Broadcast on 20th June 2016
On tonight’s episode of Inside Culture we talk to playwright Conor McPherson on the revival of The Weir, chat to drummer Dave Hingerty, hear how guns travel the world, discuss if robots can make sexual partners, and find out about the science of colour and art.
Dave Hingerty is a drummer who has played with The Frames, Josh Ritter, Nina Hynes and The Corrs. He’s also a pretty handy with a camera, and is hosting an exhibition of his photographs, taken on the road, backstage, and from the pit. The exhibition, Where Is My Mind, runs until 25 June at The Courthouse Arts Centre in Tinahely, Co. Wicklow and will be coming to Dublin in August. Visit davehingerty.ie and courthousearts.ie for more information.
Iain Overton is the author of Gun Baby Gun, published by Canongate. It’s a journey following guns around the world, through 25 countries, from war torn nations to feuding backyards. The recent atrocity in Orlando has once again provoked a discussion on the need for gun control, and Overton’s book links mass shootings in the States with war in the Middle East as well as our own troubles with gun crime in Ireland.
The Weir by Conor McPherson is almost 20 years old and wowed critics when it was first performed in the Royal Court in London in 1997, winning the the Evening Standard, Critics’ Circle, and the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play. Decadent’s production marks the first major Irish revival and national tour of The Weir. It runs this week in The Town Hall Theatre in Galway and will tour Cork, Kilkenny and Dun Laoghaire. Check out decadenttheatrecompany.ie for show dates and tickets.
Love+ is produced by MALAPROP theatre and won The Spirit of The Fringe at last year’s Dublin Tiger Fringe Festival. It explores what its makers say is the inevitability of intimate human robot relationships. Love+ runs all this week. See projectartscentre.ie for more. John Danaher is co-editing a collection of essays on the subject of Love and Sex with robots which will be published next year.
Dr Spike Bucklow is a senior research scientist at the paintings and restorations studio of the Fitzwilliam Museum at the University of Cambridge, where he specialises in analysing medieval art. Before that he worked as a special effects creator for big budget films including Star Wars. He explained how that job progressed into an academic career in studying visual perception and artistic technique. Bucklow’s forthcoming book is Red: The Art and Science of a Colour.
