Irish-made comedy drama Animals will draw obvious comparisons to shows such as Fleabag, writes Esther McCarthy When Tyler finds flatmate and fellow party animal Laura tied to her bedposts following another hedonistic night out, she has one simple question. “Girls are tied to beds for two reasons — sex and exorcisms. Which was it with you?”

Mick O’Dea is one of Ireland’s finest portrait painters, and he spent three seasons as the artist-in-residence at the Kilkenny Arts Festival, creating portraits of various participants. He tells Richard Fitzpatrick about those sessions, the fruits of which feature in a new exhibition

Every two years, the art world descends on Venice in a flurry of who’s who, cocktail parties, and great outfits, says Michelle Darmody.

Feminism and the female body are hot topics in Irish arts at the moment, as reflected by Jesse Jones and her entry for the Venice Biennale, writes Colette Sheridan

3/5

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Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today

Here’s a briefing on some of the stories and issues highlighted on irishexaminer.com today.

She dressed our own First Lady, Bowie and has been on-set designer for everything from Vikings to The Tudors. Ahead of her appearance at the Fastnet Film Festival, Clodagh Finn watches Joan Bergin at work at Ashford Studios.

A documentary on Máire Mhac an tSaoi gives a rare insight to the poet, writes Richard Fitzpatrick

An Taibhdhearc, Galway

Local actor Cathy Belton is proud to be leading the charge at the Galway Arts Festival, writes Padraic Killeen

MUSIC NEWS: Perhaps it’s fortunate for the Glastonbury organisers that Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs isn’t on their bill this weekend. 

Mary McCarthy is from Whitehall, near Skibbereen, Co Cork. She is director of the National Sculpture Factory in Cork and also chair of Culture Ireland.

IT’S Thursday afternoon and Olwen Fouere and Owen Roe have just gotten out of bed. “We were pretending to have sex,” says Fouere, reassuringly emphasising the “pretending”.

THERE are two ways to read Finnegans Wake: aloud, letting the words wash over you, or with slow methodical parsing, going word-by-word, painstakingly teasing out the implications and associations of Joyce’s polyglot puns and neologisms.

Huge, fire-wielding dragons will invade Galway city during this year’s Galway Arts Festival. The Barcelona-based street theatre company Sarruga will bring the mythological reptiles to the festival. Expect lots of shrieking from the public as they scuttle along Shop Street with alarming speed.

Maria de Buenos Aires uses tango to create a nightmarish underworld, says Jo Kerrigan.

Separating the real person from the image was the focus of Rebecca Daly’s directorialdebut film The Other Side of Sleep, Don O’Mahony reports

Galway Arts Festival is a wild fortnight of theatre, music and comedy, says Carl Dixon

Hundreds of theatre actors and crews are struggling to stay above the breadline with many working multiple jobs to survive, a shocking report revealed today.