Entertainment
Riptide Movement’s bigger ambitions for the next wave
The Groove Tube with Jimi McDonnell – tribunegroove@live.ie
The Riptide Movement, a raucous Dublin based four piece, play Róisín Dubh on Saturday week, May 11. Last year, the band released their second album Keep On Keepin On and its success led to two sold-out show in the Olympia and an appearance on the Late Late Show.
Speaking from Grouse Lodge studios in Westmeath, where The Riptide Movement are recording their third album, lead singer Mal Tuohy says:
“We did the last album here. It’s a brilliant live room, and all the staff are great, so we said we’d come back. The owner’s here beside us, he’s got an iPhone to my neck, so I’ve to be very careful about what I say!”
The Riptide Movement’s next album will be produced by Ted Hutt, an Englishman based in California. Hutt’s impressive CV includes established American bands like The Gaslight Anthem, Old Crow Medicine Show and the Dropkick Murphy’s. How did Mal and the lads acquire his services?
“We just put the word out,” says Mal. “We were looking at producers of albums that we liked and we sent off a few emails. Then we met a few of them, and we got the best vibe off Ted. We feel that we made the right decision, because it’s going great so far.”
“He really understands it. The new tunes, they’re a lot more advanced, there’s a lot more in them than our previous stuff, which we would’ve produced ourselves.”
It might just seem like a name on the credits, but having an experienced producer like Hutt onboard really makes a difference, especially to a younger band like The Riptide Movement.
“You put your trust in him and he manages the whole project,” says Mal. “It means the rest of us are freed up to work on guitar pieces and lyrics. We don’t have to be in the main room the whole time.”
“Down here as well, it’s such a big place, you can go for a walk and have the MP3s on your earphones, listening back. All the while, Ted’s inside, keeping the show on the road, bringing people in and out, getting all the stuff recorded. I’m really looking forward to the finished project.”
Keep On Keepin On did well, and helped to establish The Riptide Movement on the live and festival circuit in Ireland. But Mal, JPR, Ger and Gar have bigger ambitions this time around.
“We’ll definitely put it out through a label this time,” says Mal. “For the likes of America and the UK, we’ll have to license it and get it out to a bigger audience, involve a bigger team in the whole thing.”
“The last one did really well for us, so this’ll be a step up. We’re doing a lot of stuff abroad now, from pretty much the end of May onwards we’re doing festivals all over Europe and the UK. The plan is to break out of Ireland now.”
This plan seems to be bearing fruit. Recently, The Riptide Movement received an offer to open for an upcoming blues/rock outfit called The Rolling Stones in Hyde Park, this July. How did they land such a massive gig?
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Dathanna Geala Amháin/ Bright Colours Only will be staged by Fíbín sa Taibhdhearc next month for the Galway International Arts Festival.
This one-woman comedy about the Irish tradition of waking the dead has toured from Belfast to Brazil in a hearse and will be travelling from Glasgow to Galway, in a new Irish language translation.
Drawing on memories of a Belfast childhood, the show written by writer and actor Pauline Goldsmith, celebrates people’s struggle to be themselves in life and in death.
This production stars Brídín Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh (Katie in Ros na Rún) who also translated the script, in conjunction with Séamus Mac Annaidh.
It is the first show from the new Artistic Director of Fíbín sa Taibhdhearc, Muireann Kelly, who direct, and will be staged at Fíbín’s Connemara headquarters in An Tulach as well as in An Taibhdhearc.
Actor, presenter and writer Brídín Ní Mhaoldomhnaigh from Gaoth Dobhair in Donegal, spent nine years acting in Ros Na Rún. Recent performance credits include An Bhfuil a Fhios Agat (2021), The Queen VS Patrick O’ Donnell (2022) and Díolta Faoina Luach (2023).
Set and costume design is Sabine D’argent, with lighting design by Blú Hanley and Bridget Ní Dhuinn working as assistant designer/maker.
Performed in Irish, without subtitles in Connemara and with English subtitles at An Taibhdhearc, this show is for made for those who are dying to live! Tea, sympathy and sandwiches will be provided – and perhaps a drop of the hard stuff too. Dathanna Geala Amháin has been described as ‘brilliant’ by Time Out and The Guardian, and ‘drop-dead funny’ by The Observer.
Running at about 70 minutes, it will be staged at Fíbín’s base in An Tulach from July 20-22 and at An Taibhdhearc from 25-29. Tickets are €18/20.
Three World premieres and three Irish premieres will be screened at this year’s Galway Film Fleadh, which runs from July 11-16 in the city’s Town Hall Theatre and Pálás Cinema, featuring films from 36 countries.
Highlights of the 35th Fleadh will include the World premiere of The Martini Shot, starring Matthew Modine, which will be screened on July 13 at 9.30pm in the Town Hall Theatre.
It follows an ailing movie director as he begins shooting what he thinks will be his last work of art. What starts out as a normal film ends up being an exploration of mortality and the impact one person can have on the world.
Shot in Ireland and directed by Stephen Wallis, the cast includes John Cleese, Derek Jacobi, Stuart Townsend and Fiona Glascott.
The World premiere of Apocalypse Clown, directed by George Kane, will be on July 14, also at 9.30pm in the Town Hall. It follows a troupe of failed clowns who embark on a chaotic road trip of self-discovery after a mysterious solar event plunges the world into anarchy. Jenny, (Amy De Bhrún), a conspiracy clickbait reporter, is looking for a way to broadcast what happened, while the Great Alphonso, (Ivan Kaye), a pompous ex-TV clown celebrity, spots a chance to revive his career and find the fame he craves. Elsewhere Bobo, Pepe and Funzo are desperately trying to escape the wrath of some vengeful human statues.
Lies we Tell, is a psychological thriller about a gaslit girl, Maud, and her bid for freedom. Directed by Lisa Mulcahy, it will have its World premiere in the Town Hall on July 15 at 9.30pm. Starring Agnes O’Casey, David Wilmot, Holly Sturton and Chris Walley, Lies we Tell is set in an isolated manor where an orphaned heiress must fight her guardian for her inheritance – and her life.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
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Druid’s new play cycle of Sean O’Casey’s Dublin trilogy (The Plough and the Stars, The Shadow of a Gunman and Juno and the Paycock), which are being staged in Galway for this year’s Arts Festival, will tour to New York and Michigan later this year.
The world premiere of DruidO’Casey will take place next month in the city’s Town Hall Theatre and after touring to Belfast and Dublin, it will go further afield, playing NYU Skirball in New York City (in partnership with the acclaimed Public Theater) and the Power Center for the Performing Arts in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
DruidO’Casey has already broken box office records locally with the Galway run being sold out (waiting lists are available via the Town Hall Theatre) ,while several of the Dublin performances are also sold out.
Druid has a long history of touring in the USA, playing in cities including New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, Ann Arbor, Miami, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Charleston and New Haven. The company has won critical acclaim and numerous awards Stateside, including four Tony Awards for its 1998 Broadway run of Martin McDonagh’s The Beauty Queen of Leenane.
A cast of 18 actors will perform over 40 roles in O’Casey’s three plays which span those turbulent times in Dublin from 1916 to the Civil War. Four members of the Druid Ensemble – Garrett Lombard, Aaron Monaghan, Rory Nolan and Marty Rea – will be joined by Gabriel Adewusi, Tara Cush, Zara Devlin, Caitríona Ennis, Hilda Fay, Tommy Harris, Anna Healy, Liam Heslin, Bosco Hogan, Sean Kearns, Sophie Lenglinger, Sarah Morris, Robbie O’Connor and Catherine Walsh.
The O’Casey cycle is being presented as part of Galway International Arts Festival from July 9-30, with a waiting list for tickets.
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