Latest news with #MikelMurfi
The Guardian
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Oh … review – underwater piano playing serves up a skilful aquarium spectacle
It is hard to tell what the fish make of Mikel Murfi's intrusion into their deep tank at the Salthill aquarium. Surrounded by rocks, he arranges himself in a sun chair on a small, raft-like deck. Breathing through a long curved tube, an oxygen tank tucked beneath his white shirt, he seems utterly self-sufficient, like a shipwreck survivor, lost in his thoughts. It is a startling opening to a 45-minute piece that would be called performance art in a gallery. On a bank of seats facing the three-metre-high glass tank, the small audience surveys the specimen in front of them. A dizzyingly inventive physical performer and director, Murfi often collaborates with other theatre, dance and opera artists. Here his director is Kellie Hughes, with designers Sabine Dargent (set) and Sinéad Wallace (lighting). While it seems to flow dreamily, this arresting new work they have created with Loco & Reckless Productions and Galway international arts festival relies on pinpoint precision and skill. It is only when Murfi's Robinson Crusoe-like character completes his fastidious weightlifting routine that he pays attention to the teeming life around him, as swarms of fish approach him – bream, wreckfish and starry smooth-hound sharks, according to the programme. To a soundtrack of honking traffic, he playfully conducts the fishes' darting movement. Later he plays piano in the water, the accompanying music evoking memories that seem linked to a past loss. Face down, rolling and gliding like an astronaut, he is riding waves of grief. Declan Gibbon's string and percussion score surges, as an agitated Murfi shines a torch through the glass at us, searchingly. As the tempest subsides, he undulates and floats, now with an affecting sense of surrender or acceptance. With the fish encircling him as he swims, he has undergone 'a sea change, into something rich and strange'. At Galway international arts festival until 26 July
Irish Times
17-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
Mikel Murfi's underwater production is surely one of the most unusual, intriguing and oddly life-enhancing things about
Oh... Galway Atlantaquaria, Salthill ★★★★★ When you've done it all performance-wise - mime, theatre, dance, movement, acrobatics, as actor/writer/director Mikel Murfi has, where do you go? Underwater, clearly. Murfi's new show is performed in a huge, room-height water tank in an aquarium, filled with fish. It is surely one of the most unusual, intriguing and oddly life-enhancing things about. His idea, floating about (sorry) for years, was for a movement show underwater, seeing the human body performing in water, and how 'it might have another kind of poetry to it other than the body moving in air'. A body, his body, sturdy and strong, delicate and nimble, underwater is like a spaceman's, where movement is cushioned, slow, softer, otherworldly. The basics: a large stone-faced tank in Salthill's aquarium, homeplace to masses of swimming fish, Wreakfish, Gilthead Bream, European Bass, Starry Smoothhound. In among them descends Murfi, an oxygen feed in his mouth, wearing shirt and trousers and very basic goggles. He proceeds to perform a show that is gob-smackingly skilled, by turns serenely calming and funny. READ MORE He seems to do a bit of sea scavenging and cleaning up, he does exercises, he tells a string of fish jokes (did you hear about the crab at the disco? He pulled a mussel. Tee-hee-hee) and corny riddles, softly falling about the place. He sings, he dances. His is a voice-over, along with subtle water sounds, and world sounds (sound design by Sandra O'Mahony). Sometimes he engages with the fish, directing their traffic. The fish are nonplussed. He moves floatily. He occasionally freaks the audience out slightly. Murfi performs this 45-minute show underwater, breathing through an oxygen feed. The entire show is startling, mesmerising. Intrinsic to all this is a gorgeous score by Declan Gibbons, simple then sophisticated, perfectly synched with the show, not just in terms of timing (but that too: this must have been rehearsed to extreme), but tone and feel, too. (It's on Spotify; check it out). Aside from the audaciousness of the concept and the precision and beauty of its execution, directed by Kellie Hughes, this plays with the notion of watching. We are watching Murfi. Can he see us? Can he hear us? The fish are expressionless, as fish tend to be. They seem to give him his space and just go about their business. Are they watching him? What do they make of him? The fish swim around, sometimes towards the glass, and us, then divert. Can they see us? They're used to be being watched. We, the small audience, are intruding on their world, and Murfi's. Murfi is intruding too, benignly, doing the most unlikely things underwater. They are oblivious, it seems. This is not as creepy as it sounds. Rather it's intriguing; a really difficult physical feat but also a thing of beauty, in its cushioned, slow world, linked to ours by the music. [ As Galway's arts festival opens, the city's long-expected cultural space inches slowly towards planning this year Opens in new window ] There's a simplicity and purity to the show but the mechanics of making it must've been anything but simple, with years in the conception and in the making. There's an expert dive team, and behind it all, Loco and Reckless Productions, Glór in Ennis and Galway International Arts Festival . Obviously it's inspiring to make a bonkers idea work, and the actuality of it is amusing and soothing. This is just the kind of ambitious madness, beautiful stretching of boundaries, that you want in a festival. Fin. (Sorry.) And: breathe. Until July 26th. Limited audience; sold out
Irish Independent
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Independent
This spectacular underwater theatrical experience is like nothing on earth
Mikel Murfi's 'Oh...' at Galway International Arts Festival is a mind blowing encounter that alters your sense of what human connection can be Mikel Murfi's new solo show is simply spectacular. It is performed in the main tank in Galway's Atlantaquaria, and from the programme, I had somehow thought Murfi would be alone. But the tank is also full of fish, seabass, wreckfish, gilthead bream. Big fish, some up to 30 inches long. Register for free to read this story Register and create a profile to get access to our free stories. You'll also unlock more free stories each week.
Irish Times
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Irish Times
The Guide: Galway arts festival, The Script, Taylor Tomlinson and other events to see, shows to book and ones to catch before they end
Event of the week Galway International Arts Festival From Monday, July 14th, until Sunday, July 27th, various venues, times and prices, Once more around the sun for Ireland's most comprehensive arts festival, which this year further embeds accessibility into its programming. Highlights include photography (Joe O'Shaughnessy's Druid, from Monday, July 14th, until Sunday, July 27th, Kenny Gallery, 9am-5pm, free), opera (Mars, from Friday, July 25th, until Sunday, July 27th, Leisureland, Salthill, 8pm, €40), Resistance to Trump: US congresswoman Pramila Jayapal in conversation with Fintan O'Toole (Saturday, July 26th, Bailey Allen Hall, University of Galway, 6pm, €15) and music (Richard Thompson, Sunday, July 27th, Monroe's, 8pm, €40). A particular must-see is the unique Oh…, the new solo show by the long-time festival collaborator Mikel Murfi (various days, Galway Atlantaquaria, Salthill, 8pm, €25). Gigs The Script Saturday, July 12th, Thomond Park, Limerick, 5pm, €82.80/€78.25/€67.40, Visiting Limerick as part of their Satellites world tour (named after their seventh album , from 2024), The Script continue to raise the flag for resilience. It is now more than two years since the death of Mark Sheehan, one of their original founders. Danny O'Donoghue and Glen Power (along with their long-term touring bass guitarist, Ben Sargeant) seem hell-bent on celebrating the power of positive thinking with their blend of arena-friendly pop/rock/R&B and more than a few anthemic ballads. Jessica Pratt Sunday, July 13th, Vicar Street, Dublin, 7pm, €35, Jessica Pratt California's hippie nostalgia, New York's experimental inclinations and London's swinging-sixties vibe run so much through Jessica Pratt's 2024 album, Here in the Pitch, that you're tempted to check the list of contributors to it. Is that Marianne Faithfull we hear, or Joni Mitchell? The Walker Brothers or The Beach Boys? Velvet Underground or Pentangle? The album is one of four that the Los Angeles-based musician has released since her self-titled debut, in 2012, and it more than consolidates her position as the best US singer-songwriter you've possibly never heard of. Well worth investigating. Supergrass Sunday, July 13th, Iveagh Gardens, Dublin, 6pm, €50.65, It's third strike lucky for Supergrass, the Oxford band who re-formed for the second time last year. The main reason for returning is the 30th anniversary of their debut album, I Should Coco, which, as well as being nominated for the Mercury Prize, propelled the band to the forefront of the Britpop movement. Its single Alright, which reached the UK top three, only amplified their appeal. The band's lead singer, Gaz Coombes, said the song wasn't 'supposed to be a rally cry for our generation', but it and I Should Coco have remained just that, no matter the age of the listener. READ MORE Visual arts Summer Open Exhibition Until Saturday, August 2nd, Swift Cultural Centre, Trim, Co Meath, Mon-Sat, 10am-4pm, free, View from the Hugh Lane by Annette Smyth This inaugural art exhibition featuring the work of almost 50 local artists supports multidisciplinary projects that might not have been undertaken otherwise. Artists involved include Fiona Kerbey, Shane Holland, Annette Smyth, Thomas Hendy, Paula Jane Shuter, John Larkin and Lorraine Clarke. The artworks have been chosen by Belinda Quirke, director of both the Swift centre and Solstice Arts Centre, in Navan. Musical Kinky Boots: The Musical Monday-Saturday, July 14th-19th, Bord Gáis Energy Theatre, Dublin, 7.30pm, €68.40/€60.90/€52.30/€41.05, Kinky Boots, from Tony Clayton-Lea for The Guide, Saturday, July 12, 2025. Based on the British film from 2005, and with the bonus of songs by the US pop star Cyndi Lauper, Kinky Boots: The Musical arrives in Dublin for its penultimate run before concluding its tour in Oxford at the end of this month. A Tony and Olivier winner with a mix of show tunes and club bangers, it follows the (true) story of a shoe-factory owner who, in a bid to save his family business from closure, decides to produce fetish footwear for men. Comedy Taylor Tomlinson: Save Me Sunday, July 13th, 3Arena, Dublin, 7pm, €59.85/€49.20, Taylor Tomlinson Taylor Tomlinson – one of the most-followed women comedians on TikTok – has, in the past five years, filmed three comedy specials for Netflix and presented the US panel show After Midnight (becoming the only woman host on late-night US television). Tomlinson's Save Me tour, which mines her personal life for material, has its roots in her upbringing in a pious Christian community as well as the removal of her life from such controls. Topics addressed and insightfully ribbed include mental health, sexual preferences and dating. Arts festival Earagail Arts Festival From Saturday, July 12th, until Saturday, July 26th, Letterkenny, Co Donegal, various venues, times and prices, Thirty-eight years is a long time to keep the fires burning, but Earagail Arts Festival doesn't seem to be tiring. Its broad range of events includes theatre/dance (Steps into the Wild & Miss Mary, Monday, July 14th, Gola Island, noon, free), music (Poor Creature, Friday, July 18th, Donegal Castle, 8pm, €20) and circus (Tumble, from Thursday, July 24th, until Saturday, July 26th, Ionad Cois Locha, Dunlewey, 3.30pm, €10/€6). Still running The Beacon Until Saturday, July 19th, Everyman Theatre, Cork, 7.30pm, €39/€36, Geraldine Hughes Commissioned by Druid in 2016, Nancy Harris's play receives a revival (and a Cork premiere). The story hinges on the renovation of a house on an island off the west Cork coast, and how notable feminist artist Beiv (Geraldine Hughes) oversees a deep-rooted, intriguing family mystery. Leonard Buckley and Ross O'Donnellan also feature. Sara Joyce directs. Book it this week Masters of Tradition Festival, Bantry, Co Cork, August 20th-24th, Westport Festival of Chamber Music, Co Mayo, September 11th-14th, Tom Odell, 3Arena, Dublin, October 23rd, Serena Terry, Cork Opera House, March 12th,
