metro Arts & Entertainment King Khan And The Shrines In Town Tonight Scantily-clad Khan, born in Montreal of Indian immigrants, is the ringleader of psychedelic big band soul and garage rock the eldest Shrine being a 60-year-old percussionist and peer of Curtis Mayfield and Stevie Wonder Tonight, Whelans, 25 Wexford Street D2, 8pm, 14. Tel: 1890 200 078. www.myspace.com/kingkhantheshrines Mark Francis The works in Field (inspired by sound graphs, musical notation and spectrographs) mark a progression from Franciss previous paintings, the grid-like patterns that were once soft now solid and dense Until Oct 17, Kerlin Gallery, Annes Lane, South Anne Street D2, Mon to Fri 10am to 5.45pm, Sat 11am to 4.30pm, free. Tel: (01) 670 9093. www.kerlin.ie Freefall A mans life flashes before his eyes 1970s Cork, his Greek honeymoon, suburban bliss. When memories ebb and flow as the result of a stroke, the fragility of human life is both celebrated and lamented in this new play by The Corn Exchange Until Oct 24, Project Arts Centre, 39 East Essex Street D2, 7.30pm (Sat & Sun mat 1pm), 22 to 33. Tel: (01) 677 8899. www.dublintheatrefestival.com lifeArts & Entertainment The Big Interview Audrey Niffenegger The new romantic ts 3.30pm and Audrey Niffenegger has already lost count of how many people shes spoken to today. I figure any given book is going to prompt similar questions, says the flame-haired, Chicago-based author, politely allaying any fears she might be experiencing some sort of interview Groundhog Day. This sort of conciliatory platitude sets the tone: throughout our chat theres a sense that Niffenegger is trying hard to say the right thing. Its not surprising the PR machine has gone into overdrive for Niffeneggers follow-up to the deliriously successful smash hit The Time Travellers Wife. Niffeneggers US publishers, Scribner, paid a credit crunch-defying $5million for Her Fearful Symmetry, and although her publicist here decorously refuses to name the figure on this side of the Atlantic, its a fair bet it was an awful lot of money. So here she is, looking almost regal as she fields endless promotional activity in a London boozer, the literary superstar who once scratched together a living creating painstakingly illustrated graphic novels that hardly anyone bought. Yeah, its weird, but when youre making something you have to go into your studio and think about what youre doing rather than how it might be received, she says. Her Fearful Symmetry is set just round the corner, near Highgates famous Victorian cemetery. Like its predecessor, which ambitiously recounted the story of Clare and her consuming love for her time-travelling husband, its a love story that defies the usual borders of time and space. This time Niffenegger has great I fun with the idea of an afterlife, with Elspeth, dead from cancer, flitting around her Highgate flat, toying with those she has left behind, including her grief- stricken lover, Robert, and her strange, American, identical-twin nieces to whom Elspeth has seemingly randomly bequeathed her flat. I wanted to write a 19th-century novel set in the 21st century, explains Niffenegger, in which I could partly examine an American abroad. So it was a case of analysing the 19th-century fiction Id grown up with and thinking, what can I steal? There was Henry Jamess Portrait Of A Lady and The Turn Of The Screw, while I was also fascinated with the doubling motif Wilkie Collins uses in The Woman In White. And the title comes from William Blake. Hmm. When youre making something you have to think about what youre doing rather than how it might be received The Time Travellers Wife author talks to Claire Allfree about going to the dark side for her long- awaited follow-up THEATRE FESTIVAL REVIEW The Birds 14 metrolife Wednesday, October 7, 2009 Niffeneggers US publishers probably werent banking on the influence of visionary English Romantic poets. But Her Fearful Symmetry wears its sources lightly, its references to Victorian death practices and Highgate itself deployed mainly as background for a highly commercial narrative. And although Niffenegger loves manipulating ideas of perception, not to mention the laws of physics and the cycles of life and death, her main intention is to provoke a visceral sensation rather than a philosophical response. P erhaps because of her two Gothic-toned graphic novels, combined with her evident fascination with mortality (she was once a cemetery tour guide at Highgate), its tempting to imagine Niffenegger as a morbid eccentric. But it seems nothing is further from the truth. Im very cheery, actually, she says. Perhaps because I had this very happy childhood, I was always looking for the darker side of life in my work, which you only get to do if you dont experience it literally. She hasnt seen the film of The Time Travellers Wife, which is handy, since it had mixed reviews. And she takes issue with one of the criticisms levelled at her first novel: that the idea of time travel suggests a predetermined universe rather than one defined by free will. This new book is partially a reflection of my belief that we are responsible for ourselves, she says. I was raised as a Catholic but it would be false for me to posit a Christian belief system on my novels. Instead she simply enjoys giving her imagination free rein. I love mixing everything up. Her Fearful Symmetry (Jonathan Cape) is out now, priced 22 The Cold War paranoia of 1950s England has been transferred to modern day rural Ireland in Conor McPhersons chilling reimagining of the Daphne du Maurier short story that became a Hitchcock classic. Complete strangers novelist Diane (Sinad Cusack) and labourer Nat (Ciaran Hinds) gatecrash an abandoned farmhouse to escape the killer birds that have been inexplicably descending to earth twice daily, attacking everything in their path. The mildewed, broken-down house quickly becomes Diane and Nats sanctuary from the looting and violence outside, while domestic chores are a desperate attempt at normality. Diane, in a bid to make sense of the fate to which they are resigned, keeps a journal its entries are effectively presented in voiceover while Nat attends to odd jobs around the estate. The pair assume elemental roles, Diane Book Now Cabaret Wilkommen, bienvenue and welcome to the Kit Kat Klub a sleazy dive in 1931 Berlin where its star of the show, Sally Bowles (immortalised on screen by a luminous Liza Minnelli), belts out Cabarets show tunes such as Dont Tell Mama, paints her fingernails green and seduces uptight writer Cliff against a backdrop of burgeoning Nazism. How Do You Solve A Problem Like Maria?s Siobhan Dillon (pictured) stars as Bowles and Wayne Sleep as Emcee in this critically- acclaimed UK production Oct 12 to 24, Gaiety Theatre, King Street South D2, times vary, 25 to 60. Tel: (01) 677 1717. www.cabaret-the-musical.co.uk The hoTTesT TickeTs in Town We have two pairs of tickets to see CABARET Oct 12 at the Gaiety, 7.30pm For a chance to win, e-mail your answer to the question below to life@metroireland.ie by noon today with Hot Tickets in the subject line. With your answer please include your name, address and a number where you can be contacted between 1pm and 3pm. Strictly one entry per person; entrants must be age 18+. Q. Which English actor played Cliff in the 1972 film version of Cabaret? A Peter Bowles B Michael York The winners of yesterdays tickets to see Orbital are: Claire Rushe & Niall Harbourne index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html