D Thursday, February 4, 2010 metrolife 15 THEATRE REVIEW Jo Bangles Jo Bangles/Cant you see/She glitters like a Christmas tree, goes one neighbourhood taunt of Ms Bangles, a sexually frustrated widower with only cheap jewellery, fantasies and a teenage daughter who refuses to speak for company. Mary McEvoy plays Jo Bangles, the rural anti-heroine of poet Dave Lordans new one- woman short play (presented by Eska Riada theatre company). Her bountiful bling clatters as she talks in the third person about her dead husband and a string of wishful- thinking conquests, from local GP to old trad crooner Luke Kelly. Just as her daughter uses language (or lack thereof) as a weapon in a cruel, parochial world, magpie Jo hides behind her excessive trinkets. Shes a display, an exhibition, a performance who craves stability. But while Lordans piece touches upon issues of mental health, domestic violence and bullying, it never gets to grips with any. Nor does it reveal the supposed secrets that Jo so tantalisingly alludes to early on. While the monologue strikes a perfect balance between the lyrical and colloquial Lordans trump card as a poet theres just not enough narrative, enough story, to truly engage the audience. Indeed, just as Jos neighbours cant see beyond her sparkling, protective faade, we only get mere glints of pathos, making this potential gem distinctly lacklustre despite McEvoys dedicated efforts. Lucy White Until Sat, Mill Theatre, Dundrum Town Centre D14, 8pm, 12 to 15. Tel: (01) 296 9340. www.mill theatre.com BOOK The Pregnant Widow by Martin Amis Jonathan Cape, 22 CD David Bowie: A Reality Tour Columbia Davie Bowie has had a long-running love-affair with Dublin, so it was no surprise that he should decide to turn his sell-out 2003 concert at The Point into a live album. The old swish is very much in hit-parade mode on this double CD, with the emphasis on the late 1970s/early 1980s period, before he dyed his hair and turned super-commercial. Unless youre a hardcore fan, live records can be a bit of an ordeal but Bowie and his band are clearly having a fantastic time and this is reflected in their performance. The biggest eye-opener is how well more recent songs, such as New Killer Star and Hallo Spaceboy, stand up alongside oldies of the vintage of Heroes, Be My Wife, and Fame. For those labouring under the misapprehension that Bowie hasnt made a decent record in years, A Reality Tour delivers surprise after surprise. Eamon de Paor TV Picks Of The Day Thats All Weve Got Time For RT1, 10.15pm Barry Murphy and Mario Rosenstock (pictured) dish out the dry wit on this Have I Got News For You?-style quiz show. The questions are topical with sometimes tasteless answers, while Kevin Myers plays the quintessential egg-head in the corner and guests add a certain competitive edge. It makes having a go at ourselves seem almost therapeutic. Stephen Mulkearn Silent Witness BBC1, 9pm The first of a two-parter takes us to South Africa this week, which prompts some grandly sweeping aerial shots of the coast. But all is not lovely on the ground: our forensic trio are entwined in cases involving a deported, tortured Zimbabwean and the bones of five ANC activists. As things unfold, it looks like the nave Nikki (Emilia Fox) has fallen for the wrong man. SL Me, Me, Me Inside the minds of celebrities 20% Cute 50% Buzz! 30% Modest Amiss latest novel is set in the 1970s and focuses on Keith, a 20-year-old on a holiday in Italy with his girlfriend during which he fails to seduce her beautiful blonde friend. Padding this out is endless chat from various characters about who is sleeping with whom and the nature of men and women. But since the joke is that they are too young to understand themselves yet, their conversations are made repetitive and dull. Amis clearly hopes the dazzled and worried response of his young male characters to liberated women will provide the humour, while the womens realisation that they are not experiencing true liberation will add poignancy. Unfortunately, he doesnt quite manage either and his characters dont ring true. When Amis writes outright satire, his anti-heroes malice invigorates every page and makes their squalid disasters seem epic. But this time his obvious affinity with the protagonist, who shares physical characteristics and a kind of alternative biography with the author, amounts to Amis gently poking fun at himself. The exacting prose and bracing cynicism of his best fiction are missed here and, while Amis may have thought a sexual comedy of manners would mark a return to safe territory, it only continues his recent outputs downward trajectory. Robert Murphy ART REVIEW A Lively Start To A Dead End I will list some things that you will definitely not find in this exhibition, begins Nevan Lahart in the introductory blurb to his new exhibition. Understanding, meaning or a new lifestyle choice. If that sounds a little bit too arch then you may not like Laharts A Lively Start To A Dead End. Though if youre visiting the show in the first place, chances are you already admire his blithe spirit. These new works shift and straddle the lines between high art and low art, academia and anti-establishment; a mash up of Bruegels Towers Of Babel and Hieronymous Bosch battle scenes with street art and advertising slogans. The visitor walks in, out and around each piece be it a sculpture, colossal marker pen drawing on plastic sheeting or a simulated artists studio the relationship between viewer, object and space revealing not just the artists structural decisions but also what makes him laugh (The Immaculate Contraception is a life-size drawing of a Pill packet) and what makes him angry (sly priests, Mary Harney). Irreverent, but never throwaway, nothing here is left to chance, from the casually placed blankets on the floor of the artists studio to the patterns of photocopied 1c coins on counterfeit money. And just as death and humour are interchangeable here, the works are ugly-beautiful; excremental brown paint spews across Renaissance landscapes and an egg yolk splatters on a blank pictorial space. Lucy White Until Feb 27, Royal Hibernation Academy, 15 Ely Place D2, Wed to Sat 11am to 7pm, Sun 2pm to 5pm, free. Tel: (01) 661 2558 www.royalhibernianacademy.ie Today: Carey Mulligan, from recent interviews On wanting to act from an early age: There was nothing else I wanted to do and when I was in my teens I was really obsessed with getting into musical theatre. I went around for about two years wearing a Les Misrables T-shirt. On Warren Beatty, who drove her around Hollywood so that she didnt have to take the bus: He just liked the cut of my jib. Hes like a godfather. On growing up in hotels, thanks to her dads job as a manager for InterContinental: My life was kind of weird. My mother would cook, but we would get looked after by lots of maids. It felt like we lived in these enormous houses with lots of guests. It was weirder when we lived in a house and got real keys. I was, like, Why dont we just swipe? On being offered a part in Oliver Stones new movie Wall Street 2 Money Never Sleeps: He [Stone] saw An Education and rang me and offered me the part in Wall Street while I was sitting having sushi. It was the maddest phone call Ive ever had in my life. On watching herself on screen: Its less about, Oh God, I look awful, and more to do with, Oh, why did I make that choice there when I couldve done that? and That wouldve been a better idea. I notice all the moments that I feel are false, I see something where Im really acting and Im like, Oh man, thats rubbish! Sharon Lougher 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