Celebrated poet, prose writer, documentary screenwriter, editor, translator and broadcaster Theo Dorgan was born in Cork in 1953. He began publishing poems as an undergraduate (studying under John Montague) before going on to publish several acclaimed collections, beginning with The Ordinary House of Love in 1991; his most recent novel is Camarade (Mercier Press).
This month he's curating Room to Rhyme which celebrates the ongoing dance of poetry, song and music as part of Tradition Now in the National Concert Hall. The concert features Breandán Begley, Brigid Mae Power, Colm Mac Con Iomaire, MayKay, Liam Ó Maonlaí, Steve Cooney, Éoghan Ó Ceannabháin, Andy Irvine and more.
We asked Theo for his choice cultural picks...
FILM
We Only Want The Earth is the new film from the always excellent Alan Gilsenan — a fine introduction to James Connolly for the rising generation, much new material and insights for those of us who have long taken an interest.
The masterful contruction and editing emphasise how little has changed on some fundamental level, the ongoing brute indifference to the poor and marginalised, the sense that the same struggle still has to be fought.
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MUSIC
I have been listening a lot in recent years to the Galician singer, Su Garrido Pombo. She's very special, rooted in the mountain village of Traspielas where the fiercest of Grannies keep the song tradition alive. She's a stunning live performer, twice winner of Galician Folk Album of the Year Award and a frequent visitor to Ireland with her companion, the poet Keith Payne. (His new collection, by the way, Savage Acres, is a gem.)
BOOK
I'm going to cheat a little here, and recommend Doris Lessing's Canopus in Argos series, which I am re-reading. A fascinating 'metaphorical' alternative history of Earth and its civilisations, subtly and mischievously rooted in the Sufi tradition. I come back to these books again and again. Provocative and unsettling, they have never received the acclaim they deserve.
THEATRE
I'm really looking forward to the new production of Conor McPherson's wonderful The Weir at the Olympia, not least because of the presence of Brendan Gleeson. Best known to many for his stellar film appearances, Gleeson is a terrific theatre actor, a powerful and palpable presence on stage — I always love to see him on the boards.
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TV
I don't know yet how or where I'm going to catch it, but the new series of South Park with its skewering of the Idiot in Chief sounds like a must-see. Nothing wounds an autocrat as much as satire does, and in this particular case I hope it proves merciless.
GIG
The tickets for Bob Dylan's upcoming appearances in Ireland vanished almost immediately. I live in hope that a pair may yet appear miraculously out of thin air. Dylan is the Orpheus of our days, a lyric artist of the highest order; he has become like the immortal bluesmen whom he revered as a young man.
ART
So many artists in Ireland now whom I admire, such a rich landscape, such diverse talents, but one artist in particular consistently intrigues me — Aideen Barry. Endlessly inventive, extraordinarily hard working, I never know what she's likely to come up with next but I always know it will be provocative, enchanting and unexpected. Sometimes I'm not entirely sure she's from Planet Earth, such is the power and energy of her imagination.
TECH
Favourite app is a website that tells me the weather anywhere in the world. When I call, e-mail or hear from someone I can check immediately what the weather is doing where they are — strange and satisfying how that deepens the connection in the living moment.
THE NEXT BIG THING...
The next great revolution in tech will be a phone or phone-like device that allows for the projection of holographic images. You heard it here first.
Theo Dorgan curates Room To Rhyme as part of Tradition Now in the National Concert Hall at 6pm on Saturday 27 September - find out more here
