Festival mixes up virtue and vice

ENCOMPASSING all the art forms, as well as food-themed events and debate, Kinsale Arts Festival (Jul 7 to 15) really has something for everyone.

Now in her second year as guest artistic director of the festival, Gemma Tipton is keen to keep surprising the public with an eclectic choice of performances and exhibitions. Last year, Tipton, a curator and visual arts writer, gave the festival an equine theme, reflecting her passion for horses.

This year, Tipton has chosen ‘virtue and vice’ as the theme, which pretty much covers everything. “I try not to be self-centred. The festival isn’t just about things I love. With this year’s theme, it was like having a huge paint box from which to dip into,” says Tipton.

Conscious of the number of festivals running in Ireland during the summer months, Tipton’s goal is to keep the Kinsale Arts Festival fresh and innovative. She says that artists are always agreeable to bringing their work to the festival, such is the reputation of Kinsale as a fun and picturesque town by the sea.

Kinsale doesn’t have a theatre but undaunted, the festival organisers will be erecting a playhouse “which is Ireland’s only inflatable arts venue. It looks like a padded cell. It’s like an enormous inflatable marquee that seats 400 people. We’re putting a stage in it and setting it up as our main festival hub.”

One of the events running in the pop-up playhouse is The Afternoon Tea Sessions. It features writer, Sarah Blakewell, author of How to Live: A Life of Montaigne. Based on the Renaissance nobleman, Michel de Montaigne’s musings on life, Bakewell’s book is, says Tipton, “completely brilliant. When you’re a bit gloomy and depressed and think your problems are unique, you realise that they have been occupying the finest minds in philosophy for millennia.” Also taking part in this programme is journalist, Roisín Ingle and Cork-based psychologist, Zelda di Blasi.

“Zelda is writing a book on the psychology of money and happiness. It’s based on the idea that there’s a certain point in the curve where more money does not bring more happiness.”

The Leviathan Political Cabaret will run at the Trident Hotel. Debating the issue, Why Sex Sells, will be historian, Diarmaid Ferriter, comedian, Kevin Gildea, journalists, Catherine Halloran and Carol Hunt, and editor of the Royalist blog on The Daily Beast website and former gossip columnist with the New York Post, Tom Sykes.

Tipton says the talk will examine why sex continues to sell in the media, “despite our better selves. I always try and read improving newspapers. But if there’s a trashy tabloid lying around, I’m drawn to it and I’m not quite sure why.”

Tipton is delighted that the festival “has a really strong classical music programme including Hendrik Rubel, an amazing cellist and Russian pianist, Roustem Saitkoulov. We have a rule not to bring anyone back to the festival but the incredible Spanish guitarist, Gerald Garcia, was so brilliant in our first year that we’re bringing him back.” The festival’s closing classical concert will be performed by Elizabeth, Finghin Collins and Carol McConnell.

Text Messages by William Shakespeare will see four young and emerging theatre directors rising to the challenge of presenting 160 lines of a Shakespeare play, using two or more actors in no more than 20 minutes each.

“This is about presenting Shakespeare in a way that’s as vibrant as his plays would have been when they were first staged. A lot of us are put off Shakespeare at school. This makes Shakespeare fun, sexy and relevant. It will appeal to young people.”

Tipton is proud of presenting “a strong literary programme”. It includes Conor Brady, former editor of the Irish Times and author of his debut crime novel, A June of Ordinary Murders. Another writer sure to attract a big audience is David Park, acclaimed for The Truth Commissioner and now promoting his latest novel, The Light of Amsterdam. “It’s the best book I’ve read this year,” enthuses Tipton. “It’s heartbreakingly gorgeous and is all about trying to love and the impossibility of communication. It’s also about trying to be good despite what life throws at you.”

Mark Patrick Hederman, the Abbot of Glenstal Abbey in Limerick, will be speaking on the theme of Are Things Ever Black and White? Comedic and satirical author, Paul Howard, will read from his latest book, Triggs: The Autobiography of Roy Keane’s Dog.

Regularly cited as the gourmet capital of Ireland, it’s only fitting that food should play a role at the Kinsale Arts Festival. “Food tickles me. Some people think food is a sin but we have to eat. We should eat well. So, as well as being a vice, it’s also a fundamental virtue.

“The food strand includes a psychological dinner party which promises to change your life. At Crackpots Restaurant, there will be a dramatic dinner with a virtuous course followed by a decadent course and so on. There will be a game of charades with prizes. It’s all in the style of a 1920s movie so it will be a glamorous event.”

Martin Shanahan from Fishy Fishy restaurant will be teaching teenagers how to make sushi. “Martin has said that his life’s dream is for teens to be unafraid of sushi so we’ve decided to help make his dream come true. There’s also a murder mystery dinner at Ballinacurra House. There will be a cocktail making workshop. There’s an event called ‘Forage and Find.’ That’s about picking wild things and making yummy food out of them.”

Sustainability will be under the spotlight when Tim Smit, the chief executive and co-founder of the award-winning Eden Project in Cornwall, will be in conversation with acclaimed film producer and public policy advocate, David Puttnam. Since Eden opened for the Millennium, about 13 million people have come to see what was once a sterile pit turned into a cradle of life containing world-class horticulture and surprising architecture, symbolic of human endeavour. Eden has contributed £1 billion to the Cornish economy and plays a pivotal role in local regeneration.

“David Puttnam is really interested in promoting efforts which are about people doing things for themselves. This conversation about a magical project that could be replicated elsewhere is definitely on the side of virtue.”

One of the last events at the festival will see Dragon’s Den star, Seán O’Sullivan, and Secret Millionaire star, Marcelle Speller, debating the virtue of small, radical and dangerous ideas in changing our world for the better.

“Seán’s theory is that what we’ve been doing all along isn’t working so people have to be brave and take dangerous steps. Hopefully, it will give people a positive way of looking forward, getting us out of the horror that we’re currently in.”