Actor Paul Reid can curently be sen on the big screen in John Carney's Flora and Son, which lands on streaming via Apple TV on September 29th.
Since Paul graduated from the Gaiety School of Acting in 2004, he's been busy on stage and screen, in everything from RTE’s Raw, Rebellion and Finding Joy to horror movies The Ritual and You Are Not My Mother and memorable stage roles including his acclaimed one-man show Man of Valor, created with the Corn Exchange.
Next month, he stars in Somewhere Out There You, the world premiere of the new play by Nancy Harris, creator of RTÉ's The Dry, coming to the Abbey Theatre for this year's Dublin Theatre Festival.
We asked Paul for his choice cultural picks...
FILM
Apocalypse Clown, I loved this. Its rightfully bonkers. Great cast, great craic to watch in the cinema, and will be a definite rewatch on streaming. I saw Sunlight in the Dublin Film Festival. Heavy hitting and a great laugh too. I also recently went to see Passages with a Q & A with writer/director Ira Sachs. I Loved it. The film and how he works. Mostly the idea that he's not just an artist but a collaborator. He was incredibly inspiring. And I’m dying to see Past Lives. It looks beautiful. The trailer alone is a work of art.
MUSIC
Okay, so I listen to a lot of music, so here are some of the Irish artists I really like and have listened to recently – Ezra Williams, MissKate, Loah, Inhaler, Pants on Fire, Maverick Sabre, Bronagh Gallagher, Underachiever, Holy Fool, The Walls, Skripteh and obviously Damo Dempsey, among others! And an American lad from Tennessee who I just stumbled onto on Instagram, Josiah and the Bonnevilles, who is more folk / country, which I’ve been getting into more recently. Oh, and Orville Peck!
A real eclectic mix of styles there but I like all kinds to be honest. Some classics I’m not ready to hear yet. But, I think songs wait for you. You’ll hear them or let them in when it’s time.
BOOK
Well … I love book shops and collecting books, with the greatest intention of reading them. But I struggle to read, so I stick to the short stories. I Love Murakami’s Birthday Stories and Kevin Barry’s Dark Lies The Island. And I’m a massive fan of graphic novels (too many to mention) but one I revisited recently was In Waves by AJ Dungo. It’s a stunning study of grief with very few words.
THEATRE
One I saw recently was Fun Home at the Gate Theatre in Dublin. An incredible production all round. Laughing and crying in a packed theatre. I missed that.
Some plays I’m looking forward to seeing soon are Janet Moran’s Quake, Amy Conroy’s The Boy Who Talked to Dogs and Eric Murrays The Loved Ones. Again, among others. There is so much I would love to see in the festivals this year.
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TV
So many. So, here’s a list -
Classics I re-watch all the time: The League of Gentlemen, The Office (US and UK), Summer Heights High, Only Fools and Horses, People Just Do Nothing, Norsemen, Kath and Kim... Mostly comedy actually. More recently: Gogglebox, The Dry, The Offenders, Woman In The Wall… and all the Star Wars stuff is corking!
GIG
I went to Damo Dempsey again in Iveagh Gardens this summer. Incredible. No surprise there. But Jenny Greene and the RTÉ Concert Orchestra Live at the Marquee was once again a highlight. Cork knows how to party! I sing a few songs in it, but in-between I run out and get involved in the thick of the crowd to watch Jenny, Gemma (Sugrue), Mr. Murphy and the Orchestra give it socks. It really is for everyone!
In comedy, Peter McGann, Ali Fox, Gearóid Farrelly, Anna Sheils-McNamee, Shane Daniel Byrne, are some highlights this year.
ART
I love galleries. I spent so much time in them when I was younger and dreaming of being a painter. The RHA is somewhere I love rambling around, particularly if Hugh O’Conor has some photography there. Ronan Goti’s paintings are a favourite of mine too. And, of course, anything Domino Whisker does!
PODCAST
I am a podcast nerd! I listen to them ALL the time. There are too many. But three of my favourites (apart from various football ones) are Two Pauls in a Pod (I’m biased here, as it’s a financial advice podcast I co-host with Paul Merriman – he gives the advice!) The Bank Robber Diaries for amazing stories about … well, a bank robber! And In Our Time for all things history.
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TECH
Pro Create, an app I do most of my drawing on. If there’s a pen, I’ll start drawing with it. So, I now use this app every day as it has. It keeps all my work on one place and helps with the animation I work on too. And the one sec app, which forces you to take a second before you go on social media apps! I’m not on them a lot but this helps cut down the mindless scrolling/wasting time.
THE NEXT BIG THING...
Somewhere Out There You, a new play by Nancy Harris , directed by Wayne Jordan in the Abbey Theatre!
Also... air fryers.
Somewhere Out There You is at the Abbey Theatre from 28th September – 4th November 2023, - find out more here.
