FESTIVAL DIRECTOR’S GUIDE TO WEEK 3

The final week. One more week of adventure. And if you thought it couldn’t get any better then think again!

MONDAY
Tonight is the second night of Camille at the Irish Examiner Spiegeltent. Last night’s show was just fabulous and, as you’d expect, both shows are completely sold out. If you were lucky enough to get tickets then enjoy. The Hairy Ape and The Magic Tree continue all week – they are both great productions, some of the best theatre to be seen in Cork this year.

TUESDAY
Tuesday sees a lovely family show open at the Unitarian Church. Storybear is from the acclaimed Puca Puppets and is an interactive story-telling show from this award winning puppet theatre. Performances are at 11am and 3pm. And Cleaner is still running all week at 1pm at the Unitarian Church – it’s a really touching puppet/animation performance for an adult audience. Tonight at the Half Moon Theatre Lebanese theatre maker Rabih Mroué performs the Irish premiere of Make Me Stop Smoking. I first saw Rabih’s work in London a few years back and was stunned by its imagination, humanity and inventiveness. His performances take the format of multi-media lectures using dozens of anonymous personal documents, videos and newspaper clippings he has collected over the years. One of Lebanon’s most celebrated contemporary theatre makers this is Rabih’s first visit to Ireland. Meanwhile at the Irish Examiner Spiegeltent Mick Flannery plays the first gig of his much anticipated second album. The Irish Examiner Spiegeltent is open till 1am on week nights for The Last Resort.

WEDNESDAY
Time to catch up on the shows you’ve missed so far. The Magic Tree, Make Me Stop Smoking and The Hairy Ape are all playing today. You can still take an Audio Detour at any time during the day, starting from the box office in Merchant’s Quay Shopping Centre, and Storybear and Cleaner are on at the Unitarian Church. The Irish Examiner Spiegeltent plays host to an evening of great jazz from The Bones of Cork.

THURSDAY
Preparations are well under way at the IAWS warehouse in the docklands for the opening of Robodock. As I write this the Robodock crew is traveling to Cork. They’ve been working on the show for the last few weeks in Amsterdam and the Cork Midsummer Festival production team has been sourcing old cars for the Robohand to crush. The Irish Examiner Spiegeltent presents one of the most talked about gigs in Cork this year. Mark E. Smith and The Fall come to the Cork Midsummer Festival to play their first Cork gig in a number of years. There are still a few tickets left. And so the Irish Examiner Spiegeltent goes out on a bang!

FRIDAY
They might be taking down the Irish Examiner Spiegeltent in Emmet Place but the Cork docklands are a hive of activity today. That’s because the robots have come to town! The two day finale of the Midsummer Festival sees Holland’s Robodock Festival present their first Irish residency. Regarded by many as Europe’s answer to Burning Man, Robodock is a festival of arts, technology and a huge dose of imagination and fun. It’s family friendly and plays at 3pm and 7pm today and at 3pm and 8pm tomorrow.

SATURDAY
The final day of the festival. Sob. And there’s plenty to do on this last day. Robodock, The Hairy Ape, The Magic Tree, the last performance of Cleaner. And for music fans we’ve got the first ever Irish gig from fantastic US purveyors of bluegrass The Hunger Mountain Boys. The gig takes place at the beautifully restored Pavilion on Carey’s Lane.