Much was expected of Jim Nolan’s – The Red Iron – a play for Waterford, and mingling on the opening night at Garter Lane was a proud feeling as the great and good, the dreamers, the schemers, the shapers, the bright lighters, sipped Blackwater Gin and listened to the Barrack St Concert Band.The...
Author: Liam Murphy
“Into The Woods” Proves Another Carrick Triumph
“Into The Woods” Proves Another Carrick Triumph
Carrick-on-Suir Musical Society is celebrating 75 years of being central, in musical terms, to a community that has seen the rise and fall of post World War II economic and social development. Over those years they established a significant reputation for musical theatre and they excelled themselves with an operatic...
The critic’s verdict
The critic’s verdict
Liam Murphy’s Arts Review of 2017 In general terms, 2017 was a bit of a mixed bag. The buzz of the 1916-2016 Commemoration has dissipated with some ‘carry-over’ before the 1918-1921 Remembrance funding scrabble begins. The awaited Arts Strategy Waterford City & County 2016 – 2021 came out...
A Night For Billy
A Night For Billy
Michelle Condon as director/choreographer assembled a stellar cast; a Who’s Who of Waterford luminaries with musicians, dancers, comedians, performers, technicians, choirs, and Joint Musical Directors in Wayne Brown and Kevin O’Carroll to celebrate and ‘tip the hat’ in ‘A Night For Billy’. The...
TV Review: OJ All The Way (BBC Four)
TV Review: OJ All The Way (BBC Four)
The BBC Four showing of ‘OJ: The American Way’ was a must-watch across a week with such renewed interest in an American sports and movie hero ‘The Juice’ OJ Simpson. Back in 1995, his trial for the murder of his wife Nicole was a television ‘trial of the century’. It made OJ an...
Musical: Tell Me On A Sunday (Everyman, Cork)
Musical: Tell Me On A Sunday (Everyman, Cork)
Musical: Tell Me On A Sunday (Everyman, Cork) There was a sustained, enthusiastic standing ovation for Irene Warren at the Everyman (Cork) in her solo portrayal of ‘Tell Me On A Sunday’. This was a splendid evening of musical theatre written by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Don Black that was a West End and...
TV Review: Redwater (RTE One & BBC One)
TV Review: Redwater (RTE One & BBC One)
The RTE One opener of ‘Redwater’, mostly filmed on location in Dunmore East caught me by surprise. I was expecting a stage-Oirish soap and for a while, I was nodding my head in agreement with myself: a horse on a beach, people dressed as clowns doing some kind of race ending up in the sea and a character...
What now for our regional love-in?
What now for our regional love-in?
Three Sisters bid should not become a wasted opportunity So Galway will be the European Capital of Culture in 2020. But where does that leave Waterford? Will the regional ‘love-in’ go back to some sort of historical distrust of each other? Your guess is as good as mine, and what could have been a...
Between the Lines
Between the Lines
Waterford Film Festival Now in its 9th year, the Stephen Byrne-organised Waterford Film Festival is still as low-key as ever, but it lets the films do the talking. Not a lot of ‘meet-and-greet’ or PR hype but I did get to talk to several of the film makers over the course of a 3-day weekend. Friday The...
Down the Town
Down the Town
Waterford Youth Arts and Keith Currams launched their film project ‘Down the Town’ with a second screening of the work (the debut screening taking place first on 18th October) and a DVD launch at St Patricks Gateway Centre last Sunday 8th November. The project is the culmination of an Intergenerational Arts project...
Imagine Festival: A feast of contrasts
Imagine Festival: A feast of contrasts
Arts Festivals are a great place for contrasts, giving audiences a chance to see a variety of events and an opportunity for theatre companies to do tried and trusted work like the oddly named Ranting Rebels presenting Hugh Leonard’s ‘Da’ or a new company, Gasworks Productions doing a new play,...
Down the Town
Down the Town
There was a wonderful atmosphere in St Patrick’s Gateway where Waterford Youth Arts screened their third film in the local history of Waterford series, Down the Town. Mostly, it was the salt of the town, the ordinary people, not sociologists or academics, but Waterford people sharing memories; some sad but...