Entertainment
Faulty Towers Experience serving up class comedy
The Faulty Towers Dining Experience returns to this year’s Vodafone Comedy Carnival, on October 25, following its sellout success at the event in previous years.
This experience is a loosely-scripted tribute to the much-loved TV series, Fawlty Towers, with new material, all the best gags from the TV series, and a three-course meal.
Its existence is a tribute to the genius of John Cleese and his then wife Connie Booth and to the superb cast of characters they created for this iconic series.
However, when they wrote Fawlty Towers 40 years ago, the two had no idea they were creating an anti-hero and a hotel that would become synonymous with bumbling incompetence. In fact, initial signs indicated that the series would be a total flop.
When BBC executives read the scripts, they thought the jokes weren’t funny, they felt the characters were stereotyped and the hotel setting was too boring.
But they didn’t want to risk upsetting Cleese as he was a comic writer and performer they valued hugely, so rather than reject it they hid it away on BBC2.
When the first show was aired on September 19, 1975, critics panned it and audiences were lukewarm, with viewing figures peaking at 2.5 million. However, it was repeated in January 1976 when audiences grew to seven million. By the time it was repeated again on BBC1 eight months later, Fawlty Towers had become a huge hit, pulling in more than 12 million viewers.
The Faulty Towers Dining Experience will pay homage to this great show by unleashing its trademark blend of comic mayhem on Galway diners and theatre-goers.
The fun starts as the audience are summoned to be seated in the restaurant of the Faulty Towers hotel, and it hurtles along as Sybil, Basil, and Manuel serve the meal.
Basil is manic, Sybil domineering, and Manuel – of course – is hopelessly language-challenged. All the favourite scenes from the series are brought to life while guests enjoy a fine-dining experience. Everything that can go wrong for Basil and company does, in brilliantly orchestrated two-hours of comic lunacy – just don’t mention the war!
■ The Faulty Towers Dining Experience is on Sunday, October 25, in the Salthill Hotel at 7.30pm and tickets cost €45. www.vodafonecomedycarni val.com
Folk duo Niall Teague and Pádraic Joyce are launching their new album What Will We Be, a blend of folk, Americana and acoustic music, this Friday, May 19, at 8pm in An Taibhdhearc.
The success of their well-received 2020 release Taobh le Taobh, as well as recent successes at the Pan Celtic and Oireachtas Song Contests, spurred the duo on to record this new album which represents many years of collaboration and musical development.
It features Niall and Pádraic on vocals, harmonies, and acoustic guitars, Maidhc Ó hÉanaigh on double bass and Neil Fitzgibbon on fiddle. The catchy title track, What Will We Be, features contributions from percussionist Jim Higgins (The Stunning, Christy Moore, Paul Brady) and haunting, driving melodies on vocals, guitar, and fiddle.
Themes of love and hope are woven through Come Away with Me which features interplay between piano and fiddle as well as rich vocal harmonies.
People, places, and broken dreams are celebrated and lamented on Martin and Tom, Guitar Gold, Memories of You and Achill Island. The influence of David Henry Thoreau’s novel Walden features on the tracks Simple and Wise and Walden, with the beauty of nature, escape and simple pleasures at their core.
The album moves from minimalistic folk ballads such as Galway Ghost to swirling, string-laden arrangements on the song Neptune, both of which are influenced by maritime tales from Galway. Much of the work on this album was supported by the Arts Council, including work with musical arranger Eoin Corcoran and the string ensemble Treo.
The album will be launched this Friday, May 19, at 8pm in an Taibhdhearc. Tickets €22, plus booking fee at Eventbrite.ie.
Dunmore is the place to be this weekend for lovers of traditional music, as the Galway County Fleadh will take place there from this Friday, May 19, to Sunday, May 23.
It is 10 years since Dunmore last hosted a fleadh and the local Comhaltas branch, which has re-formed since Covid, is looking forward to facilitating this gathering of music, song, dance and craic.
The official Opening Concert will take place in Dunmore Town Hall this Friday at 8pm with the acclaimed Mulcahy family from Limerick. Mick, Louise and Michelle are well known throughout the country, thanks to their live performances, television appearances and numerous CDs. They were the winners of the TG4 Gradam Ceoil Grúpa Ceoil Award for 2023. Tickets for their concert can be purchased on the door and a great night of music is promised.
Two days of competitions will kick off this Saturday at the town’s Community School, with more than 1,500 competitors taking part. Participants will be hoping to qualify for the Connacht Fleadh 2023, which will be held in Ballina, County Mayo, from June 23 to July 2.
Competitions for those aged Under 10, Under 12 and Under 15 will be held in a large variety of instruments on Saturday, as well as in singing and Comhrá Gaeilge. Sunday’s competitions will be for the Under 18 and Over 18 ages groups, as well as in dancing.
On both days a large entry is expected for Grúpaí Cheoil and Céilí Band competitions across all age groups.
Seventeen Comhaltas branches from across Galway will have participants in this weekend’s competitions, which will result in a large number of visitors to the Dunmore area.
Members of the public are welcome to attend the competitions, which offer a great opportunity to hear and see the talent on display. There will be sessions in local pubs over the weekend as well and everybody is welcome to attend these.
For more information on the County Fleadh, go to www.galwaycomhaltas.ie.
Music for Galway’s concert with renowned Swiss pianist Cédric Pescia which had been due to take place on April 27 but which had to be deferred, will now take place next Tuesday, May 23, at 8pm, in the Emily Anderson Concert Hall at the University of Galway.
This concert of German classics with Bach at its core, will brings the Bach element of Music for Galway’s 41st season to an end.
This world-class pianist who won the famous Gina Bachauer International Artists Piano Competition, has a repertoire that spans many eras from baroque to contemporary and he is widely known for his elaborate programmes. Cédric Pescia describes music as ‘language and movement at the same time’.
Audiences will have a chance to experience his soft, clear touch as he performs a programme for solo piano that will include classics such as Schumann’s popular Waldszenen (Forest Scenes), a suite of nine short pieces, and the penultimate of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, No. 31. These pieces will be interspersed with French Suites by Bach.
■ Ticket for Cédric Pescia’s concert are available at www.musicforgalway.ie, or by phone 091 705962 and on the door on the night. They cost €20/€18. The price for fulltime students of all ages is €6 while MfG Friends can avail of the friends’ rate of €16.
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