Upcoming Events
The Big Picture (Starting in 2 days, 11 hours) Film
From: February 7, 2012 20:00 To: February 7, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
The Big Picture (Dir: Eric Lartigau, France, 2010) Paul Exben is a success story. He has a great job, a glamorous wife and two wonderful sons, except that this is not the life he has been dreaming of. A moment of madness is going to change his life, forcing him to assume a new identity that will enable him to live his life fully. Eric Lartigau directs this material with both polish and urgency. The elements of crime and guilt unfold with elegance, but ultimately The Big Picture is the portrait of an artist on the run, escaping the ...
From: February 9, 2012 20:00 To: February 9, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Since forming in 1999, the David Munnelly Band has graced concert stages and festivals all over the world, captivating audiences at all points. What sets the band apart is the capability and ease with which they weave in and out of different musical styles, while remaining firmly rooted in the earthy tones of Irish traditional music. From Belmullet, in Co. Mayo Munnelly (button accordion) is fortunate to have some of the finest talent that Irish music has to offer with every member (Ryan Molloy (fiddle), David Doocey (fiddle), Kieran Munnelly (flute) and Shane McGowan (guitar) bringing his or her own turn of phrase ...
From: February 11, 2012 10:30 To: February 11, 2012 14:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
This two-day workshop series is intended to introduce basic music concepts to young children. Using brass instruments as a starting point, the workshops will explore rhythm, percussion, singing, rap, chime bars and more, with an emphasis on fun and music-making. No musical experience is necessary. Mary Curran is a founding member of the Whistleblast Quartet; a freelance musician with RTÉ; and a member of the National Concert hall Learn & Explore Team. 5-7 year olds: 10.30am-12pm. 8-11 year olds: 12.30-2pm.Adm: €10. Booking essential.
Rhinoceros (Starting in 1 week, 4 days) Theatre
From: February 16, 2012 20:00 To: February 16, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
When a rhinoceros charges through a small provincial French town square one afternoon, Berenger is initially more concerned with alleviating his hangover than confronting stray animals, and finds it hard to understand why everyone around him has suddenly been engulfed by rhino-induced hysteria. Rhincoceros, a breakthrough play for Eugene Ionesco (running for 241 Broadway performances) is sure to satisfy those with a taste for comedy, absurdism, stampedes and overt political commentary alike. Sligo-based ensemble Blue Raincoat has enjoyed massive popularity throughout Ireland in recent years, with a series of new adaptations on the works of Flann O’Brien, “The Third ...
From: February 18, 2012 10:30 To: February 18, 2012 14:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
This two-day workshop series is intended to introduce basic music concepts to young children. Using brass instruments as a starting point, the workshops will explore rhythm, percussion, singing, rap, chime bars and more, with an emphasis on fun and music-making. No musical experience is necessary. Mary Curran is a founding member of the Whistleblast Quartet; a freelance musician with RTÉ; and a member of the National Concert hall Learn & Explore Team. 5-7 year olds: 10.30am-12pm. 8-11 year olds: 12.30-2pm.Adm: €10. Booking essential.
From: February 18, 2012 10:30 To: February 19, 2012 15:30
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Do you want to improve your drama group’s theatre skills? Do you feel that your group would benefit from some professional mentoring ? This specially designed theatre skills course will focus on acting and directing, as well as technical areas of set- and lighting-design. The objective of the course is to empower the groups to develop their own practice by providing a rang of in-depth workshops across a range of theatre skills. This workshop is facilitated by John Breen, director, playwright and Artistic Directre of TEAM Education Theatre Company. Adm: €25. Booking essential.
From: February 21, 2012 20:00 To: February 21, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy (Dir: Tomas Alfredson, England, 2010) Tuesday, 21st February, 8pm Director Alfredson adapts the classic John le Carré 1974 espionage novel with a little help from the crème de la crème of British acting talent. Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight) is George Smiley, a retired intelligence agent recalled to sniff out a Soviet mole who's managed to infiltrate MI6. Set in the 1970s, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy promises to be an intelligent old-school spy caper that prizes atmosphere over whizz-bang special effects, painting a portrait of international espionage very much at odds with the glitz ...
From: February 23, 2012 20:00 To: February 23, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Jasango Theatre are back with a bang with Geraldine Aron’s achingly funny My Brilliant Divorce. Following a two-year Irish tour and award-winning performances in the USA with Bombshells, Jasango brings you this wittily observant comedy. If you liked Bombshells you’ll love this one! The comedy explores what life is like for Angela Kennedy-Lipsky, recently dumped by her accountant husband for a younger model. Rebuilding her life, she finds herself adrift in a sea of weird sexual encounters, sneaky solicitors, phone-in counsellors, a bad case of hypochondrica and impending poverty. Should she fight to keep her husband? Or should she sign ...
From: February 3, 2012 20:00 To: February 25, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
pareidolia — n : the imagined perception of a pattern or meaning where it does not actually exist, as in considering the moon to have human features. Pareidolia is seeing what appears to the individual to be a representation of a face, figure or form in clouds, woodgrain, marble, smoke, shadows or any non-homogeneous area. It can also be an auditory phenomenon. Ballina-based artist Caroline Casey’s practice takes in painting, photography and sculpture. Much of her work explores the effect of ‘subconscious interpretation’ of abstracted imagery – whether painted or otherwise. She explains: “I was taking photos of ‘faces’ in ...
Eddi Reader (Starting in 3 weeks, 2 days) Music
From: February 28, 2012 20:00 To: February 28, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
It was the short-lived but warmly remembered Fairground Attraction that really brought Eddi Reader into the limelight and to the attention of a much wider audience. The single 'Perfect' and parent album First of a Million Kisses both topped the British charts. In the 1980s, Eddi moved to London where she quickly became a sought after session vocalist before singing with Annie Lennox and touring with the Eurythmics. From the classic Songs Of Robert Burns album - released to international acclaim in 2003 - to recordings with the cream of traditional players throughout the UK, her rare ...
From: February 29, 2012 20:00 To: February 29, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Five chancers present a terrifying tale of temptation and torture, never mind a traveller desperate to find someone to take over his pact and release him from immortality. Who will take on his curse? His only surviving relative? Or a stranger in the depths of despair? Or an innocent child raised on a desert island with no knowledge of the world? Or the clowns compelled to play out this extraordinary tale of temptation, desire and cannibalism who may well have bitten off more than they can chew... Comic surrealism meets shock horror in this series of ridiculous situations where ...
From: March 2, 2012 20:00 To: March 2, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Dazzling young chanteuse Emilie Conway makes her debut performance in Ballina with a trio of top musicians to celebrate Spring as a season of new love, hope and change, performing jazz standards including You Must Believe In Spring, Joy Spring, Aguas de Marco, It Might As Well Be Spring and many more. Emilie’s distinctive voice and inimitable style has earned her much acclaim on the Dublin jazz vocal scene, as well as further afield in Europe and the America. A fine and versatile vocalist of extraordinary sensitivity, she possesses the ability to distil the very essence of song and ...
From: March 3, 2012 10:30 To: March 3, 2012 15:30
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
This two-day workshop is intended as an introduction to the art of printmaking. Printmaker Marianne Heemskerk will conduct the workshops, concentrating on techniques of drypoint and carborundum on aluminium plates. Participants will be working from their own designs and experimenting with the processes and colours. No previous experience required. These are full day workshops. Adm: €40. Price includes materials. Booking essential.
The Runway (Starting in 1 month) Film
From: March 6, 2012 20:00 To: March 6, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
The Runaway (Dir: Ian Power, Ireland, 2010) Paco (Jamie Kierans) has it tough; his Mum seems to work every hour of the day, his Dad is ‘in Spain’, and his best friend Frogs has just had his family’s traveller site moved out of their sleepy Cork village. The year is 1983 and Ireland is in the midst of a recession, with everyone seemingly waiting for something to happen. And indeed something does, with the crash landing of handsome South American rogue Ernesto (Demian Bichir). Adm: €5
The End (Starting in 1 month) Theatre
From: March 8, 2012 20:00 To: March 8, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
The End, a short story by Samuel Beckett, began in English and finished in French. In it a man recounts an episode late in his life when, having been expelled from an institution of care, he finds his own way in the world. He meets a variety of characters and situations before finally lying down to let life ebb away. It is one of Beckett's most complete, most compelling and most beautiful works and is a Gare St Lazare favourite. Making its premiere at Kilkenny Arts Festival, The End has since toured the UK (Brighton, Liverpool. Edinburgh, Oxford), New Zealand ...
From: March 10, 2012 10:30 To: March 10, 2012 15:30
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
This two-day workshop is intended as an introduction to the art of printmaking. Printmaker Marianne Heemskerk will conduct the workshops, concentrating on techniques of drypoint and carborundum on aluminium plates. Participants will be working from their own designs and experimenting with the processes and colours. No previous experience required. These are full day workshops. Adm: €40. Price includes materials. Booking essential.
Shoot The Crow (Starting in 1 month, 1 week) Theatre
From: March 13, 2012 20:00 To: March 13, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Four tillers (Ding Ding, Petesy, Randolph and Socorates) are working on a Belfast building and dreaming of better things. There’s an opportunity to make a few bob on the sly, but not all of them can commit the same petty crime. The hilarious and moving Shoot The Crow considers the relationships we develop with the people we work with and what most of us really think about the jobs we spend most of our lives doing. Following the 2011 critically acclaimed tour, this homage to the working man stops off in Ballina having delighted audiences around the world from ...
From: March 15, 2012 20:00 To: March 15, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Seachtain na Gaeilge: Film Screening: Mise Éire As part of Seachtain na Gaeilge, Ballina Arts Centre in association with Conradh na Gaeilge will screen Mise Éire, George Morrison’s landmark 1959 documentary. Mise Éire tells of events in Ireland leading up to, during and immediately after the 1916 Easter Rising, extensively using original footage such as newsreels from the time. Mise Éire was released in 1959 and became an instant classic. It is the first film ever made in the Irish language and the musical score was composed by the great Seán Ó Riorda has become a classic. Adm: €5
The Tree of Life (Starting in 1 month, 2 weeks) Film
From: March 20, 2012 20:00 To: March 20, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Tree of Life (Dir: Terrence Malick, USA, 2011) Hotly anticipated and critically lauded at Cannes this year - where it went on to win the prestigious Palme d'Or - maverick director Terrence Malick's The Tree Of Life is an expansive, philosophical film of truly epic proportions. Ostensibly the story of jaded businessman Jack (Sean Penn) looking back on his childhood in Texas, Malick's boldly spiritual film sets a very human story of 1950s American childhood - by turns idyllic and hauntingly sad - against the alienating sprawl of modern urban life. This is in turn presented between breathtaking images ...
From: March 24, 2012 16:30 To: March 24, 2012 20:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Official launch of ‘Minefield’, a public art commission by Aideen Barry Artist’s Talk, 4.30pm Official Launch Event, 6pm Guest Speaker: Aidan Dunne, Irish Times’ Art Critic Official launch by Cllr. Peter Clarke Mayor of Ballina Aideen Barry’s ‘Minefield’ will be launched as the public art commission for Ballina Arts Centre. To celebrate the launch Aideen will give a talk on her practice at 4.30pm. She will discuss her extensive and multi versatile practice, which spans a range of art forms and approaches, including sculpture, performance, drawing and animation. She will discuss the Minefield commission and give an insight into the ...
From: March 25, 2012 15:00 To: March 25, 2012 17:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
The students of the Leonard School of School of Speech Drama & Communication in association with students of The Connor School of Music present two exciting and colourful dramatic & musical adaptations, ‘Charlie & the Chocolate Adventure’ & ‘Beauty & the Beastly Creature’, in their spring showcase. In ‘Charlie & the Chocolate Adventure’, the audience is invited to join Charlie on a magical, fun-filled, delicious, adventure as he and his family find good fortune while encountering some colourful, entertaining characters on their journey. ‘Beauty & the Beastly Creature’ is an enchanting tale of love and intrigue as the beautiful Bríd, ...
From: March 3, 2012 14:00 To: March 31, 2012 17:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Bernadette Kiely is one of Irelands leading painters. Born in Co. Tipperary she attended theCollege of Art and Design at Waterford and the Slade School of Fine Art in London.She came to prominance as an artist through her detailed exploration of the seasonal and organic life patterns of the physical world. Often working on a large scale she is informed by her close connection to the land and waterways of her native county and her adopted county of Kilkenny. She paints spaces and places, refuges and prospects that are both steeped in personal significance for her and that explore ...
From: April 3, 2012 20:00 To: April 7, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Names Upon the Water is the true story of 14 young people who left their homes in Addergoole near Ballina and set out on the Titanic for a new life in America. Only three of them completed the journey. The loss of the other 11 amounted to the greatest proportionate loss of life of any village, town or city in the world, on that fateful night one hundred years ago. The story follows the fate of characters such as Delia McDemmott whose purchase of a new hat played a strange part in her fate; the Bourkes whose staunch family loyalty ...
Cell 211 (Starting in 2 months, 1 week) Film
From: April 17, 2012 20:00 To: April 17, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Cell 211 (Dir: Daniel Monzon, France, 2009) Spain's Daniel Monzón adapts Francisco Pérez Gandul's hard-hitting prison novel with aplomb in Cell 211. Centred on a fierce prison riot, the plot follows two men caught on opposite sides of the allegorical fence - one an oppressed inmate who’s taking extreme measures to derail his incarceration; the other a young guard who disguises himself as a prisoner to avoid being made into a pawn for ransom. With an English-language remake already in the pipeline, Cell 211 is poised to be one of the big world cinema hits this year. ...
Musical Toast (Starting in 2 months, 2 weeks) Music
From: April 20, 2012 20:00 To: April 20, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
After a busy 2011, Musical Toast are back on tour with their wonderful mix of Opera and Musical Theatre, timeless classics and modern masterpieces all brought to life in what promises to be a great new programme for the coming year. Baritone Jonathan Carter, tenor David Martin and soprano Sinead Conway each have a repertoire spanning a range of musical genres and the three bring a freshness to some well-known pieces. They delight in the opportunity to bring you the music they love, in a performance that's sure to please. Adm: €15. Booking advised.
Freddie White (Starting in 2 months, 3 weeks) Music
From: April 26, 2012 20:00 To: April 26, 2012 22:00
Location: Ballina Arts Centre
Thursday, 26th April, 8pm Freddie White is something of a legend. A founding member of Scullion (together with Philip King and Sonny Condell), he later formed The Fake – regarded as one of the seminal Irish bands of the late 70s – and then The Freddie White Band, touring with Eric Clapton on his Irish dates. Whether interpreting songs by his favourite writers (such as Randy Newman, Tom Waits, John Hiatt and Guy Clark), or performing his own classy compositions, Freddie’s live performances are nothing short of legendary. Adm: €15/€12. Booking essential.
