Entertainment
Surreal take on rural life from Little John Nee at Town Hall
Arts Week with Judy Murphy
Sparkplug Callaghan, vintage mechanic and blues man, comes to the Town Hall Theatre next week, courtesy of the one-man powerhouse that is writer, actor and musician Little John Nee.
Sparkplug is a surreal comedy featuring original blues music, which Little John was commissioned to write by the Earragail Arts Festival in 2012. The central character, Sparkplug Callaghan who lives in Tullyglen in rural Donegal, also appeared in Little John’s previous show, The Mother’s Arms.
Sparkplug, which was a highlight of last year’s Dublin Fringe Festival and won an Irish Times Theatre award in February, was in gestation for a while, Little John explains. He’s had two radio plays on RTÉ based on the same character – Sparkplug and Wee Black Bees.
Sparkplug lives in his dead uncle’s disused barn and has got a bad dose of the blues. Everyday there’s another funeral, Joe Duffy is on the radio and the banks are putting people on the side of the road. But across the meadow he sees a vision of a better life. He falls for a bohemian Belfast artist, living in her late father’s dry-docked boat, but discovers he has a rival in the form of an ex-cop.
Little John, who has a great ability to write surreal comedy, loves the notion of exploring a contemporary rural life that’s every bit as culturally rich as city life, but, at the same time, is in touch with the rural landscape, “where the past meets the present”.
He loves developing ways of telling stories, using contemporary narrative techniques and looped music alongside the tradition of the seanchaí or storyteller.
Because Sparkplug is a blues man who is into vintage cars and machines, he marries the past and present perfectly.
“For years I’ve been doing shows and got to wondering what would have happened if I’d stayed on the one theme and focused on developing one character?” Little John says of this show. “That way you can really spend a lot of time developing their world.”
Tullyglen is a place with many eclectic characters and John describes the show as “a rural blues comedy, because there are lots of comedy elements in it. But the music might be more melodic than in others of my work”.
Little John has composed and performs all the music and songs on an eclectic array of instruments from cigar box guitar to harmonium.
He also designed the show’s unusual set. Niall Cranny, of Earragail Arts Centre who previously worked with Druid, lit Sparkplug. Otherwise Little John did everything.
“It was a really low-budget sort of job and a challenge getting it to every stage it got to.”
It got excellent reviews from The Irish Times and Irish Theatre Magazine when it played at the 2012 Dublin’s Fringe Festival and was the subject of an article in The Irish Times by writer Michael Harding, who compared the piece to Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s magic realism style of writing.
Then Sparkplug was nominated in the Irish Times Theatre awards for Best Sound Design – and it won.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune
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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