Mikel Murfi brings his one-man play to Co Cork as part of a new fit-up festival, writes Alan O’Riordan

4/5

The entertainment firm co-owned by Irish actor Cillian Murphy recorded profits of over €360,000 in its first year in operation.

Singer embraces movement and visual performance as she embarks in a new theatrical direction, says Padraic Killeen

Magic Moment: At the launch of her debut collection of subtly-crafted short stories, Waiting for the Bullet, at Triskel Christchurch, Madeleine D’Arcy read the desperately sad Clocking Out, her story about a naive young woman, a lonely outsider, who gives birth in a field.

Test your knowledge of the year just gone with our entertainment quiz. The answers are at the bottom of the page. No peeking now!

Cork actor Cillian Murphy made a triumphant return to his hometown last night when he led a stellar cast at the opening of Enda Walsh’s Ballyturk at Cork Opera House. It was Murphy’s first appearance on a Leeside stage since he first broke through in 1996 in another of Walsh’s plays, Disco Pigs.

Jonathan deBurca Butler asks five culture vultures to give their recommendations for the final weeks of the summer so you don’t miss the best of what’s on offer

As Ballyturk is readied for Dublin and Cork, Enda Walsh is already thinking about his next play, writes Alan O’Riordan.

Black Box Theatre, Galway

John Mahoney has been to Galway so many times, there’s a danger people will forget what he’s best known for. Mahoney for years played Marty Crane, the cranky father to two psychiatrists in sublime US sitcom Frasier-

He has made it big in film and on TV but Cillian Murphy is happier on stage than chasing stardom. Now he’s set to return to where it all began, writes Alan O’Riordan.

MUSIC NEWS: The big issue among the music world’s chattering classes this week has been the announcement of Metallica’s headline slot at Glastonbury.

NOMINATED for ‘best new play’ at the Irish Times Theatre Awards 2014, Mikel Murfi’s one-man show, The Man in the Woman’s Shoes, is a comedy that celebrates oddballs, eccentrics and the plain daft.

Writer and director, John Breen, has no problem being known as the guy who wrote Alone It Stands.

Edna O’Brien’s 1960 novel The Country Girls was banned. Now she has adapted it for the stage, she tells Carl Dixon

NAYD director Orlaith McBride applauds the rise of community drama, reports Pádraic Killeen