My favourite room: ‘The extension began to be referred to as Polly's Folly. Now that it's worked so well, it's become Ivan's Inspiration'
'My family call me the basket case,' Polly Minett jokes when it becomes obvious that she has multiple baskets of all shapes and sizes in the many lovely rooms in her Arts and Crafts home in Kilkenny. 'I am basket crazy. My husband Ivan sends photos of me at markets looking at baskets to our kids Max and Eloise.'
The attraction is the fact that the baskets are made of natural materials like willow and Polly is all about nature. She herself makes her own paper from old cotton and dyes it by boiling up plants like thistledown, elderberries, nettles and foxgloves. From this she makes beautiful bowls and sculptures and is now collaborating with botanical artist Jennie Castle on an exhibition called Hedgerow & Wayside, which will take place as part of Kilkenny Arts Festival until August 17; Castle paints stunning botanical art on Polly's handmade paper.
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Irish Times
3 days ago
- Irish Times
Kilkenny Arts Festival review: Viol recital by Fahmi Alqhai spans from 16th century to a pallid Purple Haze
Fahmi Alqhai St John's Priory, Kilkenny ★★★☆☆ Fahmi Alqhai, who was born in Seville to a Syrian father and Palestinian mother, is a proselytising viola da gamba player of considerable passion. In the first of two solo concerts at St John's Priory for Kilkenny Arts Festival , he stuck to the agenda of his 2013 album, A piacere. The viola da gamba, or viol as it is called in English, is a fretted, six-stringed, flat-backed instrument with a tone more husky, nasal and plaintive than the violin's. Unlike the instruments of the violin family, viols are always played vertically, even the shortest of them, hence the gamba in the Italian name. Alqhai believes that there was 'no sound, social class or musical style' that was alien to the gamba. And, as there are far more variations in the gamba family than in that of the violin, he suggests that, 'rather than a single instrument, we should speak of a whole world of instruments: this is revealed by historical iconography, that is, the dozens of paintings and engravings that portray it, in which no single model is ever repeated'. Alqhai perceives his instrument, which disappeared from musical life for about 150 years, as having 'embedded a specific aesthetic in the collective imagination from its final period of splendour in the France of Louis XV: that of an intimate, decadent and melancholic instrument; and this image remains relevant today as its primary essence'. READ MORE His goal is to set the story straight, to show the instrument in all its flavours and guises and in a wide range of repertoire. It was curious, then, that he chose to frame his Kilkenny programme with pieces that weren't actually written for the gamba. He opened with colourful arrangements of three guitar pieces by Gaspar Sanz, Marizápalos, Mariona and Canarios, because no gamba pieces featuring those dances are to be found. The closing Canarios gave a good flavour of the way he likes to depart from the written score, in this case taking the music into places that were decidedly more 21st century than baroque. And he ended in a similar vein, with a gamba version of a Jimi Hendrix classic, Purple Haze, but in an enfeebled style which indicated that his instrument does not actually have the means to suggest, let alone deliver anything of the earthy gutsiness of the original. This polite Purple Haze was also a pallid one. Alqhai gave the impression of being happiest when his fingers were busiest, though in more inward-looking music his tone lacked focus and point. At the heart of the programme he placed original solo pieces by Tobias Hume (ca 1569-1645), and arrangements of Monsieur de Sainte-Colombe (ca 1640-ca 1700), Sainte-Colombe's pupil Marin Marais (1656-1728) and Antoine Forqueray (1672-1745). Hume was a professional soldier and an amateur composer in the best sense, an experimentalist whose work is full of surprises. It's always a pleasure to meet his work in concert. Sainte-Colombe and Marais are giants of the French musical world, but the plum offering this time turned out to be Alqhai's version of a Chaconne by Forqueray, La Morangis ou La Plissay, where the music and the soft-toned, flighty player seemed most in balance.
Irish Independent
3 days ago
- Irish Independent
My favourite room: ‘The extension began to be referred to as Polly's Folly. Now that it's worked so well, it's become Ivan's Inspiration'
Though she initially trained as an actor, Polly Minett went on to become an artist and uses her creativity in many ways, whether it's turning old bedsheets into paper for artworks or transforming a dated house into a stunning sustainable home 'My family call me the basket case,' Polly Minett jokes when it becomes obvious that she has multiple baskets of all shapes and sizes in the many lovely rooms in her Arts and Crafts home in Kilkenny. 'I am basket crazy. My husband Ivan sends photos of me at markets looking at baskets to our kids Max and Eloise.' The attraction is the fact that the baskets are made of natural materials like willow and Polly is all about nature. She herself makes her own paper from old cotton and dyes it by boiling up plants like thistledown, elderberries, nettles and foxgloves. From this she makes beautiful bowls and sculptures and is now collaborating with botanical artist Jennie Castle on an exhibition called Hedgerow & Wayside, which will take place as part of Kilkenny Arts Festival until August 17; Castle paints stunning botanical art on Polly's handmade paper.
Irish Times
6 days ago
- Irish Times
What Are You Afraid Of? at Kilkenny Arts Festival: Peter Hanly's stage fright study is provoking, enlightening and enriching
What Are You Afraid Of? Watergate Theatre, Kilkenny ★★★★★ 'I don't know this,' he begins. It's an actor's nightmare. The thing is, it's all of our nightmare, the fear that something familiar, what we know well, where we fit in the world, suddenly disappears. Peter Hanly was an accomplished and well-known actor, familiar from decades performing in Rough Magic productions, at the Abbey, at the Gate and on other stages, and on screen from Braveheart to Ballykissangel. Then, in 2011, at dress rehearsal for Brian Friel's monologue play Molly Sweeney in the Gate in Dublin, he had a sudden, overwhelming anxiety that he would forget the lines he knew well. 'I just couldn't believe that I knew them, that they would all be there waiting for me when I needed them.' Ultimately the terror, the severe stage fright, meant he disappeared from view for more than a decade. 'I was an actor for 30 years, show after show after show, and then it stopped. Did no one fucking notice? Did you not miss me?' READ MORE Now here he is, in this Rough Magic and Kilkenny Arts Festival production, back on stage as actor and playwright – and subject. This is Hanly's story, but it's much more than that. He explores what happened, both in life and in his head. Domhnall Herdman plays his grandfather Tom Hanly, a drapery apprentice at Clerys who died before Peter was born, and here is both provocation and guardian angel. Niamh McAllister is the stage manager's voice, terrorising, taunting, bullying ('Loser. Quitter'), a counterpoint to his grandfather. They are characters are in his head, theatrical devices, his inner voices; part of his anxiety, and performing his anxiety. There are 'real' people, too, including McAllister's myriad and often wickedly amusing therapists he visits in his distress. This manages to be both complex and simple, an exploration of how anxiety works on the human mind, but also a really strong narrative. There's interaction between Hanly, real and imagined characters, the voices, screen versions of himself. It toys with the nature of memory, time travel, inner life and outer life; the interplay between what's happening to him, as his parents' own memories flicker, is tender and illuminating. What Are You Afraid Of?: Peter Hanly, Domhnall Herdman and Niamh McAllister. Photograph: Ros Kavanagh This is both playful and profound. Lynne Parker directs her long-time colleague with sensitivity and sureness and nuance, and a deft comic touch that envelops the audience. It skilfully bounces between the delicacies of the human mind, how exposed vulnerabilities can paralyse a life, and enlightening entertainment. This is clever and very funny. It breaks the fourth wall, connecting with the audience, and there is a delightful self-consciousness in what they are about; 'move the story on,' Hanly is urged. And it revels in accomplished, swish stagecraft: video (Eoin Robinson), sound and composition (Fiona Sheil), set and lighting (Zia Bergin-Holly) and costumes (Sorcha Ní Fhloinn) are all intrinsic to the sophisticated telling of Hanly's story. It glories in all these machinations, but they also serve the telling in a way that is totally appropriate to its theme. The script in hand, the autocue, are part of this theatricality, and part of the meaning. This is an extraordinary piece of work. A totally absorbing, moving and funny piece of theatre made by someone who can no longer act. Oh, but he can: Hanly's performance is deft and complex, vulnerable, honest, warm. 'Who are you when you're not an actor?' he asks himself. The anguish it has taken to get here is clear, as is the extensive development . It's about theatre but mostly about being human. [ Peter Hanly was one of Ireland's most recognisable actors. Then he vanished Opens in new window ] This universality is pointed up from the start, the audience invited to share their own fears on cards, anonymously. This is raw, and rich. It holds the audience with compassion, while provoking, enlightening, enriching. At Watergate Theatre, as part of Kilkenny Arts Festival , until Tuesday, August 12th, and at Smock Alley, as part of Dublin Theatre Festival , from Thursday, September 25th, until Saturday, October 4th
