Vinland

On Monday we return with Vinland. What's that, I hear? Well, according to this site:

"A thousand years ago, as Europe was emerging from what historians have called the “Dark Ages,” stories began circulating in Europe about a lush, abundant land far across the Atlantic called “Vinland” – the land of wine. For a long time scholars dismissed these stories as fanciful fables but then, in 1961, an indisputable Viking settlement was unearthed at L’Anse Aux Meadows in Newfoundland, Canada. It was true! The Vikings had been to America 500 years before Columbus “discovered” it. But L’Anse Aux Meadows is not a “land of wine”. So where was this idyllic Vinland where Europe first encountered America?

The Vinland stories originated from an expedition of thirty men and possibly some women who set out from southwestern Greenland to explore lands to the west and south led by Leif, son of Erik the Red. Only fifteen years earlier, in 985 or 986, Erik had led a group of Icelandic families to new homes in southwestern Greenland. That same year an Icelandic trader en route from Iceland to visit his father in Greenland was storm-driven to unknown lands in what we now call North America. Leif Eriksson set out to settle them".

Whether this has got anything do with the entertainment on Monday I have no idea. But I do know it's a full length play, written by Kara May, whose high-scoring piece "Walking on Water" is in the July Showcase. So it ought to be good. Be there.

Shirley Valentine

Never seen the play? Never seen the movie? Happen to be in Wexford in late July and August?

Well, pop into the Jerome Hynes Theatre
Wexford Opera House
Wexford
Southern Ireland
between July 28 - Aug 8 2009
and you get the chance to see our very own Nicola Hollinshead in this one woman show. She's done it before, and this is what they said two years ago:

'Willy Russell has the knack of creating strong women, and never more effectively than in SHIRLEY VALENTINE, in which the eponymous heroine has the only role. But it also plays host to many others, to Shirley's family, neighbours and acquaintances. She contains multitudes, coming vividly alive through the extensions of ther self to them...Nicola Hollinshead, directed by Ronan Wilmot, gives the performance of any actor's life, seducing the audience from the start with a highly individual blend of character, comic observation and self-analysis. She starts out as an angular denzien of a working class estate, whose main escape is literally talking to the wall. After her Grecian apothesis, she has morphed into a serene, beautiful woman of independent character. The process is called acting and it is a delight to experience here'.. Gerry Colgan, The Irish Times, Aug 6 2007

'You will rarely see a better solo performance than Nicola Hollinshead gives in this very funny, beautifully observed and occasionally moving one-woman play by Willy Russell'. Hollinshead loses nothing in comparison with the original screen Shirley Pauline Collins. She can illuminate a story with the simplest gesture as she physically becomes Shirley Valentine'.... *****Michael Moffatt, The Irish Mail on Sunday, July 29 2007

'the accomplished performance of Nicola Hollinshead as Shirley Bradshaw will have your memory of Collins fading as quickly as the memory of last year's sundrenched holiday'...On a barely set stage, Hollinshead takes on this epic struggle for freedom with gusto, offering us a less pointed, more uncertain Shirley than Collins, and it's not long before she has the (pre-dominantly female) audience emotionally entangled in a story that becomes the quest for selfhoood. Hollinshead's portrayal, coupled with the intimacy of The New Theatre, ensures we feel the full gamut of Shirley's emotional life: the painful ennui of urban existence; the raw humour derived from the urgency to 'get through'; the joy and simplicity of finding a happy life'... ****Stephen Mulkearn, Irish Metro, Aug 1 2007 '.

"...and Hollinshead is compelling, despite the familiarity of the material. She has a sure grip on Shirley's feisty, self-deprecating persona, and convincingly segues between coarse humour and touching pathos, giving voice to Russell's poetry of the venacular..." Declan Burke, Irish Sunday Times, July 29 2007

There are currently very cheap flights on Ryanair, says Niki, and she'll even buy you a Guinness!

Here are the details.

Whitsun

Nothing happening Monday because of the Whitsun Bank Holiday.

Here's Mr. Larkin, reading about the Weddings.



See you next week.

That's Life

Seeing as I'm publicising everybody else, I thought I might give this a plug.

Napoleon Ryan - The Movie

Pete Picton - the Movie

Hospitality

Meanwhile, back in the real world, Monday May 18th brings us another tv drama from Gary Davis, Hospitality. You may remember Five-A-Side, from the autumn, about a bunch of lads on a weekend away which ended with a football match. Well this one is about the real stuff. You know, the premier league. This time it's the dark, sordid underbelly of corruption, bribes, and dismal sex. Hey, don't we get enough of that every week?

Anyway, here's the best goal of all time. Well, one of them.