Entertainment
Transfixed by tales of lakes and epic marches
TV Watch with Dave O’Connell
You’re always wary when a new drama arrives on the small screen already laden down with critical acclaim and heightened expectation – thankfully on this occasion, Top of the Lake lived up to the billing.
This new seven-art drama is set in New Zealand but it’s part-funded by the BBC – so by the time it made it debut appearance on the Beeb here, it had already received its international airing and its instant acclaim.
The pre-publicity was in part down to the cast and crew – it’s written and occasionally directed by Jane Campion, the woman behind The Piano, and it stars Mad Men’s Elizabeth Moss as Detective Robin Griffin alongside – among others – an unrecognisable Holly Hunter as a sort of new-age guru of broken women.
The story is a simple one to start with – the drama opens with a twelve year old girl wading into a lake and immersing herself in water up to her shoulders before a passer-by spots her and hauls her out.
The twelve year old is Tui Mitcham, young daughter of an Oriental mother and Scottish drug-dealing father – and she’s five months pregnant and clearly then the victim of rape.
To describe her domestic situation as unorthodox would be an understatement; her father Matt Mitchum (Scottish actor Peter Mullan) is a bad guy straight from central casting. He keeps dogs and has eight foot fences to protect his patch, but in reality if he simply growled at passers-by himself, no one would ever bother him.
He lives beside the lake in the title, and has two boneheaded sons as henchmen as he rules the local criminal and drugs underworld with an iron fist.
He also believes he has rights to an adjacent spot of land, quite understatedly known as Paradise, but then discovers that a commune of damaged women has moved into an array of old artic containers furnished with matresses and a communal cooker.
You see him bear his teeth at these ladies – all of them suffering from addictions that range from drugs to sex – in an effort to clear them from his land, but then it’s to this eclectic community that young Tui flees when the going gets tough.
Then it gets even tougher and by morning she has disappeared, providing the real start of the story for Top of the Lake.
An investigation needs a hero cop, and this one comes in the form of local woman turned big city detective, Robin Griffin, who is co-incidentally home on a visit to her cancer-stricken mother.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Sentinel.
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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