Siren MUSIC THE SKIP the
12
College Tribune | October 14th 2008
SOCIAL ENDEAVOUR OF THE FORTNIGHT
THEATRE
Airfield Urban Farm Some might think it seems a tad unwise having an animal filled farm in the city but Airfield fits into its surroundings with surprising ease. Airfield urban farm is an old estate open to the public; with a small fee you can explore the huge estate with fields galore as well as an ornamental walled garden and the car museum. However, by far the best part is their wide selection of farm animals that will take you back to all those primary school field trips to the Glenroe farm you were undoubtedly forced
Brilliance of Beckett Caitrina Cody was at the Abbey to witness the disturbing spectacle that is Samuel Beckett’s Happy Days
to go on. Sheep, chickens and cows are all on location but the must sees of the farm are animals with character such as the donkeys, Michael and Smokey Joe and not forgetting Betty and Prudence, the saddle-back pigs. Airfield also has a very charming gift shop which is full of unnecessary but must have trinkets like classic toys, kitchen ornaments, jams, chutneys and honeys. The Overends Café on the ground floor of the beautiful house on the farm is very cosy, serving delicious food. With all you can do for less than a fiver, it really is a great and very relaxing way to spend a Sunday afternoon. However, mostly everything worth seeing is outdoors so dress for the weather. Tickets are €4 with a student card and it’s located just five minutes by car from Dundrum shopping centre. CATHY BUCKMASTER
Happy Days is not a play for the faint-hearted. Taking place over two acts, it is the story of a woman who is imprisoned in the earth of a scorched and barren desert, with only her vacuous husband and the unrelenting sun for company. Beckett is known for his challengingly symbolic plays and this one is no exception. Fiona Shaw (who also plays Aunt Petunia in the Harry Potter series) stars as Winnie, a seemingly superficial chatterbox who is visible only from the waist up for the first act and from the neck up in the second act. The play opens with an arresting set – the stage is a vision of hell, dominated by an enormous mound of blasted earth, on top of which is perched a very civilised-looking lady in a sun-hat. This is Winnie. Every morning Winnie and her husband Willy are woken by an ear-splitting alarm that signifies the start of another long day for the stranded couple. Willy (played by Tim Potter) has a degree of freedom, in that he can seek shelter from
BOOKS
Wonderland woes Go Ask Alice is based on the actual diary of Alice, a fifteenyear-old drug user. Although first published in 1972, this story is every bit as relevant today as it was over thirty years ago. When Alice starts to write her diary, she has just turned fifteen and has a new-found interest in boys, clothes and make-up. The love of her life Roger has just rejected her and her family is moving house. When she goes to stay with her grandparents for the summer, she is invited to a party by one of the ‘popular girls’ where she has her first experience of LSD. Frighteningly quickly, Alice is sucked into the world of drugs, trying pot, heroine, cocaine and anything else that comes her way. While in some
ways Alice’s writings are beyond her years, in others, she retains her young teenage innocence, falling in and out of love on a weekly basis and worrying about being one of the popular kids. She eventually tries to escape the world of drugs so that she can make her family proud and be happy with her straight-laced boyfriend Joel, but the people from her past will not allow it. Alice endures bullying, blackmail, and even having her food spiked with LSD before she is finally left alone.
GO ASK ALICE ANONYMOUS Her diary concludes with a happy entry, explaining that she was grown-up enough now not to need a diary, and that she was looking forward to college life and eventually marrying Joel. Three weeks later, Alice died of an overdose, at home, alone. Nobody knows what happened, or why. Keep the tissues handy while you read this book, but do read it. You’ll never forget Alice’s story, and that is exactly what her parents hoped to achieve by showing it to the world. SUSANNE O’REILLY
HAPPY DAYS ★★★★★ the oppressive sun and Winnie relies on her unresponsive husband to be her audience as she shares her fragmented observations during the course of the play. There is no explanation as to how Winnie and Willie arrived in this situation but instead the audience is quickly swept along by the hypnotic pace of her erratic monologue. “Something of this is being heard, I am not merely talking to myself, that is in the wilderness, a thing I could never bear to do – for any length of time. That is what enables me to go on, go on talking that is. Whereas if you were to die – to speak in the old style – or go away and leave me, then what would I do, what could I do, all day long, I mean between the bell for waking and the bell for sleep? Simply gaze before me with compressed lips.” This production, directed by Deborah
Batty boosh brilliace The hit radio turned TV show, The Mighty Boosh, has recently crammed their colourful and new age comedy routine into one very beautiful book. This autumn collaboration invites you to join Naboo, Bollo, Vince, Bob Fossil, Old Greg, the moon and all of your other favourite characters on a unique journey ‘through time and space… to the world of the Mighty Boosh’. The book is full of Vince’s child-like drawings, bizarre poetry, crimps, favourite quotes, amusing and angry photographs, Howard’s disturbing jazz fantasies, scrib-
Warner, is riveting and Fiona Shaw is completely believable as the tragic but stalwart heroine. Shaw herself explains that Winnie begins every sentence with a note of optimism but fails to complete them. Shaw superbly embodies the stubborn optimism of Winnie and her refusal to give in to the nothingness of her life. She clings to halfforgotten memories and to her capacious handbag, examining its contents lovingly, its very presence a reassurance. Winnie’s predicament is not simply the predicament of a woman imprisoned in the earth, but is symbolic of the human condition and the struggles that we face as we attempt to make our lives meaningful in a world of trivia. Ultimately, this is a production that chills the heart while eliciting the laughs, a paradox that Beckett was extremely good as creating.
» Happy Days is playing at the Abbey th Theatre until the 25 of October. Student concessions are available.
THE MIGHTY BOOK OF BOOSH JULIAN BARRATT AND NOEL FIELDING
bled cartoons about being raised in a forest by Brian Ferry, Howard Moon’s arctic journal and millions more of the best bits from the show. As well as all the old shenanigans, they have written out new material for hungry Boosh fans, including a book of Vince’s excuses for being late and Bob Fossils A-Z list of alternative names for zoo animals (from Mr. Nose Licker instead of ant eater to Mr. Clippity Clop man instead of zebra). There is also a scandalous love affair between old Greg and Slash from Guns and Roses, the phases of the moon explained by the
shaving-foam-face itself and a brand spanking new story about Charlie, every ones favourite piece of Hoovershaped chewing gum. If David Bowie, Monty Python and Anthony Burgess had ever joined forces with pens and crayons, it might have turned out something like this. The Boosh have given us a unique combination of silly and witty, childlike and suggestive, random and relevant. The Mighty Boosh has never failed to surprise and amuse us and the book is no exception. The surreal, eccentric and even musical (impossible as that may sound) aspects make sure the book is well worth the read. KATIE GODWIN