This coming Saturday, a friend of mine is organising a Charity Texas Hold’em Poker Tournament in the Bank Casino on Father Mathew street to raise money for the Zimbabwean branch of Serve (serve.ie).

Should be great fun… I’ll be there, and we need to spread the word for a last push to get a few more bodies involved, so if you could let people know any way you can that would be great!

Full details on the Facebook event page or you can email charitypokerevent@gmail.com to register your interest, or to get more details.

Please spread the word!

Romantic-Comedies aren’t my favourite genre (yes, I consider them a genre), but when they’re right they’re quite good. When Harry Met Sally and Sleepless In Seattle, for example, are films that can withstand repeat viewing. I’m sure there are others but they are the only 2 I can think of right now that I would put in the ‘great’ category.

Harry and Sally gave the 80’s their best rom-com, Sleepless takes the 90’s gong, but the naughties are still waiting for a rom-com worthy of repeat viewings. 2000’s What Women Want had it’s moments, but the fact that a film like Love Actually is held in such high esteem these days how far away from Harry and Sally we are.

Enter Cameron Crowe. Yes, Elizabethtown wasn’t great (although I still found it watchable), but Jerry Maguire was close to greatness. Crowe is to start filming a yet untitled movie with Ben Stiller and Reese Witherspoon in January.

I have a good feeling about this one. Witherspoon is made for rom-com, so teaming her up with Crowe is an obvious move. Stiller could go either way, but after making Orlando Bloom as close to watchable as is humanly possible I have faith in Crowe’s handling.

Anyone think of a leading man who would have been a better choice than Stiller. There aren’t many out there who fit rom-com these days.

A hidden camera has been discovered inside the Man Utd boardroom and it seems Ronaldo is to be sold to Real Madrid!

Went to see End of the Line in the Granary the other evening, it’s an excellent show. Since it’s friends of mine, you might think I’m biased and not believe me, in which case maybe the great Irish Times review it got might sway you

Showing in the Granary tonight and tomorrow night. Last chances to see it!

From the Irish Times

End of the Line

Cork Midsummer Festival: Granary

A crisp directorial style from Donal Gallagher makes the very most of End of the Line , one of the first theatrical events of the Cork Midsummer Festival. The play by Romanian actor and author Paul Ioachim is set on a railway track selected as the ideal suicide method and location by three otherwise unconnected characters.

Ioachim has a light touch, or at least in this translation by Cristina Catalina and adaptation by Jody O’Neill his writing is undecorated. The jokes come without embellishment, but they come and they are so good as to make anyone wonder why this piece is only an hour long and what more Ioachim might do if the plot were darkened even a little or weighted with something more than the skilful inconsequentiality of this work.

Although the players have worked to match and convey the writer’s skill, there is a sense of a gleeful seizure of the nonsense as the balding meteorologist, the failed (or at least failing) actress and the man fromGod-knows- where realise they have been waiting at the wrong side of the station, possibly all their lives.

Jody O’Neill, Carl Kennedy and Dan Tudor give performances as precise as the writing and as pleasurable. Lighting and sound design (Adam McElderry and Carl Kennedy) , set and costumes by Medb Lambert and a shared comic accomplishment all add to the distinction of this presentation. Until Saturday

Mary Leland

John McCarthy of Hammergrin graciously agreed to answer a few questions about The Iowa Project.

Q1. Where did the idea for the project come from?
The festival director, William Galinsky, really liked last year’s Threat of Humour, and met us to discuss working on a project for this year. He encouraged us to read the works of Philip K. Dick, feeling we’d riff off them well, and we did, and ran with it for the last six months.

Q2. What was the inspiration for the marketing campaign?
The poster picks up on the 50s comic book feel of the show, the blurb eggs up the classic sci-fi tone to the script, and the flyer (attached) is basically a cheap pun which allows us to advertise the show and feel better than normal people.

Q3. How much did the venue influence your ideas?
Massively. It is such a great space that we had to work with it, rather than against it, using the warehouse as a set, rather than trying to turn it into a theatre space. A lot of the show will take place in daylight, which streaks in the high windows and casts an eery glow over proceddings. The script was largely finished when we got in there but the way scenes unfolded and connected only came together when we got into the warehouse. It changed some big ideas in the script, in a good way.

[Ed - You can see a sneak preview of the set here.]

Q4. How does it relate to previous Hammergrin productions/events?
It taps into that 50s Americana which so informed The Threat of Humour and Trying Jokes - that ultra-serious masculine world which takes itself so seriosly it is actually funny.

Q5. Why did you choose the Midsummer Festival for this project?
Without the clout of the Midsummer behind this we wouldn’t have the budget, the pr, or a name sufficient to get the venue for the show. And the inspiration of Philip K.Dick wouldn’t have been there without William’s interest in Hammergrin.

The Old Distillery, North Mall
Sunday 22 – Saturday 28 June, 9pm
Tickets €15/€12