Brendan Gleeson to star in The Weir for his first theatre performance in 10 years
The play, written and for the first time directed by Conor McPherson, will run from August 8 to September 6. It will then appear in London's Harold Pinter theatre from September 12 to December 6, marking Gleeson's West End debut.
'The last time I appeared on stage was 10 years ago, at the Olympia Theatre in Dublin, where I started my career,' Gleeson said. 'I can't wait to be back there, and then to play in the West End for the first time, at the beautiful Pinter Theatre.'
Though perhaps better known for his career in film, with roles in The Banshees of Inisherin , In Bruges and more, the Irish actor began his acting work in theatre.
Gleeson last appeared on the theatre stage in 2015, performing alongside his sons Domhnall and Brian in The Walworth Farce , also at the 3Olympia.
McPherson's The Weir was written in 1997, set in a rural Irish pub as the regulars share stories with a newly arrived woman from Dublin. It won an Olivier Award for the best new play following its premiere.
'I can hardly believe it's been 30 years since I wrote The Weir and about 30 years since I first met the wonderful Brendan Gleeson,' McPherson said. 'It's an absolute honour to bring this play to life again with one of the greatest titans of Irish acting.'
Tickets for the 3Olympia run go on sale Saturday, May 3.
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Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
Aisling Rawle: 'I feel like we're living in The Truman Show'
Since the days of Big Brother, reality TV has been a world ripe for extreme behaviour — making it the perfect setting for a thrilling novel about what happens when the experience goes wrong. Irish author Aisling Rawle describes her debut, The Compound, as 'Love Island meets Lord of the Flies' and 'Animal Farm — but if everyone was hot and wanted skincare'. In the opening pages, its protagonist Lily — a young, attractive 20-something — wakes up in a large house surrounded by an expansive desert. She's willingly taking part in The Compound, a reality show that sees young men and women couple up and compete for prizes. But from the off, it's clear that life in the compound will be anything but easy. There are several striking things about Rawle. One is that she's so softly-spoken that my recording device barely picks up her voice in the busy cafe, but what she has to say about reality TV, materialism, and social media is deeply wise. The second is that she's not a die-hard reality TV fan. The third? She's not on social media. Despite this, the 27-year-old Leitrim-born, Dublin-based former English teacher (she's currently on a break to focus on her writing) is an astute guide to what reality TV can tell us about human behaviour. Aisling Rawle, author: "I woke up with this image in my head, which was the first scene of the novel: two beautiful women, walking around the house and finding the bodies of other beautiful women strewn around like litter," Photograph Moya Nolan The idea for the book emerged during Rawle's summer break two years ago. 'The first day of the holidays, I woke up with this image in my head, which was the first scene of the novel: two beautiful women, walking around the house and finding the bodies of other beautiful women strewn around like litter,' she says. 'I wrote that scene and then I wrote the rest of it in this mad rush. When it was finished, I knew so little about the publishing industry that I was brazen enough to reach out to an agent and she very kindly took me on.' The book was written in a six-week 'fever dream' and soon multiple publishers were bidding to publish The Compound in Ireland and overseas. The novel picks apart the 'extreme' gender stereotyping across many reality TV shows. 'While the girls are thinking 'who's the prettiest in the house?', the boys are fighting in the desert,' Rawle says of The Compound. 'I think that it is such a cruel aspect of dating shows and reality TV shows — the appearance of women is so scrutinised, and it's seen as the most important thing. I think we take it for granted. Even things like the Kardashian [family], it feels like so many conversations revolve around their relative attractiveness. They'll even do it amongst each other. I remember one viral moment of [Kim] Kardashian saying [to her sister Kourtney], 'you are the least interesting to look at'.' Aisling Rawle, author: 'While the girls are thinking 'who's the prettiest in the house?', the boys are fighting in the desert' Photograph Moya Nolan While watching Love Island during the pandemic, Rawle and her friends started to jokingly describe it as 'heterosexual paradise'. 'The heteronormativity is astounding,' she says with a baffled laugh. 'It does present the idea not only that the norm is heterosexuality, but that the people worth viewing are heterosexual.' She examines this in the novel, with readers guessing whether characters are really as straight as they present themselves. The book is set in the not-too-distant future, and hints at climate issues and ongoing wars. 'We don't know a whole lot about the outside, but it's burning and there's conflict and tension and Lily desperately wants to get away. To me, that didn't feel very dissimilar to the world today,' says Rawle. The producers in The Compound come off as manipulative, faceless people who push the participants to do terrible things. 'I wanted to put a little bit of finger-pointing towards the people who create these really toxic situations and pass it off as entertainment,' she says. As readers, we know the producers have the power, but we recognise that the viewers are culpable too. Rawle watched a lot of Love Island during the covid lockdowns. 'I think that reality television shows normalised having people that we don't know inside our house as entertainment, which I think probably also paved the way for influencer culture, which I also wanted to criticise a little in this book,' she says. Aisling Rawle, author: 'I think that reality television shows normalised having people that we don't know inside our house as entertainment, which I think probably also paved the way for influencer culture." Photograph Moya Nolan While she sees influencing as a valid way of making a living, the 'transactional nature' of it can feel inauthentic and lead to people second-guessing what is a genuine human interaction or not. 'We all know that social media is fake, and we've known that for years, but I think the more it creeps into our lives, the more we've normalised that fakeness is the exchange of reality,' she says, adding later with a laugh: 'I feel like we're living in The Truman Show … I feel like that's just the norm now,' referring to the 1998 film starring Jim Carrey about a man whose entire life is filmed. She says that with reality television shows, 'there is a strange line between entertainment and exploitation', something that Lily discovers in the house. In The Compound, the participants know that to win the approval of the producers and viewers they must adhere to certain rules. These reflect larger societal expectations on people, says Rawle. 'The three driving forces of the reality TV show were, the driving forces of young adult life. Which is, you have to find a partner, you have to get a house, and then you have to get nice things. That's what it means to be a successful adult. I wanted to turn that up to the extreme.' Aisling Rawle, author: 'Once someone is told they are 'stupid' — and I don't like that word — it is so incredibly difficult to unburden them, and you'll find adults who are 50, 60, 70, still having it in the back of their head, because someone told them [once] 'you're stupid'.' Photograph Moya Nolan Lily is a character who thinks a lot about how people view her, and adjusts herself to meet their expectations. But she also has negative ideas about herself, believing she is stupid. She sees her worth as being tied up in her looks. Lily's belief that she is stupid is something Rawle noticed in students: how judgement can have a lasting impact. 'Once someone is told they are 'stupid' — and I don't like that word — it is so incredibly difficult to unburden them, and you'll find adults who are 50, 60, 70, still having it in the back of their head, because someone told them [once] 'you're stupid'.' The competition in The Compound pits beautiful people against beautiful people, creating a hierarchy of attractiveness. Lily believes she has to be the most desirable person in the compound, and compares herself to everyone else, 'which I think is a horrible way to be', says Rawle. The book is written in the first-person so that the reader could potentially 'understand Lily's experience, but also feel removed enough that you would confront your own associations of judgment'. Aisling Rawle, author: 'It can be a very despairing place, social media.' Photograph Moya Nolan The book helped Rawle work through some of her own frustrations about the issues she explores in it. 'It was very cathartic,' she says. She never knew what the next scene was going to be, comparing herself to an 'evil producer' of the show. 'But I also felt like a viewer of the show going 'who's going tonight?'' The book is underpinned by Rawle's feminism. Growing up with a younger brother and older sister, she says her teenage feminist awakening was spurred on by books such as Jane Eyre. More recently, the novel Detransition Baby by transgender writer Torrey Peters further helped her ideas of gender evolve. Though she once joined Facebook, she isn't on social media. Why? While she says there is a lot of good on the apps, for her staying focused is a priority. She adds: 'It can be a very despairing place, social media.' This gentle refusal of social media is a sign of how Rawle is able to decide what social norms she does and doesn't want to take on board. Part of the book is influenced by her experiences of earning more money after college, and finding that 'life revolved around what was the next thing to purchase, which to me didn't feel like there was a lot of fulfillment or meaning in it'. The Compound by Aisling Rawle The characters in The Compound undertake tasks in order to win expensive items. The tasks can be deeply unpleasant but are seen as worth it because of the result. As someone in her late 20s, she is part of a generation dealing with multiple stresses, most notably the housing crisis. She feels extremely lucky to be able to rent on her own, but recalls teaching piano in the evenings while being a teacher by day. 'I knew teachers who would go home on the weekend and do carpentry jobs, or personal trainer jobs,' she says. Excitingly for an Irish author, The Compound is being published in America and was recently chosen for the Good Morning America book club for July. Rawle remains sanguine: 'The book was the success for me. Everything else was secondary.' While The Compound does end at a moment that's a good jumping-off point for a sequel, Rawle's next book is about something totally unrelated. 'It's funny, the protagonist of the next book is very superstitious, and I've become superstitious — so I'm reluctant to say too much,' she offers. It's an exciting time for Rawle, but she seems well capable of dealing with the whirlwind of publishing a book on both sides of the Atlantic. All that's left is to ask the burning question: would she ever go on a reality show herself? 'It's a definite no,' she says, laughing. 'You couldn't pay me enough!' The Compound by Aisling Rawle, published by Harper Collins, is out now Read More Diary of a Gen Z Student: The differences between Irish and Portugese men when it comes to flirting
Irish Examiner
an hour ago
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Book are my business: Children's Books Ireland publications officer Ruth Concannon
Ruth Concannon is publications officer with Children's Books Ireland (CBI), which aims to help children and young people become readers for life. How did you get into your role? I did a masters in University College Dublin, and my thesis was on children's literature. I knew it was an area I wanted to explore, so I did an internship with Children's Books Ireland. When I finished that, I worked in Charlie Byrne's bookshop in Galway for a few years, and also with Dublin City University (DCU), Dublin City Council Culture Company, and the National Library of Ireland. I always kept books at the heart of it. I returned and did a masters in children's and young adult literature at DCU, then I saw this job come up, and I jumped at the chance. I am in the role just over two years now and it was a real full circle moment, because it was almost 10 years after my internship that I became a full-time staff member. What does your role involve? It's a really varied role. I lead on selecting books for review on our website and across our publications. I edit our magazine, which is our flagship publication, and our other reading guides. I help Elaina, our CEO, to select books that are highlighted on TV, radio, and in the media. I also write round-ups for various media outlets. I represent CBI when we go to the Bologna Book Fair and to YALC, the young adult literature convention, which is in London every November. I work across the team, with our comms team, book gifting and for awards submission. I track Irish-published books, to see what are the best opportunities for them to shine. What do you like most about what you do? There is something really special about finding a book and passing it on to the right reader. I get a real buzz off that, whether it is matching one of our reviewers with the right book, or showing parents, caregivers and teachers a list of books on a topic that can help them through a difficult time. It's also really great to be able to help authors get their books out there. I still work as a book doctor, so seeing the look on a child's face when they get a book, that really means a lot to me. I believe that a book can really spark something that can change the course of your life. The book clinics are great because I get to see what the children themselves are enjoying — they are incredibly honest, which I always appreciate. What do you like least about it? I'm really fortunate in that I read widely because I have to read across age groups and genres. Sometimes it would be nice to have more time to savour the books, like when you finish a book and it's so good and profound that you would like to sit with it for a while before you move on to the next. Three desert island books If I was on a desert island, a comfort read would be key, so I would bring Light a Penny Candle by Maeve Binchy. I love the way she tells stories and knits everything together, and the sense of community that you get from her books. I love listening to her audiobooks as well, because her cousin Kate Binchy reads them and she is spectacular. The next book would be The Illustrated Mum by Jacqueline Wilson, who was a very influential author on me growing up. I absolutely adored her books, and it's a treat now to revisit them, because she has started to write adult sequels, which is such a gift. The last one is likely the most important one, The Secret of the Ruby Ring by Yvonne McGrory, an author from Donegal, which came out in the early '90s. When I was about nine, my aunt got me a box of books from a charity shop for Christmas, and this was in it. It was the book that started my journey to becoming a reader; if I hadn't read it, I probably wouldn't be where I am today.
Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
Clodagh Finn: Carmel Snow, the Irish Anna Wintour who reshaped US fashion
Carmel Snow, the influential Irish woman who transformed US fashion magazine Harper's Bazaar, was born Carmel White in Dalkey in 1887. Had she been a fan of the double-barrel name, she would have become Carmel Snow-White. I love that quirky if little-quoted fact, not least because it shows our insistence on shoehorning trailblazing women, such as Carmel and the in-the-news phenomenon that is Anna Wintour, into fairytale stereotypes. Women with power, influence and fearsome reputations are no Snow Whites, of course; they are cast as cartoonish wicked women. Or devil women. For proof, look no further than the box-office sensation, The Devil Wears Prada, the film supposedly based on Wintour. Mind you, as steely editor of Runway magazine, the wondrous Meryl Streep (Miranda Priestly), offered us a poised and immensely entertaining version of female wickedness, one which we will happily see again soon. News that a sequel has just gone into production lands hot on the heels of confirmation that Anna Wintour is stepping down from her role as editor-in-chief of Vogue. Anna Wintour who is to step aside from her role as the day-to-day editor of American Vogue, with the magazine hiring a new head of editorial content. HISTORY HUB If you are interested in this article then no doubt you will enjoy exploring the various history collections and content in our history hub. Check it out HERE and happy reading She is not stepping back, though. Make no mistake about that. Anna Wintour, the woman lauded for revitalising the celebrated magazine and chairing the annual Met Gala, will continue to work as Condé Nast's global chief content officer. There has been much coverage of the woman herself — her razor-sharp bob, her trademark sunglasses, her achievement in fashion-empire building and her icy demeanour. At least there is also some recognition that she is a real person behind the curated image. I like this description of the personal Wintour from fashion editor Jess Cartner Morley: 'In private, [she] is devoted to her family, is a tennis superfan, a passionate supporter of the arts and a witty and phenomenally well-read conversationalist.' Maybe she is glued to Wimbledon right now. One of the many things I admire about her is her sense of humour. Here's a fine example: She turned up to the London premiere of The Devil Wears Prada musical wearing Prada. And she told reporters that it was up to the public to decide if she and Miranda Priestly were 'twinsies'. Though we might not like to think so, we — the observing public — will never be able to make an informed choice about that because it is impossible to get behind the caricatural Anna of the headlines. There is, however, one undeniable fact in all of it: Anna Wintour is 75 years old and she is still at the top of her game. In all the coverage, that single figure is the one that remains after the clichés and wooden generalisations drain away. Having this elegant, high-powered executive back in the news also gives us a joyous occasion to recall the Irishwoman who was the Anna Wintour of her day. Or maybe that should be the other way around — Wintour is the Carmel Snow of her day. Happily, this Irish 'icon of impeccable style', editor of Vogue and transformer of Harper's Bazaar is now quite well-known, but that is recent. When, in the 1990s, writer and TV producer/director Anne Roper first came across a reference to her, she had been all but forgotten. American fashion journalist Carmel Snow (1887 - 1961) attends a function in London in 1956. Picture: Getty Images After reading this tantalising footnote in Truman Capote's biography — 'The remarkable Mrs Snow, Dublin-born, had transformed Harper's Bazaar from a simple fashion magazine into a haven for the new and daring, in photography and design as well as fiction' — Roper rang the magazine's New York offices to find out more. They had only vague memories. Then she came across her out-of-print memoir, The World of Carmel Snow, and began the process of writing this tenacious and supremely talented woman back into the public consciousness. Let's start with a bit of name-dropping to put her importance into context. To quote none other than Capote again: 'Diane Vreeland was her fashion editor. Alexey Brodovitch, who designed for the Ballets Russes, was her art director. There was no question, Bazaar was the magazine to work for.' Capote was a contributor along with Katherine Anne Porter, Evelyn Waugh, Frank O'Connor, Louis MacNiece and Maeve Brennan. As she put it herself, Carmel Snow was creating a magazine for 'well-dressed women with well-dressed minds'. She discovered Balenciaga, Christian Dior and Hubert de Givenchy. She gave Cartier-Bresson his first magazine assignment, and counted Coco Chanel, Colette, Salvador Dali, Liam O'Flaherty and Noel Coward as friends. Her vision was an immediate success. She took over Harper's Bazaar in 1935, tripling the circulation in jig time. It happened by accident, in a sense. Or rather due to the tragic death of her businessman father Peter White who died suddenly in Chicago in 1893 while setting up the Irish village, a showcase of Irish history, culture and industry, at the World Fair. Carmel's mother, Anne White, took over from him and did an exceptional job. A commemorative stamp of Carmel Snow. Picture: An Post The 'very capable and charming Mrs Peter White', as one newspaper described her, decided to stay in the US and open a craft shop. She later took over a dressmaking firm with a workroom of over 250 fitters and seamstresses who produced Parisian haute couture for the US market. Carmel later recalled her mother's 'momentous decision' to stay on and take over with admiration. 'Her determination had taken her a long way in that period when women, particularly Irish women, seldom ventured,' she wrote. Her mother's career brought Carmel to America and introduced her to the fashion world. She accompanied her mother on buying trips to Paris where she met Coco Chanel and witnessed the 'birth of the revolution in fashion'. She moved to the city — after a failed love affair, apparently — and worked for the Red Cross during WWI. Her big break into the fashion world came in the early 1920s when she filled in for a New York Times fashion correspondent who couldn't make one of the Paris fashion shows. Her copy was so good it led to a column in that paper and later a job as assistant fashion editor in Vogue. 'For the first day, I got myself up to kill. I wore a smart, but dead black crepe-de-chine dress and jacket from Vionnet, the exciting new Paris designer whose bias cut was so subtle I was proud of myself for recognising that here was an artist in fashion,' she wrote. Her subsequent career at Harper's has been well-covered; here was an early high-flier who did not let the birth of her children slow her down: 'I was never without a baby under the desk.' Much attention has been paid to her drinking in later life, too, and the dignity-stripping reality of that, but let us hope that serves as a reminder that people, even talented and successful ones, have feet of clay. I did not discover until this week, however, that she wrote a six-part series published by the Evening Echo in 1953. Here's a flavour of it: 'To wear the new Dior line, you cannot have a spare tire [sic]. What you need is a spare rib. You must have a concave stomach and pretty well nothing to sit on. You must be slender as a willow and as few of us are this, we must be prepared to be stern with ourselves.' Plus ça change. Although I do, naively perhaps, hold out hope for change. The collective noun for those at a publication's helm is, I read somewhere, 'a revision of editors'. How nicely put. Maybe we can now revise the caricatures we sketch for the women who sit in that hot seat.
