to prise apart. Ezra, for example, one of the finest tracks on the record, starts off with a moody, stop-start rhythm, before meandering through what

feel like the barest bones of a number of other pieces of music, compiled together into one new and slightly horrific creation. It doesn’t make for easy listening, but Lopatin’s collagelike method of assembling music is certainly intriguing, and the listener that sticks with the track is carried through to a moment of real beauty towards its end. The album doesn’t want for these moments of beauty, but they are always brief and fleeting. The fact that such a disjointed album could ever remain listenable is testament to Lopatin’s musical ability, and the record is more than just listenable, it’s arresting. Other highlights on the album include Sticky Drama, with its sickly sweet but indecipherable vocals, and its incorporation of influences from industrial and grindcore,

and Animals, which the artist described as an attempt to create a “medieval cyberballad”.

One of the most interesting aspects of the album is the totality of its experience, which goes far beyond the music itself. To even attempt to fully understand the narrative of the LP, one has to follow through the numerous online rabbit-holes that Lopatin has created in support of the record. One example of his creations is the eternally pubescent, acneridden, alien Ezra, who on his blog (backdated to 1994) features an interview with Lopatin himself about the album. Then there’s Kaoss Edge, the fictional nineties “hypergrunge” band that Lopatin created a website for; even going so far as to record music for the band which he in turn then self-referentially cited as an influence for Garden of Delete. There’s a definite tone of teenage angst that pervades throughout the album, something that’s mirrored in the (largely depressing) narrative of Ezra, as presented online. It’s a wonderful symbiosis of creative media on the part of the artist that genuinely adds a deeper resonance to the album. However, while the themes at times might seem lofty and carefully wrought, sometimes they are wonderfully mundane - I Bite Through It is, in the artist’s own words, meant to capture “the physicality of biting through something”.

It’s very much an album for our age: we spend countless hours scrolling past junk on the internet, enduring Youtube ads and trying to navigate our way around pop-ups. What Lopatin has done, instead of going around the digital detritus as one would usually do, is to have turned and embraced it and even celebrated it. It’s an album of forgotten internet rubbish, manically hewn together into one of the best electronic releases of the year.

WORDS BY FINNáN TOIBIN

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ASSASSIN’S CREED: SYNDICATE UBISOFT ●●●●○

For the first time in years, all the little things which made the original Assassin’s Creed such a treasure, have been dusted off and reintegrated into a game. Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate is an utter tour de force, one that more than makes up for last year’s mediocre venture into next generation gaming. Syndicate improves upon Unity in just about every sense, while still retaining the bits and pieces that really worked.

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Syndicate’s scriptwriting immediately deserves mention. Multiplayer has been sacrificed entirely in order to nail the single player; an exchange which pays off. It has a powerful and engaging plot which snakes its way through the Industrial Revolution; much like the Knights Templar, the conspiratorial baddies, in this iteration of the series, attempt to take over London. For the first time in the series, the game features two playable characters, twins named Jacob and Evie Frye, who you can switch between at will outside of story missions. Jacob is reminiscent of past protagonists Edward and Ezio; a brash yet lovable rogue whose main idea of a good time is to rally an army of street urchins and factory workers to fight back against those evil industrialists. On the other hand, Evie is more reminiscent of Altair and Connor; generally more interested in living by the (Assassin’s) Creed, as opposed to leading an army. Both help and hinder the other interchangeably and their dynamic relationship is believable and will be familiar to anybody with a sibling. This is helped along by superb voice acting performances and a great supporting cast. However, except some slight digressions in their skill trees towards the

end, Evie and Jacob are pretty much identical to play. This is slightly disappointing, as it would have been nicer to have an incentive to switch between the twins, besides the novelty of getting away from Jacob before his wisecracking becomes overbearing.

In terms of gameplay, London is full of distractions. Instead of a map full of random and overwhelming icons, events pop up as you explore the world, á là Far Cry 4. You can get lost for hours among the dazzling sights of London and the huge volume of side missions.

None of it feels overdone however, and there’s a great variety of missions to choose from. The massive open world assassinations pioneered in Unity have also been retained. Having the freedom to prey on your target whatever way you please is exciting, and features some great set-pieces, including the Tower of London and Lambert Asylum (AKA Bedlam).

The main addition to the gameplay is a rope launcher that can zip you up buildings or across streets in a heartbeat. An eye-rolling but useful lift from Arkham, this tool majorly decreases the time needed to traverse the city. Carriages, the urban equivalent of Black Flag’s ships, can be hijacked, hidden in or simply boarded and driven. Meanwhile, once you’ve driven the Templar’s out of an area, you’ll notice members of Jacob’s gang (‘The Rooks’) patrolling. In a manner similar to Brotherhood’s initiates, these guys can be recruited to help you out, either as some extra muscle or as a distraction. None of this, by the way, is in any way historically accurate, but may well be Syndicate’s most

effective innovation. Instead of Unity’s austere historical detail which was of little interest to anyone outside of a few history buffs, Syndicate has relaxed the world-building rules a little in exchange for making it way more fun to play.

That is not to say the game is completely flawless. Some slight graphical glitches are visible, although nothing game-killing and it’s far less than you would expect from a game of this size. There are also the usual issues with uncoordinated wall climbing, although it is a lot smoother than Unity’s. Perhaps the biggest critique is that the story time is split about 6040 in favour of Jacob. Evie can feel a little too much like a secondary character at points— such as one memorable mission set whereby Jacob screws things up and the consecutive mission is literally just Evie fixing it— and the majority of assassinations are performed by Jacob. However, Evie is a far more intriguing character than her brother, and her missions tend to be more memorable, so this discrepancy can perhaps be forgiven.

After Unity’s debacle, it wouldn’t be unreasonable to worry that Assassin’s Creed was on its way out. It seems that Ubisoft realised that too. Compared to the other recent entries, this is a welcome return to form.

Taken by itself, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate is a stunning, breathtaking and genuinely heartfelt adventure, a game which can confidently be declared as revolutionary.

WORDS BY CATHAL SWEENEY

CAROL

TODD HAYNES ●●●●●

Carol continues Todd Haynes’ efforts to tackle his pet theme of female isolation, and the result is possibly his best work to date - no small compliment. The story tracks the relationship between Therese (Rooney Mara) and Carol (Cate Blanchett), from their first meeting in a department store where Therese is employed.

Therese is young and shy, with aspirations of becoming a photographer, and the vague possibility of getting married to her boyfriend, Richard (Jake Lacy). Carol, meanwhile, is older, rich, glamorous, and - it was ever thus tremendously miserable.

Carol is the cause of a sexual awakening in Therese, who is forced to question herself, as well as the society that tells her what she feels is unnatural. “Have you ever been in love with another man?” she asks Richard. He has not.

Carol is far more experienced, having had female lovers in the past. Her lesbianism is known to her husband, Harge (Kyle Chandler), who uses it to try to prevent Carol from having visitation rights to their daughter after they divorce. Therese is, initially, something of a distraction for Carol, yet as their affection deepens, she becomes a liability, someone

BLACK MASS SCOTT COOPER ●●●○○

With 2011’s Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (the fourth in the franchise) and 2012’s Dark Shadows (his eighth collaboration with Tim Burton), many fans had given up on Johnny Depp. The erstwhile heir to Pacino and DeNiro, who had electrified, stupefied, and shown his range in Ed Wood, Donnie Brasco, and Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas, seemed to vanish beneath makeup, prosthetics, and green

for whom Carol becomes willing to risk everything.

Mara and Blanchett - and indeed, everyone else involved - are not lesser actors.

It would be difficult to overstate just how good this film is. Mara and Blanchett give it everything they have, with electrifying results.

The early scenes of their courtship, in which every syllable and gesture is layered with meaning, are among the best ever to appear on screen. The script, adapted from a novel by Patricia Highsmith (who was never afraid to address the subject of homosexual desire), is perfectly pitched somewhere near melodrama.

In the hands of lesser actors, Carol could have been camp and overwrought, but obviously

Haynes, as ever, is full of sympathy for the women who populate his universe, and this sympathy overflows to touch every character in some way. Ultimately, his goal is to criticise the values of the time, rather than to vilify individual people. The period detail is sumptuous, the music is lovely, and the cinematography is stunning. Haynes has given us his third masterpiece. Film of the year.

screen. On paper, Black Mass, Scott Cooper’s take on the rise and fall of James “Whitey” Bulger, seems to offer Depp his greatest role in almost a decade. Bulger is a man who spent twelve years on the FBI’s Most Wanted List, who was found guilty of thirty-one counts of racketeering and money laundering, and who had been considered a “Robin Hood” figure by some citizens in South Boston. It is a shame then that his performance, while committed and undeniably mesmerizing in parts, is not entirely original. The same could be said of Black Mass as a whole.

Set in South Boston during the mid-70s and 80s, Cooper’s film charts the alliance between Bulger and the ambitious FBI agent, James Connelly (a fantastic Joel Edgerton), that led to the eradication of the Mafia, and to the rise of Bulger’s “Winter Hill Gang”. Cooper relies too heavily on clichéd gangster film tropes, such as using interrogation room scenes as a framing device or the vicious gangster beloved by the neighbourhood, to make his film truly stand out. However, scenes of gangland violence are entertaining, and his prowess with actors is undeniable. The underused Benedict Cumberbatch, playing former politician and Bulger’s younger brother Billy, and Julianne Nicholson, playing Connelly’s wife, deliver some of their best work. Surprisingly, it is the aforementioned Edgerton who has the best arc, playing the role with a mix of sensitivity and hubris.

WORDS BY CONOR SCULLY

With a slightly overlong script that excels in showing Bulger’s home life, Black Mass will more than likely be remembered as a return to form for Depp, and could very well earn him an Oscar nomination next year. One can only hope the members of the Academy pay as much attention to Edgerton’s subtle, award-worthy work.

WORDS BY EOIN McCAGUE

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FEATHERBLADE DAWSON STREET ●●●●○

A vegetarian mistakenly walks into a steak restaurant. Not a joke, rather an event, which is now a review. Here’s a better one perhaps: what’s black and noisy on the outside, understated and cosy on the inside? Answer: Featherblade, Dawson Street. Steak eaters would know that a feather blade is a cut of cow; I contained my wince as this was described.

The interior contrasts with the street outside; shiny tile with dark grey, nearing black paint sections, wooden shelves. We sat on wooden benches with a feather filled black cushion, neutralising the discomfort you feel when looking at a hardwood bench.

Cocktails kicked things off. The old fashioned was strong but not overpowering, with evident citrus notes. The lavender gin and tonic had no lavender taste or colour but came with a wedge of grapefruit, and was refreshing and potent. At €7.50, they’re good value by Dublin standards. Starters were the €8 tomato and polenta chips on a bed of leaves, bursting with deep flavour. The balsamic dressing was sweet but not too sticky, not too thick. Also ordered was sole with gremolata, lemon curd, apple and fennel salad. Both of them could have been warmer.

The stakes were high. The steaks were served.

I wished for emojis to be acceptable in print journalism. Let me introduce to you the hero of our story; my omnivore friend. I shall present her views as my own. We ordered the two steaks on offer. The hanger steak was the recommended medium rare with an undescribed marinade with hints of ginger. It was accompanied by the (also recommended) pesto-like sauce of herb and garlic. The feather blade steak with whiskey pepper sauce was tender but reliant on the sauce for flavour. For sides, we got chips and kale, yellow courgette and carrot salad. The perfectly cooked kale had notes of aniseed and no visible dressing, yet

it was perfectly seasoned, topped with lightly toasted sesame seeds. Again, the chips were a little on the cold side. Vegetarians can opt for the famed (so I am told) mac n’ cheese or have two starters.

Be prepared to pay. It’s €13 for a steak and some leaves, but sauce and a side are €1.50 and €3.50 respectively, so realistically the main course is €18. My advice is to go for the cocktails and sides alone, though don’t plan a library session afterwards.

WORDS BY Sarah Taaffe-Maguire I tasted three varieties of doughnut: The Crime Scene, Cherry Gunshot and the aforementioned Dublin Death-trap. The first is a take on redvelvet: rich, soft and filled to burst with cream cheese icing. The Cherry Gunshot manages, unlike almost all other cherry-flavoured things in the world, to taste like fresh cherries, and the Deathtrap is essentially a Boston Cream that puts all actual Boston Creams to shame. They are spongy and light, and manage to be mouthwateringly delicious without being sickening.

All doughnuts are priced at €3 and are so large that even one was difficult to finish.

PLATFORM 61 AUNGIER STREET ●●●●○

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There are few, if any, foods that have moved me to exclaim involuntarily upon the first bite. Aungier Danger’s Dublin Death-trap doughnuts tops that privileged list. These are no paltry local Spar doughnuts, no “half-price in Tesco at the end of the day” doughnuts, and no cartoon pink sprinkled cop doughnuts.

Aungier Danger defies the very concept of doughnut. It transcends doughnutkind.

Despite opening its doors as recently as October 19th, it has cultivated a profile that even well-established eateries must lust after.

The first week saw colossal queues, resulting in a one-per-person doughnut quota, that has since been redacted (thank God). It is not at all unusual for them to sell-out by midday, but thankfully you can keep tabs on the doughnut supply on their Facebook and Twitter. There is some speculation that this fluctuating stock is a PR move, but who cares when their beautiful, beautiful doughnuts say more than any single act of PR ever could.

The shop itself is modest, consisting of a single long counter and no seating space. They also do not accept card. Coffee is sourced from The Barn, a specialist German Roasting Company.

I ordered a long black which I found had a pleasantly distinctive rich, zesty flavour.

However it’s not a coffee I would necessarily seek out again. In Aungier Danger anything that is not doughnuts is backstage. The spotlight is reserved for those heavenly morsels that dance in my dreams.

WORDS BY CLAIRE NÍ CHEALLAIGH

THROUGH A GLASS DARKLY THE CORN EXCHANGE ●●●●○

The Corn Exchange have made a name for themselves as theatrical adaptors of the highest calibre. Previously, they have produced stage versions of Nabakov’s Lolita, Joyce’s Dubliners, and recently an award-winning adaptation of Eimear McBride’s A Girl is a Half-formed Thing, all directed by company-founder Annie Ryan. Their latest adaptation involves a less drastic transformation than the others. Ingmar Bergman’s haunting 1961 film Through A Glass Darkly was itself inspired by the chamber plays of Strindberg, and is constructed around a three-act theatrical framework. Based on a 2010 production, adapted by Jenny Worton, The Corn Exchange bring to the Project Arts Theatre a vivid, disturbing vision of Bergman’s film, that veers between strictly adhering to the source material and taking significant liberties.

The plot concerns a tightly-bound family unit: David, the father (Peter Gowen); Karin and Minus, his children (Beth Cooke and Colin Campbell); and Martin, Karin’s husband (Peter Gaynor). Behind a veneer of family ritual and pleasantries, a web of anxieties and tensions steadily becomes unravelled. David, a successful novelist, struggles with feelings of artistic inferiority as he finishes off his latest book. 17-year-old Minus, tremendously angsty and unsure of himself, is desperate to earn his father’s recognition. At the centre of this, Karin suffers from an unspecified mental illness, and the prospect of her completely losing her mind hangs over the characters, colouring

their private world with a sense of desperate entrapment, typical of Bergman.

One of the most trying aspects of adapting Bergman is conveying his instantly recognisable visual style. Wide shots of the gorgeous Swedish island of Fårö (where Bergman would go on to set many of his films) dominate the film’s steady pace, a pace which can’t easily be translated to the suspenseful, energetic world of the stage. A sense of this romantic vision is captured, however. While the set design is typically minimal for the Project - a blank, grey stage decorated with four sliding screens and incidental pieces of furniture - ambient sounds and lengthy silences give a sense of an island’s still, foreboding calm. There is none of the visual exuberance that characterised previous Corn Exchange productions such as Man of Valour or Dubliners. The lighting is simple and restrained, showing deep respect for the subdued tone of the original.

The script is also remarkably faithful, though a few notable differences crop up. Bar the replacement of one entire scene, the only changes come in the form of snippets of additional dialogue, peppered throughout conversations. These additions by Worton occasionally clash with the cold and admittedly stilted tone of Bergman’s dialogue as directly translated, but they add a dash of humour and humanity to characters, who otherwise can be difficult to relate to. The performances reflect

this change, bringing far more emotional range to their roles than the actors in the film, injecting moments of comic relief and outbursts of emotion into the weighty, philosophical drama they convey. This change isn’t necessarily good or bad; while on the one hand it prevents the despair and hopelessness from becoming overbearing, this was very much a part of the original’s intent. The adaptation also takes the understated moments of personal anguish and sexual torment which the film keeps simmering just under the surface, and explodes them into far more drastic interpretations, turning implications into at times horrifying literals.

Karin and Martin’s sexually frigid relationship becomes all the more frustrated, and Minus and David’s confrontational relationship becomes far more aggressive and outspoken.

These reinterpretations pump new and exciting energy into the story. However, this means that the dramatic highs in the play, when they come, lack the profound, shocking impact that they had in the film.

The Corn Exchange’s treatment of Through a Glass Darkly is ultimately a successful one. The austere island world of Bergman is translated for the most part authentically and with visible admiration, and in spite of occasional issues with cohesion, the deviances from the original offer a bold new vision of the cinematic classic.

Annie Ryan has constructed a piece that should appeal to fans of Bergman and theatre alike.

WORDS BY eoin moore

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NOV 25 DEC 11

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NOV 30 DEC 14

FROM DEC 1

Debut Festival

How to Build an App

Illustrators Ireland

Boiler Room

Samuel Beckett Theatre, €10/€5 concession

Science Gallery, Tickets €100

Central Library, Ilac Centre, Free entry

Generator Dublin, Free tickets

The Debut Festival at the Samuel Beckett Theatre will feature five plays from five directors in their final year of TCD’s drama department. The plays are: God’s Ear, by playwright Jenny Shrawtz, directed by Colm Summers (November 25 - 27); Carmen Disruption,

by Simon Stephens, directed

by Michael-David McKernan (December 2 - 4); Cleansed,

by Sarah Kane, directed by James Ireland (December 2 - 4); The Dumb Waiter, by Harold Pinter, directed by Aoife Meagher (December 9 -11); Attempts on Her Life,

by Martin Crimp, directed by Rachel Bergin (December 9 -11). See the Samuel Beckett website for more information on each play. Tickets are available one hour before each performance from the box office.

With the Web Summit off to Lisbon, Dublin needs to start innovating if it wants to keep its place in the international club of entrepreneurial geekery, and our very own Science Gallery is leading the charge. How to Make An App, an evening workshop for burgeoning developers with a good idea but no place to start, returns for a second round beginning on the 30th of November. Over three successive Monday nights, the guys from Makeshop will show you how to build an app from the ground up, with no expert programming skills required. Promising a start from the most basic first principles, a combination of workshops and online supplements guarantees to have you banging out the next Tinder by the middle of December.

From beloved children’s picture books to comic books and graphic novels, illustration has always had an important place in literature.

Illustrators Ireland is putting on an exhibition in Dublin City libraries displaying some of the best of contemporary Irish illustration.

The exhibition features work by former Laureate na Nóg Niamh Sharkey, CBI Book of the Year Nominees Steve Simpson and Tatyana Feeney, PJ Lynch and many others.

It is currently nearing the end of its run in Rathmines Library, and will be on display in Central Library in the Ilac Centre throughout the month of December.

Following on from the success of their inaugural Irish show back in May, world-roaming clubnight Boiler Room return to Dublin for their second show in this city. Switching things up from their last grime-orientated show, they’re now hosting the cream of Irish house and disco. Their venue for Generator Hostel plays host to New Jackson, The Cyclist, Sias, and Magnier. Tickets are free but distributed through an online lottery system, so be sure to keep an eye on their website or Facebook if you want to get your hands on one. Don’t worry if you miss out, you’ll be able to tune in live through Youtube on the night.

WORDS BY SORCHA GANNON

WORDS BY NICHOLAS KENNY

DEC 3

WORDS BY TANYA SHEEHAN WORDS BY FINNáN TOBIN

dec 7

dec 9

dec 11

DEC 13

Elf

Hot on the Heels of Love

Klubnacht

Smithfield Christmas Market Fair

The Sugar Club, €9-10

IMMA, Free tickets at IMMA.ie

Goethe Institute, €7-11

Generator Dublin free entry

Hot on the Heels of Love is the one off counterpart event to IMMA’s highly popular current exhibition, What We Call Love.

Inspired by themes of the Surrealist movement of the 1920’s such as the productive role of the subconscious in desire and the emancipation of repression, this event takes place in three acts. Firstly, spoken word poetry and a film screening set the scene, followed by a performance art piece by William Hunt, and sending the night off to a close will be musical performances to restore dark impulses, from bands such as Girls Names, Wounded Healer and Ships.

In the slightly unconventional but beautiful surroundings of the Goethe Institute (soon to be undergoing refurbishment), HomeBeat are presenting a fine selection of German and Irish techno.

German producer Lake People is headlining, and might be the most familiar name on the billing, but Irish-duo Carriages, with their brand of folk-tinged electronica, are sure to be one of the most impressive acts. The night is also going to feature a photo exhibition depicting life in Germany before and after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and there will also be a screening of Ellie Land’s award-winning short film, Die Andere Seite.

Tickets are €7 online and will be €11 at the door, and if you’re not sold yet it’s a BYOB event.

The Christmas season is well and truly upon us. Although we might all recoil at the sight of the premature decorations that fill the windows of Brown Thomas, it is hard to say no to the festive treats that come with Christmas. At the Smithfield Fair, you can indulge in your first mulled wine of the season and avail of the opportunity to stuff your stomach with mince pies and endless chocolates. Aside from the food stalls, there are also stalls for free yoga, arts and crafts, and a Christmas film screening, among others.

The Sugar Club have added a second helping of Christmas cheer to the calendar this December, after their first Elf event rapidly sold out. The cosy interior of The Sugar Club is the perfect place to cuddle up with a Christmas film, drink some cocktails and distract yourself from those pesky December deadlines. Guests will get the opportunity to visit Santa, eat candy canes, and get crafty with some homemade decorations. Aspiring elves are welcome to come in costume and spread the Christmas cheer, while any seasonal cynics can have their malady cured by the silliest of festive films.

WORDS BY HANNAH AMADEUS HARTE

For more information and to book tickets, visit www. dublinbookfestival.com.

WORDS BY ANNA GORDON

WORDS BY RACHEL GRAHAM

WORDS BY FINNáN TOBIN

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STAFF PICKS

tn2 writers recommend a few of their lesser-known favourites.

MUSIC THE DANCE OF THE MOON AND THE SUN, NATURAL SNOW BUILDINGS While many artists desperately cling to every inkling of fame that presents itself, others seem to be doing everything they can to remain forever in obscurity. Natural Snow Buildings belong to the latter category. Active since 1997 and having released over twenty albums, the French experimental duo still remain relatively unknown. Not much has been done on the artists’ parts to alter this fact.

Many of their albums are self-released in extremely limited quantities, they rarely play live, and they have given very few interviews. Among certain parts of the musical underground, however, Natural Snow Buildings occupy a legendary status. Particularly well-regarded is their monolithic magnum opus The Dance of the Moon and the Sun. Clocking in at over two and a half hours, listening to the album from start to finish takes a certain kind of dedication, but is ultimately a rewarding and extraordinarily beautiful experience. Long, hypnotic drone pieces, atmospheric post-rock compositions, and gorgeous little folk tunes weave in and out of each other, slowly combining into an otherworldly, sometimes almost frightening, but undeniably beautiful musical creation. There’s something occult about The Dance of the Moon and the Sun: the repetitive, hypnotic drums, droning guitars, and song titles like Rain Serenade and Felt Presence, Ghostly Humming all help conjure up an image of witchcraft and sorcery. If someone were to say that Natural Snow Buildings were New Age druids or Wiccan high priests there would be no objections: their music is surely spell-binding.

WORDS BY DAN LIDHOLM

ART PATRICIA PICCININI

Patricia Piccinini’s work is hard to ignore. Strategically placed at the entrance to her Galway Arts Festival show this year, was a little boy clambering atop a high stack of wobbly wooden chairs, eliciting a sharp intake of breath from visitors before they realised he was in fact an eerily lifelike sculpture. This impulse of concern is at the core of the Australian artist’s practice, which includes large and small-scale sculpture, painting, video and installation.

The figure that reeled you into that particular exhibition was the picture of an adorable, human child, but this is unusual for her work, which usually features strange, monstrous hybrids: old men with the bodies of seals, children with whiskers, women who give birth to mole-like babies through slits in their stomachs. Decidedly alien and yet tantalisingly familiar; each creature confronts you with the limits of your own empathy and acceptance.

The materials she uses are intimately connected with the project of drawing connections between different areas of life. Tapestries made from faux skin and threaded with human hair confront us with our own fleshy materiality, while smooth, shining motorbikes huddled in tender embraces raise thoughts of the increasingly blurred line between our natural and artificial realities. Fun, engaging, and deeply moving, any chance to see this artist’s work is one that shouldn’t be passed up.

WORDS BY RACHEL GRAHAM

GAMES SUBTERFUGE Subterfuge is the kind of game that thrives on smartphones: quick to learn, fundamentally social and easy to drop in and out of on the go, but with a deceptively steep learning curve. Deception is at the heart of the game, in which you control your small empire and attempt to defeat other players either random individuals or your friends. You control an empire of worlds and ships (called ‘subs’) with easy touch and swipe motions, lining up orders into the future using a nifty “clock” mechanic that allows you place orders hours into the future. This is important, as the game plays out in real time. You begin the game with a few worlds, a few subs and some “specialists” who have particular effects. These specialists become more and more important as the game continues. The deception comes in when dealing with other players: it would be tactical suicide to fight everyone at once, making alliances of convenience a necessity, but of course only one player can win. This leads to friendship-ending lies as you quietly build up your forces before suddenly attacking someone when you know they are asleep, leaving them to wake up and realise they’ve misjudged you. This is most enjoyable part of the game, as the mechanics themselves are relatively basic but the complexity of your interactions with other people has no real limit. Indeed, the pleasure of the game comes from the fact that you aren’t just dealing with a computer but your friends.

34 WORDS BY OISÍN VINCE COULTER 34

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