2023-11-30 23:57
It may be The Night Before Christmas, but after a rousing opening number – Happy Christmas to All – it’s soon apparent that not all is well in Queen Talia’s land. The… Read More
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Alan In Belfast Blog
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belfast film festival
tara
eternal daughter
safety catch
headless soldier
grief guilt
ghost story
outburst queer arts
evil aunt
fall
An irregular set of posts, weaving an intricate pattern around culture and technology. Alan ... in Belfast, Northern Ireland
2023-11-26 23:46
Hansel & Gretel gets off to a cracking pace, and keeps it up for most of the performance. It’s aimed at children and families, and it confidently throws a rake of characters at t… Read More
2023-11-22 10:43
Julie returns to a sprawling country hall her Mum used to visit. She’s there to write a screenplay about the mother-daughter relationship and mark her Mum’s birthday. Tilda Swint… Read More
2023-11-17 22:23
Raphael Khouri takes his audiences on a trip through Berlin, Beirut, Amman, Saudi Arabia, and Los Angeles to Athens and beyond in a performance that was commissioned by Outburst Arts. It&rsq&hell…Read More
2023-11-15 11:20
It’s been a stressful few months. What with the new house and the renovations and starting to redecorate, on top of a new baby, and husband Sam disappearing off the grid to the island… Read More
2023-11-13 09:44
The Safety Catch is set up as a fictional confrontation between road racing champion Michael Dunlop and a friend of the family Liam Beckett who asks the rider to think about the possibility… Read More
2023-11-11 00:27
The Belfast Ensemble premiered their first version of Abomination in the Lyric Theatre as part of Outburst Festival five years ago. It was a thrilling bonus, tacked on the end of a restaging… Read More
2023-11-10 18:47
In 2004, a patient absconded from his English nursing home and travelled across to attend the 70th anniversary D-Day commemorations in Normandy. Bernard Jordan’s escapade inspired a nu… Read More
2023-11-09 10:04
Three young women celebrate the end of school and distract themselves from looming exam results with a boozy holiday in Malia, Crete. Will it be a rite of passage into adulthood for Tara, Sk… Read More
2023-11-08 00:54
Samuel (Samuel Theis) plunges to his death from the attic window of a snowy chalet. The police identify his wife, Sandra (Sandra Hüller), as their chief suspect, the only person known t… Read More
2023-11-08 00:19
Hirokazu Kore-eda’s episodic film Monster presents a series of glimpses into the same set of events from different perspectives. First time around, it’s clear who the bad guy is… Read More
2023-11-07 00:33
This year’s Belfast Film Festival certainly isn’t afraid to explore faith and spirituality. Silent Roar calls out false spirituality and false hope as it explores a young lad&rsq&hell…Read More
2023-11-07 00:24
The first ten minutes of Elene Naveriani’s Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry would make a great short film in their own right. Yet after the opening credits, the exciting narrative expand… Read More
2023-11-05 23:13
Two of the NI Independents short films caught my eye in the Belfast Film Festival programme. They were screened this afternoon in the Strand Arts Centre.Marie Clare Cushinan’s VIVA ima… Read More
2023-11-04 17:57
The Rear Windows company are keeping rather too close an eye on how their products are performing in people’s homes. Perhaps looking through them more than they’re looking at the… Read More
2023-11-04 08:48
If you go down to the woods Belfast Film Festival today, you’re in for a big surprise.Double Blind sees seven young people check into a spartan facility to take part in a medical trial… Read More
2023-11-04 08:31
Annie was the third film I saw in the cinema as a child. ET, followed by War Games, and then Annie. From memory, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was the fourth. I’m that old!
The… Read More
2023-11-02 05:00
Stolen will be shown in schools across Ireland in years to come – spread over a couple of periods since the 102 minute film would bust a single lesson – to remind students about… Read More
2023-11-01 06:30
As always at this time of the year, there’s lots to catch your eye in the Outburst festival programme. Previous festivals have gifted audiences with performances like Damage, Scorch, T… Read More
2023-10-31 15:46
We’re now into peak festival season in Belfast.Belfast International Arts Festival is into its last week (finishing on Sunday 5 November), local events in the ESCR Festival of Social S… Read More
2023-10-28 22:39
Some of the strongest work featured at Belfast International Arts Festival has been that (like Rhino) which embraced the imagination and creative power of an ensemble to produce something th… Read More
2023-10-24 21:37
work.txt is an ensemble piece of theatre. With a difference. The audience are the ensemble. A set is built. One member will unwittingly be written into the whole evening’s dialogue and… Read More
2023-10-24 00:05
Prodigal son Gabriel returns to the home lived in by his grieving mother and twin brother Michael. It’s an awkward welcome given his two years of globetrotting following the tragic dea… Read More
2023-10-23 14:59
Hen feels trapped in her seven-year-old marriage. Yet it’s her partner, Junior, who is getting out: the human Hen married will soon be swapped out for a sentient clone while Junior spe… Read More
2023-10-20 23:42
It’s as if this was the definitive staging Eugène Ionesco had intended when he wrote Rhinoceros in 1959. Notionally it’s a story about rhinoceroses arriving in a small vil… Read More
2023-10-20 23:22
Take 15 acrobatic bodies that bounce and flip and spin, one DJ who provides a constant live soundtrack, a circling motorbike, 48 or more red Coca Cola crates, and a dance floor and billowi… Read More
2023-10-16 18:35
Back when I was young, most of the GCSE English Literature classes in school studied Robert Bolt’s Man For All Seasons (based on the life of Sir Thomas More), leaving just one class &n&hell…Read More
2023-10-12 22:19
It’s the beginning of the summer, and hair stylist Cheryl (Kerri Quinn) and primary school teacher Michael (Terence Keeley) live in a modern and fashionable home opposite a field tha… Read More
2023-10-03 16:17
Becky is heading away to Ibiza for her hen do, accompanied by her mum, sister, and some friends. On a boozy weekend that is meant to be about letting their hair down ahead of Becky’s m… Read More
2023-09-30 22:51
Lies Where It Falls is a theatrical memoire, an incredibly personal retelling of a set of moments in Ruairi Conaghan’s life and career. We hear about the highs and lows of sharing his… Read More
2023-09-27 07:30
Screenwriter Paul Laverty and director Ken Loach are back with The Old Oak, the completion of a trilogy of films based in the north-east of England (I, Daniel Blake and Sorry We Missed You)… Read More
2023-09-26 18:05
The Bodyguard builds on some great musical theatre performances with a set dripping with style and panache and a lighting rig that stands out from most touring productions to create a worthy… Read More
2023-09-24 23:30
Some highlights to look out for in the Belfast International Arts Festival, which runs for the 61st time from 12 October–5 November 2023.THEATREGary Mitchell’s new black comedy B… Read More
2023-09-23 13:10
Shane is ill at ease with himself. He’s living on his own in a shabby two-up two-down and his sense of wellbeing mirrors his lodgings. Once a week he drags himself out to a comedy clas… Read More
2023-09-21 22:20
In the aftermath of the murder of his father, Joe Nawaz travelled from south Belfast back to Pakistan with his family to piece together what had happened. His one man show Five Days begins… Read More
2023-09-16 12:53
Francis might get beaten black and blue and experience prejudice from all and sundry on the street, but the most hurtful attacks are probably from the mouth of his mother. An immigrant from… Read More
2023-09-10 11:28
Northern Ireland Opera’s autumn production is Giacomo Puccini’s Tosca, a tale of illicit love, jealousy, police brutality, murder and suicide set in Rome and running from the aft… Read More
2023-09-07 21:49
It seems to be the season for cinematic love triangles. Maybe it’s a consequence of filming during Covid. Maybe it’s just a perpetual theme that paints a canvas for rich drama. I… Read More
2023-08-31 20:00
Passages is a relatively dark drama directed by Ira Sachs and co-written with Mauricio Zacharias. Tomas (Franz Rogowski) is on a high having wrapped filming on his latest project. Partner Ma… Read More
2023-08-31 16:42
When tragedy hits a small town, the local minister veers towards social conservatism and uses his influence over the Bomont town council make dancing illegal. Into this repressed backwater e… Read More
2023-08-30 18:30
Robert Niblock’s new play about the life of David Ervine follows the east Belfast man from cradle to grave. As the title suggests, it riffs off Ervine’s fabled wordiness and delv… Read More
2023-08-28 20:23
It’s an audacious undertaking to rehearse and stage Les Misérables with children aged 12–18 over a three- or four-week period. As a sung-through musical, it’s not th… Read More
2023-08-28 12:34
Georgie’s dad disappeared a long time ago and now her Mum has died. But this is a feisty 12-year-old survivor (Lola Campbell) who raises enough money by wheeling and dealing to keep up… Read More
2023-08-22 23:21
The musical theatre adaptation of the hit independent film Dirty Dancing firmly roots the action in 1963, a time of change in the US as old ways were challenged and civil rights were asser… Read More
2023-08-16 00:32
Buddy: The Buddy Holly Story. The very title hints at a split personality. And there are two discernible halves to this touring musical production that ran for more than a decade on the West… Read More
2023-08-14 20:27
One of my English teachers at school – Philip Orr – staged a Sean O’Casey play every other year in the amphitheatre style assembly hall. We sat on the hard wooden benches… Read More
2023-08-09 22:36
It was a bit of a mad idea. Not perfect by any means. But one that came from the heart. Denis Mulcahy emigrated to the US in 1962 and joined the NYPD. From his side of the Atlantic he formed… Read More
2023-08-07 15:32
Shrek Jr cuts down the popular musical (based on the even more popular films) to a shorter and tighter plot and runtime, while retaining favourite characters and moments.During the show&rsqu&hell…Read More
2023-07-26 22:07
When inappropriate gifts begin to appear under pillows, the faith of a town’s children in the normally reliable tooth fairy begins to wobble. Added to that is the odd behaviour of the… Read More
2023-07-21 23:57
If a film just had to be made about the plastic doll with unusual vital statistics, then Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach’s screenplay for Barbie is gloriously unexpected and remarkably… Read More
2023-07-21 15:24
On paper the plot is anything but cheerful: young orphaned Oliver is thrown out of a workhouse for the sin of asking for a second helping, trafficked by a greedy couple to an exploitative fa… Read More
2023-07-19 18:47
Despite the ‘Barbenheimer’ rhetoric that Oppenheimer is terribly dark in comparison to the pink and fluffy Barbie movie that will also be released to cinema audiences on Friday… Read More
2023-07-18 10:20
One-man shows are often confessional in nature, full of self-deprecating details and salacious revelations. Tom Moran takes that to a whole new level by dissecting his character in a live au… Read More
2023-07-06 19:30
“Why are you crying?” Shabu asks his girlfriend after telling her she’s special but it’s over, he’s putting the relationship on hold as he needs to concentrate… Read More
2023-07-06 19:00
Born in Iraqi Kurdistan, Lawand has been profoundly deaf since birth. In school he was viewed as disruptive by his teachers and bullied by his classmates. There was no support. His family le… Read More
2023-06-21 15:09
The King and I is perhaps the most opulent production to have graced the stage of the Grand Opera House in recent years. A cast of thirty (including a team of children) plus eleven in the or… Read More
2023-06-16 09:22
Candice is auditioning to play Tina Turner in a new musical. She’s also holding down a job in a supermarket, keeping her relationship spiced up with partner Travis, and managing the te… Read More
2023-06-15 13:28
Primary school age audiences are remarkably sophisticated. They can associate an actor appearing on stage to give voice to a no longer visible animal puppet that previously entranced them. T… Read More
2023-06-09 07:30
Every shot in War Pony is exquisitely framed. The sequences of shots from David Gallego have been cut into scenes that are beautiful to soak in. If the audio was muted, you’d be watchi… Read More
2023-06-08 00:50
A group of retirees fly out to Bangalore on one-way tickets to live out their last days in a dilapidated hotel as it’s cheaper than residential accommodation in England. No, this isn&r&hell…Read More
2023-06-02 08:00
A translator skilled in Farsi, Dari and Pashto pulls into the driveway of her Augusta bungalow, returning home from a trip to the shops. Two men greet her, FBI agents who say they have a sea… Read More
2023-05-31 23:46
Before a word is uttered, the Lyric stage is set with a vision of a home that is trapped by the branches and roots of a tree that surround it and break through the ruined fabric into the liv… Read More
2023-05-31 00:34
Hold your nose and dive deep into the somewhat hallucinogenic underwater world of Bikini Bottom which is threatened by an imminent volcanic eruption. Fear is turning people towards making ba… Read More
2023-05-26 22:27
Geppetto brings old electrical appliances back to life in his repair shop. But he’s sad and depressed, missing his wife. Until something disrupts his doleful reverie, and a light appea… Read More
2023-05-26 15:17
It’s grim up north, particularly if you’re trapped in a world of vice and trafficking. Alison works in a brothel in Yorkshire, having moved over when her father (played by Sean M… Read More
2023-05-19 07:30
You can feel the stress building as the techno music accentuates the raised heartbeat of Julie who is rushing around her home, following the daily ritual of getting herself and her two chi… Read More
2023-05-14 22:13
Director Nina Menkes delivers an illustrated lecture on sex and power, the visual language of cinema, in the documentary Brainwashed: Sex-Camera-Power. The word ‘lecture’ may not… Read More
2023-05-11 11:37
It’s easier to write about real people being portrayed on stage when they aren’t in the room.The Terri Hooley depicted in Good Vibrations is equal parts hero and villain. He&rsqu&hell…Read More
2023-05-07 16:52
Expecting is the story of a couple who are having a baby. Shauna (Paula Clarke) is very much in control of her life, her identity and her career. Despite leaving school with only a handful o… Read More
2023-05-04 12:55
I’ve some understanding of the discipline required to be match fit for a sporting team. Readers who know me will be giggling. Obviously I’ve no personal experience – I&rsqu&hell…Read More
2023-05-03 13:11
The 13-piece band strike up the overture and audience members of a certain age, who remember The Addams Family serial on Channel 4 (mid-1980s) or ITV (mid-1960s), click their fingers in time… Read More
2023-04-29 16:43
The curtain rises to reveal a hedonistic scene of dancing in a once well decorated but now slightly dowdy room in a large mansion. As the family and servants throw shapes to the techno sound… Read More
2023-04-23 13:57
The treatment of young mothers and babies in Ireland by church authorities is well understood and well documented. It happened in plain view of families and communities who somehow felt powe… Read More
2023-04-12 09:15
There isn’t just a president in town. Belfast is also hosting royalty this week in the shape of half a dozen queens, the fabulous women we tend to dismiss by bundling them up as &ldquo&hell…Read More
2023-04-05 22:54
Given the three classes of passengers and the hierarchy between ship’s crew up on the bridge, serving the passengers, and those seven decks below sweating it out in the boiler room, th… Read More
2023-04-01 16:33
The protracted negotiations that led to the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement took place in Castle Buildings, buried deep in the Stormont Estate. Owen McCafferty’s reimagined study of the… Read More
2023-03-23 21:56
When your mother’s been covering for you all your life, overlooking what’s going on under her nose in her own house, and even stealing to help you kickstart the family’s ol… Read More
2023-03-22 23:03
Good Omens, Coraline and a couple of Doctor Who episodes are my only Neil Gaiman reference points, so I didn’t come to last night’s performance of The Ocean at the End of the Lan… Read More
2023-03-20 23:14
It’s 2005 and schoolgirl Maura is obsessed with Martine McCutcheon. In a welcome revival of this one-woman show by Commedia of Errors, Calla Hughes steps into the role of Maura and pir… Read More
2023-03-20 18:36
The opening scenes of Rye Lane establish a beautiful feeling of anticipation about a somewhat random film: an awkwardly honest encounter in a grim toilet, an art exhibition complete with a r… Read More
2023-03-18 22:19
Peter Corry is marking 30 years of treading the boards professionally, and to celebrate his production company have staged a show based on popular musical theatre. There’s No Business… Read More
2023-03-15 19:13
The most reluctant student teacher you’ll ever encounter is dispatched to serve the local children of the most remote school in Bhutan, perhaps the most remote in the world. It’s… Read More
2023-03-14 12:59
Autobiographical shows litter festival and fringe programmes. They are vehicles that suit comics and solo performers, and some work better than others. But Replay Theatre Company’s Mir… Read More
2023-03-09 20:57
Every evening Mike (played by Stephen Beggs) comes home from work, his wife Alison (Christine Clark) finds that he’s more and more distant. Out of nowhere he accuses her of now liking… Read More
2023-03-08 17:43
Taking on a production of the scale of The Hunchback of Notre Dame is an ambitious project, whether it’s by a professional touring company or an amateur company. This week’s run… Read More
2023-03-06 00:58
Replay Theatre Company takes kids’ theatre incredible seriously. The clue is in their website’s statements of vision and purpose: “enriching lives through world class theat… Read More
2023-03-01 21:09
Jenny Slate and Dean Fleischer-Camp’s feature extends a popular trilogy of shorts to flesh out the backstory of the googly-eyed sneaker-wearing anthropomorphic shell called Marcel. I&r&hell…Read More
2023-02-26 21:21
One of the weekend’s Look North! The North Belfast Festival events assembled a panel of authors to discuss the overlooked Belfast writer Mary Beckett.Lucy Caldwell was joined by Jan Ca… Read More
2023-02-25 00:25
Furious rain was pouring out of the heavens and running down the street in torrents just outside the building’s door. Inside, the converted clothes shop was now home to a range of youn… Read More
2023-02-24 08:34
Hirokazu Koreeda’s Broker tells the story of what happens when a young woman who left her baby at a Busan church baby box returns and discovers there’s no record of the child. Sh… Read More
2023-02-21 16:00
Three generations of the Rana family live under the one roof in Lahore. The grandfather rules the roost from his wheelchair. His younger son Haider (Ali Junejo) is out of work and helps out… Read More
2023-02-21 00:11
The Commitments as a show is at its strongest when the band is in its infancy and are rehearsing (believably rough and anarchic) and then playing their first gig in the community hall slot v… Read More
2023-02-11 14:06
When a group of men who have been accused of abusing women in their isolated Mennonite community in Mexico are arrested, the remaining menfolk ride off to post bail. The women left behind &n&hell…Read More
2023-02-10 23:58
It’s the summer of 2022 and Verona’s rival fashion houses are at war. A physical fight at the start of each act demonstrates that the verbal venom can quickly turn to violence wh… Read More
2023-02-05 20:56
A Farther Shore retells the well-known story of Peter the Apostle, a fisherman by family trade who becomes a disciple of the “hill country carpenter” turned Jewish preacher Jesus… Read More
2023-01-31 18:25
Steven Spielberg knows how to tell a story. You can sit back in your cinema seat, relax, and enjoy The Fabelmans. It’s a tale about endings, about manipulation, and about the tug of wa… Read More
2023-01-30 00:02
Late last week, the NI Children’s Commissioner released the results of a formal investigation into the life of a child in the car of the state. As the effect of interventions and misse… Read More
2023-01-23 00:16
Babylon is a largely episodic film that charts the development of the US movie industry over 25 years from silent films into talkies. It follows the undulating and mostly self-destructing ca… Read More
2023-01-21 16:57
After a lot of close shaves, there comes a time in a cat’s life when living up to the legend is no longer the main priority. Puss in Boots (voiced by Antonio Banderas) briefly consider… Read More
2023-01-18 14:28
A trinity of glitter balls hang over the audience as I Will Survive plays, the theatre doors close, and the house lights dim at the start of Sister Act. It’s Christmas Eve, but the Sis… Read More
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