6 For Your Radar: Cork Midsummer Fest, Olivia Rodrigo album, David Gray...
David Gray (left) and Olivia Rodrigo
‘Time to play’ is the theme of this year’s exciting Cork Midsummer programme, evident this weekend alone. is a play about the fragility of friendship and the deep resentments that hide under the surface — it’s staged in an empty swimming pool beneath the Metropole Hotel for the duration of the festival. A free parade headed by Cork Community Art Link takes place on Oliver Plunkett St from 6pm Saturday. At Atkin's Hall on Sunday, author Doireann Ní Ghríofa and composer Linda Buckley team up for a special event as the former celebrates her new book.
After and , Robert Smith’s favourite popstar Olivia Rodrigo eyes Taylor Swift’s spot on the throne with the release of her third album, the all lower-caps . “No matter how hard I try to write love songs they always come out laced with a little melancholy,” she says. After a surprise set at Primavera in a storm-hit Barcelona during which she debuted her duet with Smith, Rodrigo looks set to extend one of pop’s most impressive winning streaks.
Three days, three stages, and a wealth of local, Irish, and international folk talent descend on the “brigadoon-like haven” of Hotel Doolin this weekend. There’s a plethora of delights to choose from, headlined by duos Mick Flannery and Susan O’Neill, and Beth Orton and husband Sam Amidon. Traditional giants Martin Hayes and Cormac Begley share the bill with emerging voices such as RÓIS and Zoe Basha.
Supported by Neil Hannon’s Divine Comedy, David Gray returns to Cork for two sold out shows. His Past & Present tour draws on more than three decades of material, mixing old favourites with new. Before that, Imelda May brings her intimate, stripped-back show to the Marquee on Friday as the Marquee rolls on. Meanwhile across town at Musgrave Park, Kingfishr play the second of two sold-out stadium shows on Friday.
Almost 30 years on from its original release, Paul Thomas Anderson’s breakthrough gets a 4K restoration, released in selected cinemas this weekend. Starring Mark Wahlberg, Julianne Moore, and Burt Reynolds, the action is set in 1977 and disco’s heyday as teenage busboy Eddie Adams comes of age in the burgeoning porn industry as Dirk Diggler. Also at Triskel this week is , starring Charli XCX as a woman who, while on holiday in Poland, reconnects with an old friend and reignites a volatile relationship.
Co-produced by Teac Damsa, Cork Midsummer Festival, Cork Opera House, and Theatre de la Ville Paris, is Michael Keegan-Dolan’s latest dance-theatre work. Set to the landmark 1975 album by the Bothy Band, it brings together seven dancers, blending movement, storytelling and ritual to honour, remember and be inspired by a visionary cultural happening in challenging times. Like Teac Damsa’s previous works such as and , audience can expect a powerful, immersive experience.
