Galway Advertiser 2003/2003_10_09/GA_09102003_E1_045.pdf 

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[ents] Josh Ritter - the Ta Ra Teresa (Hello Michael) song and the story
J O S H R I T T E R is fast emerging a s one of America's finest c o n t e m p o r a r y songwriters, a talent Galway has appreciated in the past and can look forward to when Ritter plays T h e Town Hall T h e a t r e on T h u r s d a y October 16 at 8pm. Ritter first came to notice when he released his down home, country styled debut album Golden Age Of about." Radio in 2 0 0 1 . Its It's a theme he reprised thoughtful, warm songs on Snow Is Gone' from his struck a chord with the Irish latest album Hello Starling public and saw the Idaho (Independent Records): born songwriter win "I'm singing for the love of support from The Frames it/Have mercy on the man and become a popular live who sings to be adored." act. Hello Starling also includes Of the many fine songs 'Bone Of Song", possibly on Golden Age Of Radio the finest song he has yet was the deeply personal written, which is itself 'Lawrence, ks' on which he about songwriting and its sang: "My wings are made inspiration: "Lucky are you of hay and com husks/So I who finds me in the can't leave this world wilderness/1 am the only behind." unquiet ghost that does not It sums up Ritter's love seek rest." of songwriting, as he told His songwriting has won me when I interviewed him wide acclaim with not only in 2002. "When you find the public (Hello Starling something you really love, entered the Irish charts at you know you can't let go." No 2), and critics, but also he said. "You're not going with Ritter's fellow to stop doing what it is that songwriters. The legendary makes you feel that way. Joan Baez covered Ritter's Songwriting for mo is like mysterious spiritual ballad being in a relationship with "Wings' for her new album somebody. There's no way Dark Chords From A Big I'm going to give it up and Guitar, a seal of approval that's what that song is for any singer-songwriter. A TIMELY and very a p p r o p r i a t e play from Wales, entitled Ta Ra Teresa will be performed at the Town Hall Theatre on Monday. It deals with the question of English speakers moving into Welsh speaking areas of Wales and mirrors the current debate in Galway about housing development in the Connemara Gaeltacht. Ta Ra Teresa is performed in both English and Welsh (but is entirely accessible to non-Welsh speakers) and follows the emotive story of a Liverpudlian man's move to Wales and his relationship with his new community. When he moves to north Wales after the break-up of his marriage, he takes his daughter with him. In his mind Wales is a romantic and lovely place, an idea created in his head when he was a child by his father who used to bring him to Liverpool's Seaforth Docks from where he'd point out Wales. After finally moving to Wales though, the reality is totally different: the Welsh community keeps him at arm's length, and while his own daughter absorbs the language, he remains isolated. Written by Aled Jones Williams, one of Wales' most noteworthy playwrights, it is a story with quite a few twists and turns -and keeps the suspense going right to the end. The play has a cast of four with the part of the Englishman being played by Michael Atkinson. An actor of 20 years experience, Atkinson shares some of the traits of his character over the phone when I contacted him last week in mid-tour. " I ' m from Liverpool myself though I now live in Manchester. Before doing this play I myself knew very little about Welsh culture so working on it and touring around Wales has been quite an eye-opener. The Welsh are very passionate about their culture and language and the subject of incomers can be quite contentious. During the 1970s a lot of holiday homes were actually burnt down. There can be a degree of hostility between Welsh and English. I know quite a few English friends who declare that they hate the Welsh." However Atkinson has not encountered any problems during his time in Wales. "I was hoping to, in a sense, as it would help me with my character, but people have been very warm and giving," he admits. "The responses I've personally had from Welsh audiences have been very warm. They're able to show some sympathy for the character of Johnny - even though he has an anti-Welsh rant at one point in the play." Director is Ian Rowlands, whom Galway audiences will recall from his visits here with Theatre Y Byd. and the play has been extremely well received in Wales, winning Best Play at the National Eisteddfod in 2002. It is a bilingual and multi-media production with all the Welsh language

Ireland was one of the first places to take notice of and support Ritter and his music. "It's a great place to come and I have lots of friends here now," he told me in 2002. "People have been so responsive and I just want to keep coming back." He also likes the Irish willingness to be open to all kinds of music. "There's a toleration there for every extreme," he told Dreams Awake. "I haven't been able to figure out their take on music, but I love it." Perhaps its the fact that whether alone with an acoustic guitar or backed by a band, Ritter's music engages the emotions and the mind. Expect a show of high entertainment and deeply felt thoughts expressed. For more information and booking contact 091- 569777. Kernan Andrews

segments presented with full simultaneous translation. Atkinson admits he found it difficult at first being surrounded by the Welsh language. "It was a little frightening to begin with as I was not aware of how truly bilingual the play is," he said. "During the rehearsal process, lan [Rowlands] was directing in Welsh as the other three characters are from North Wales, but he would explain to me what was happening so I never felt isolated." For more information contact 091 - 569777. CMcB

J a s o n Byrne @ Comedy Club
October 12 sees the return of one Jason Byrne. Byrne has j u s t finished a successful tour of Scotland and is due to start some extensive TV w o r k in Britain in the new year. Joining Jason on the night is PJ Gallagher. Having performed alongside Gallagher on many occasions one has to admit that he is one of the most exciting of the new breed of comics. As ever Gerry Mallon is your host.

The songs of M a r i o L a n z a
THE LIFE and songs of the great ItalianAmerican singer M a r i o Lanza will be explored in The World of Mario Lanza show at t h e Town Hall T h e a t r e on S a t u r d a y October 18 at 8pm. Mario Lanza was born the son of a crippled war veteran in the back streets of Philadelphia but through his magnificent voice and athletic appearance he became the highest paid Hollywood star of his day. The conductor Arturo Toscanini even went so far as to call him "the greatest voice of the century". The World of Mario Lanza tells the amazing story of his short but astonishing life; from his days as a furniture remover to world-wide stardom in films like That Midnight Kiss, The Great Caruso, and The Student Prince. At

Tea with Emily at the Town Hall tonight
T H E PASSIONATE and sensitive n a t u r e t h a t would fuel h e r creative work and make her one of America's greatest poets was clear in Emily Dickinson's earliest literary endeavours: her letters. Aged 20, she wrote to a friend of her mother's illness and its effect on her she thought "this wicked world was unworthy of such devoted and terrible sufferings, and I came to my senses in great dudgeon at life, and time, and love for affliction and anguish". American actress Martha Furey has written a one woman show which has been acclaimed as bringing unravelling her story in a "fast paced, humorous, everyday sort of way". Dickinson's life was marked by suffering, an unremitting search for truth, and an intelligence that "doubled as much as it believed". Poetry was her vocation, a source of strength and insight. She wrote in a voice uniquely her own, a modernist in her concerns and technique though she was brought up in a Puritan family in a small town in Massachusetts. Few contemporaries acknowledged or understood her genius. Al the lime of her death in 1886 she had published only a handful of poems. Stored in her bedroom dresser and discovered by her sister after her death were thousands of poems in handwritten packets that would confirm her place in literary history. Furey's performance will bring Dickinson to life with a "three-dimensional character" that shows "enormous strength of character and her unshakcahlc faith in her own talent". The poet, who led a reclusive life in ihe family home. rarely receiving visitors, makes her appearance for one nighl only in the Town Hall Studio tonight.
K it r a n Hares

the show Irish tenors PJ Hurley, David Martin, and Karl Scully will perform such Lanza classics like 'Be My L o v e ' , ' G r a n a d a ' , 'Nessun Dorma', 'The Loveliest Night of the

Year', and 'I'll Walk with God*. For more information and booking contact the Town Hall Theatre on 091 569777.

the poet to life in a "powerful yet delicate way". Furey says she aims to reveal the source of Dickinson's creative fire, her terse, lyrical, and witty poetry and letters, through