PLAY NOW EXCLUSIVELY ON COMEDY Sean Hughes David Harrowers award-winning play is a haunting meditation on how we define ourselves through language. Set in an anonymous pre-industrial village, three land labourers go about their daily grind against a conflicting backdrop of religious piety, superstition and literacy. Philandering ploughman Pony William (Vincent Regan) is more tender to his pregnant mare than his God-fearing young wife (Catherine Walker), whose fascination with language and metaphors draws her to the despised but literate miller Gilbert (Lorcan Cranitch, pictured). Her attempts to push names into what is there, the same as when I push my knife into the stomach of a hen are as compelling as her husbands brutish fidelity to the Earth and Gilberts desire to be free of parochial shackles. Harrowers poetic language is in the safe hands of Alan Gilsenan, whose ethereal direction is pitch-perfect and neither patronises or demonises its humble characters as they inch towards an inevitably drastic denouement. Cranitch is as magnetic as ever, while Regan and Walker are convincing nemeses. And Joe Vanks earth-strewn, in-the-round production design is both striking and symbolic, the audience seated on uncomfortable pews like a congregation. Lucy White Until Nov 28, Smock Alley Theatre, 8 West Essex St, Temple Bar D8, 8pm (mats Sat 3pm, Sun 4pm), 15 to 30. Tel: (01) 881 9613. www.landmarkproductions.com Sean Hughes isnt what he used to be. As the youngest comic to win the Perrier Award back in 1990, Hughes was a fresh- faced rake of a boy, whose routines pictured him phoning his parents from his bedsit. Now 43, Hughes admits hes got a big fat belly and a big fat face and a middle-aged attitude to go with it. But Hughess new show rolls back the years, if not the fat. Hughes may be pained by the eccentricities of his age, but his observations are as sharp as ever. Many of his topics are torn from todays headlines but he does indulge a few older topics, with his comments on the IRA and 9/11 a reminder of how black comedy can find its deepest roots in genuine tragedies. But Hughess richest seam comes from the self-deprecating laughs he mines from his own selfish and single predicament. On watching a TV show featuring a starving man begging for help to feed his wife and child, Hughes admits that the sight left him heartbroken: How come that guys got a wife and kids and I havent? Eddie Harrison Tonight, Vicar Street, 58-59 Thomas Street D8, 7.30pm, 28. Tel: 0818 719 300. www.myspace.com/seanhughescomedian THEATRE REVIEW Knives In Hens Thursday, November 12, 2009 metrolife 19 Staying In Music Reviews Album Of The Week N-Dubz: Against All Odds UMTV Mobo-winning young London trio N-Dubz have worked hard to gain mainstream acclaim, and theres something punchy yet warmly unthreatening about an N-Dubz tune singer/MC combo Tulisa, Dappy and Fazer broach hard-hitting subjects with real cheeky charm. Second album Against All Odds builds on the rough/smooth blend N-Dubz established with their 2008 debut Uncle B, and is further proof that if pop history had panned out differently, these bright young things would be bouncing all over Top Of The Pops. The girl/ boy viewpoints of teen pregnancy track Shoulda Put Something On is an immediate stand-out, but N-Dubz also deal in universal concerns such as how to get off with someone (current single I Need You resorts to online stalking) and how to dump them (Say Its Over). Theres a fairly standard guest list, including Mr Hudson, Chipmunk, Wiley and Tinchy Stryder (collaborative hit Number One), although Nivos Latin rap adds a neat twist to Let Me Be. They do tend to skitter through styles, which makes this album feel over-long but they deserve credit as direct descendents of bands like (fellow Camdenites) Madness and The Specials, whose early classics were sharp snapshots of youth. Whether the N-Dubz sound will age similarly well is uncertain; at points, their work is so topical, its practically carbon-dated you can almost hear generations of future listeners crying: Grandma, whats Facebook? Arwa Haider 8Ball: With All Your Friends Death Of A Clown The ghost of shoe-gaze bands past haunts the second album from clunkily monikered Dublin hopefuls 8Ball. From the My Bloody Valentine-go- electronic shimmer of Rooftops to the ethereal flourishes of None Of The Above, this record doesnt so much wear its influences on its sleeves as waggle them in your face. 8Ball can be a bit generically indie- schmindie in places the bands main vocalist is clearly a graduate of the school of retiring frontman, and his little boy lost schtick has the potential to grate. But Tricky producer Ian Caple has skilfully marshalled the sextet and there are some moments of real loveliness here, especially The Los Campesinos!-esque 21st Century Man and the Super Furry Animals-worthy Dig It. Recommended for recovering Smiths fans and indie disco wallflowers everywhere. Oh, and if they wanted to come with a slicker name, can we recommend the Polyphonic Twee? Eamon de Paor Leona Lewis: Echo Sony Two years on from her debut album Spirit, Leona Lewis is still Simon Cowells sweetly fluffy golden goose (as evidenced by her recent guest turn on The X Factor). While second LP Echos cover depicts a raunchier, slicked-back Leona, musically, its more seatbelt- safe, accomplished balladry including Lost Then Found, a duet with OneRepublic (whose frontman Ryan Tedder penned her mega-hit Bleeding Love). Leonas trademark sound is pop rock for martyrs: all florid production and breast-beating choruses, whether on current single Happy or her cover of Oasiss Stop Crying Your Heart Out a gospel choir seems to pop in for tea every few minutes. Outta My Head offers a fun Europop diversion, and Leonas increased confidence resounds throughout Echo but it still lacks the fiery heart and soul to propel her to premier diva league. AH A.A. Bondy: When The Devils Loose Fat Possum A hybrid of Bob Dylan and Ryan Adams best bits, A.A. Bondy is a one-time rocknroller turned old-school troubadour. Abandoning his guise as the frontman of Alabama outfit Verbena once hailed as the second coming of Nirvana Bondy now spends his time crafting enchantingly sparse nu-folk. But dont worry this isnt a case of a former rocker going unplugged. This second solo effort advances his sound; a backing band provides the perfect backdrop to gloomy lyrics, while Bondys warm, weathered croon binds everything together. Presenting tales wrought from cross-country wanderings, he spins yarns of religion, death, war and vampires, The Mightiest Of Guns shimmering with cynical lyrics and beguiling melodies, and even toe-tappers such as I Can See The Pines Are Dancing retain a mellow, backwood charm. Soft pianos on On The Moon and electric guitar solos that pluck at the required heartstrings on Slow Parade make this album perfect listening for a lazy Sunday. Serena Kutchinsky Jamie Cullum: The Pursuit Decca Jamie Cullum continues to plough his furrow as the jazz musician for people who dont like jazz. Big hearted in scope, fourth solo album The Pursuit bounces along on pop rhythms much more than it does jazz ones, despite Cullums fondness for rollicking ragtime and lashings of big band swing the latter notably evident on robust cover versions of Just One Of Those Things and Rihannas Dont Stop The Music. Yet tracks such as Wheels (with its nifty piano arpeggios) wear its lighter- waving aspirations on its sleeve while Cullums voice is still pure pipsqueak, for all his efforts on the Sophie Dahl- dedicated Love Aint Gonna Let You Down to pretend otherwise. Cullums relentless energy is the redeeming factor here; somehow it makes a fundamentally uninteresting album oddly enjoyable. Claire Allfree Daniel Figgis, composer and curator of Snakes & Ladders..., a multimedia showcase of Irish talent How would you describe Snakes & Ladders, first performed in 2008 at New Yorks World Financial Center? There are three shows, each site-specifically designed. I like to feel that this festival is the accessible face of contemporary music, from piano recital to avant-folk, from rock to electronica. What unites the artists is the fact that they all do joy rather well. Joy is underestimated. Youre a musician too. Will you be performing at the National Concert Hall? No, and I somehow doubt that Ill be particularly missed with all that going on. But to compensate, Im dragging all the gang, kicking and screaming no doubt, to Broadway. How did the spa sounds project at Whites Of Wexford hotel originate? A group of recordings were made of sounds naturally occurring within the room for a Wexford Opera House commission with students from IT Carlow. I then recomposed them so that the room appears to harmonise with and sing to itself. For spa sounds, I used a similar process but with a very different delivery. Anyone who has ever visited a spa will probably share my horror at the new age dross traditionally piped into such places. Whites Hotel very kindly invited me to redesign their spa-sound environment so no more airy-faerie nonsense! Your great grandfather co-founded the Gate Theatre, and you were a child actor. How come you changed tack? Even as a child I had a real sense that I was a composer by nature. The curating came about by way of invitation. Guiltiest pleasure on your iPod? Im told I should feel bad about loving Burt Bacharachs Lost Horizon soundtrack but I really dont. All my pleasures come guilt-free. So there. LW Snakes & Ladders is on tomorrow in the National Concert Halls Kevin Barry Room. www.nch.ie FIVE QUESTIONS FOR... index.html2.html3.html4.html5.html6.html7.html8.html9.html10.html11.html12.html13.html14.html15.html16.html17.html18.html19.html20.html21.html22.html23.html24.html25.html26.html27.html