When: Every night until Wed 18th Dec @9PM
Where: The MAC
The Damage: £17
Merry Christmas
BBC ATL Review: The Magic Numbers
BBC ATL Review: Rams' Pocket Radio, A Northern Light, Serotonin
With all the kerfuffle (is that spelled right? Is there a right way to spell it?) that went on Friday night at St.Annes Square it's important to show the pricks that did this that we'll not be deterred from doing what we do best. Generally thats drinking, followed closely by heckling people trying to perform. So why not combine all these by coming to The MAC in St Anne's Sq and having a few drinks and heckling Ireland's greatest (well definitely funniest) dance troop in their now legendary Pony Panto. Read our review of last years here and our review of their last show "Ponies don't play football" here When: Every night until Wed 18th Dec @9PM Merry ChristmasSir Christopher J Caldwell. I enjoy wrestling, films and nautical adventure. I've just finished making a short film which you can see here. I also DJ sometimes. You'll see me out and about eating or drinking. Sometimes even both whilst walking. I have written for The Big List. I currently also write for BBC Across The Line.
BBC ATL Review: The Magic Numbers BBC ATL Review: Rams' Pocket Radio, A Northern Light, Serotonin
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This weekend sees the MADE festival coming to the MAC, this is a festival aimed at and at times ran by 14-18 year olds. With that in mind they've released some free tickets to 2 of the events.
The two acts are: Volume Control brings their monthly all ages gig to the MADE festival on Friday 11 October, for a night of back-to-back mini gigs. Not So Ceili this is a Ceili with a twist and brought to you on Sunday 13 October, curated by the MAC’s in-house Not So Trad music producer, and will be the closing celebration for our MADE festival this year. If you would like to avail of these free tickets, please visit http://themaclive.com/whats-on/made-festival/ and quote MADE95 at checkout After the success of two sold out shows at The MAC last year, pony dance are back with a little something to tide us over until another Pony Panto this December, and that little something is Ponies Don't Play Football, an hour long show which is advertised on their website as: "involving lots of bare flesh, sweat, original music, unoriginal music, the odd flash or two of pure genius... and oh yeah, lots and lots of dancing" It certainly lived up to this description as the first thing we are greeted with as the show begins is Leonie and the crew gyrating around the stage in just their pants (literally, just pants)- with strategic tape to hide all modesty - although I think it's safe to say that this bunch don't have much modesty to hide. After the initial shock of seeing such blatant nudity, you can't help but laugh as pony dance thrust themselves at various band members while they play The Bloodhound Gang's 'The Bad Touch'. If you don't think this is funny (and I haven't met anyone who doesn't), you probably won't get the show at all, but for those who do you're in for one hell of a night! Belfast's own Uncle Social and guests were the victims of this show and the live music really did make all the difference, it added another element to the dancing and the music choices were spot on. At times hilarious, at times dangerous Ponies Don't Play Football featured everything from an invisible tennis match to the greatest trumpet player in the world (probably), with a whole lot of dancing in between. The real trouble with a pony dance show, is that they're pretty impossible to describe, but the video below should help to give you an idea... Who can't dance...? Laura Caldwell
I'm 20 years old, studying Journalism with Photo-Imaging at the University of Ulster Coleraine Campus. I have an undying love for Belfast and all that it has to offer, an undying love for sleeping, Tegan and Sara, trashy tv shows, foreign snack-foods and being irresponsible with money. I also quite like origami, reading, hip-hop, dubstep, anything acoustic and Food Network TV. The son of late BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, Tom Ravenscroft is a BBC Radio 6 DJ, a weekly music columnist for The Times, a presenter on Channel 4’s Slash Music show on 4Radio and now a festival curator. He has selected a week-long series of events to be held in the MAC. We sat down with the man himself to talk about it... How do you find yourself in Belfast curating your own festival? To an extent it kind of came out of nowhere, I mean I know Stuart who works here, I’ve done things with him before in the past in London and was over here doing stuff with BBC Introducing and it came off the back of that. It was a big surprise to me that they would actually let me do this. So it just came out of nowhere. This building is relatively new, have you been here before? I came back in March when I was over doing some things with the BBC and I came in and was shown around. It is an incredible building, it’s absolutely amazing. Obviously it looks great from the outside and then you come in and you think 'what on earth', and there is just room after room. It’s like the Barbican in London, where you are just thinking is there any way I could just live here. You could do yourself as an installation in the Sunken Gallery, just put up a big bit of plexi glass and let people stare at you. I think every time you come here you discover something different. It’s a good venue for this to be held in, what’s the overall gist of what you’ve got going on here? It’s kind of like my representation of the radio show on BBC, it’s just different styles of music, spread out over the course of the week. I also wanted to make sure it fitted in with the MAC itself. How did you feel when you were first asked to curate this festival? It’s slightly daunting but I’ll be happy when we are sold out of everything. Putting together the list of people I wanted wasn’t daunting at all. In fact I came up with it pretty quickly. Did you get everyone you asked for? I thought I would send a list and they would immediately ask for another ten because they had said no. But I was pretty amazed that I managed to get everyone I asked for. Over the course a few had to drop out for various reasons but the people that are playing were always on the list. So I never had to come up with a new list. Have you ever done anything like this before? Not really, I've put nights on in London. Mainly gigs, DJ’s, Christmas parties, but they only last about 5 hours never a whole week. There is a few acts that you have said that you haven’t seen live before, is this just an excuse for you to finally see these people live? Yes! I’m not even going to hide it there for a second. I think that you can only base this on something you yourself are desperate to see. My personal pick is Adam Buxton; do you think it’s important to mix it up with non-musical acts as well? I think so; I was really keen to get some comedy in there. Again I’ve missed him doing Bug so many times so I thought if I can’t go to him, I’ll just bring Adam to me. Bruiser Theatre Company have returned to The Mac with yet another spell-binding performance. Broadway's The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee may seem a mouthful to us, but that's nothing for the six quirky kids of Putnam County. The musical comedy follows these kids in their pursuit of being crowned winner of 'the Bee' and ultimately not being seen as losers by their classmates (and parents). Each of the kids has a very distinctive character which is played to perfection as these outsiders compete for top prize. There's William Barfee with his magic foot, Marcy Parks the overachiever, Logainne Schwarzandgrubenierre with her two dads, Leaf Coneybear the insecure, innocent one, Chip Tolentino the reigning champion and Olive Ostrovsky the shy one. There's also the adults to contend with: host Rona Lisa Peretti, Douglas Panch the vice superintendent and Mitch Mahoney the Comfort Counsellor. The backing band is visible, but also blends into the scenery and you often forget that they're there, but they definitely make the show shine as they don't miss a beat - really adding to the overall atmosphere. All of the reviews that I have read compared Spelling Bee to Glee, but personally, I don't really think that that does it justice. This production is a delight; it's strange, awkward and hilarious with tons of charm. It's heartwarming without being cliched or overdone. It's humorous without being predictable. It's a definite must see, even if you don't really like musicals. For a homegrown cast, the standard is excellent, their singing is astounding and the accents are really good as well -there's even a guest appearance from a giant Jesus. It's not all about the cast though, it's the little details - several audience members also take part in the Bee and there's American candy given out to the audience which helps to set the scene and make the whole thing a bit more personal. Overall, the one word that I would use to describe The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee would be 'fun', just plain fun from beginning to end and I highly recommend that you give it a go! Who wrote this...? Laura Caldwell
I'm 20 years old, studying Journalism with Photo-Imaging at the University of Ulster Coleraine Campus. I have an undying love for Belfast and all that it has to offer, an undying love for sleeping, Tegan and Sara, trashy tv shows, foreign snack-foods and being irresponsible with money. I also quite like origami, reading, hip-hop, dubstep, anything acoustic and Food Network TV. "Art is what you can get away with..." I'm not the biggest fan of pop art, to be perfectly honest. I like the colours and shapes and bold statements, but it wouldn't be my first choice of art to hang in my home. However, when I heard that an Andy Warhol exhibition was coming to the MAC in Belfast, I realised that I had spent far too many hours in media lectures at Uni to turn down the chance to see some of Warhol's work for myself. This exhibition is the first of its kind in Northern Ireland, and the first in Ireland for 14 years and is running from the 8th February to the 28th March. The exhibition features a massive 90 pieces of Warhol's art, displayed across all three galleries in the MAC. These artworks hail from both Artist Rooms and The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. There are some well known pieces, such as Cow Wallpaper and Dollar Sign, alongside some more obscure paintings, that really are worth seeing. The exhibition is also free and even includes screenings of some of Warhol's art house films (such as Empire, Eat and Sleep). A trip to the MAC is always a good time, and the Andy Warhol exhibition is definitely worth taking a look at. You might even get inspired! Alongside this exhibition are a number of Warhol-inspire events such as a Studio 54 disco night, with the original DJ Nicky Siano, and live theatre in Gob Squad's Kitchen, where they attempt to recreate the atmosphere of the swinging sixties and reconstruct Warhol's films. I think that with this exhibition the MAC are proving just how world class they are as a venue. Who wrote this...?Laura Caldwell
I'm 20 years old, studying Journalism with Photo-Imaging at the University of Ulster Coleraine Campus. I have an undying love for Belfast and all that it has to offer, an undying love for sleeping, Tegan and Sara, trashy tv shows, foreign snack-foods and being irresponsible with money. I also quite like origami, reading, hip-hop, dubstep, anything acoustic and Food Network TV. "ponydance will now unleash their time honoured and much loved, irreverent approach to everybody’s favourite season…well not everybody’s, but spend a night with the ponies and you’ll remember why Christmas can be so much fun." - The Mac, Belfast Running from 11th - 16th December 'pony panto' was a Pantomime unlike any other. Other than the slightly odd and hilarious picture seen above (and the promise of a comedy dance troupe, there was little else to indicate what was in store for us at pony panto last weekend). 'pony panto was performed in the smaller of the two theatres, at The Mac, giving a much more intimate feel to the night. Although depending on your constitution, this intimate setting can only mean one thing in a show which relies partly on audience participation for its entertainment - you are almost certainly going to make a fool of yourself at one point. This pantomime for adults was quite unlike anything I've ever seen before, it was a dance show with attitude, a comedy show which wasn't afraid to call you out and tell you off. The members of 'ponydance': Deirdre Griffin, Neil Hainsworth, Leonie McDonagh, Paula O'Reilly, Duane Watters and guest pony Eileen McClory had the audience in tears (there were even a few snorts and a couple of cocktails spat everywhere) within five minutes of the show beginning. From genuinely talented and well choreographed dance routines, to a sullen tap dancer in a ridiculously oversized snowflake costume, pony panto was the perfect mix of comedy and dance routines, sure to have you in stitches. Our host for the evening Leonie Pony's sharp wit and dry sense of humour was second to none. A guest appearance by PaperDolls provided a slightly eerie element to the night with their very impressive aerial acrobatics, accompanied by the strange and exotic sounds created by Margie Lewis on the zither. My personal favourite part of the night was the airing of (fake) new celebrity Sinnead's new Christmas video complete with tracksuits, vaseline covered lenses and and all the cheesy Christmas cheer you can handle, followed by her very Irish rendition of The Waitresses - Christmas Wrapping. To be perfectly honest I haven't been able to get her chorus of "Meddy Chrissmas, Meddy Chrissmas" out of my head ever since. Overall, pony panto was one of the funniest nights out I've had in a long, long time and the fact that this was a local theatre group with local performers and musicians made it even better. Most of the music for the show was provided by local band Shake!, and there were guest appearances by Ajendance and drag queen Victoria Secret too. There was even a dance off between two audience members dressed as Jesus and Santa to find the true creator of Christmas. Pretty much everything you'd want form a night out. For those who haven't been to a pony show before, I urge you to give it a go. Whether you're a lover or hater of comedy or a lover or hater of dance, ponydance will have something to both amuse and astound you regardless. Who wrote this...?Laura Caldwell
I'm 20 years old, studying Journalism with Photo-Imaging at the University of Ulster Coleraine Campus. I have an undying love for Belfast and all that it has to offer, an undying love for sleeping, Tegan and Sara, trashy tv shows, foreign snack-foods and being irresponsible with money. I also quite like reading, hip-hop, dubstep, anything acoustic and Food Network TV. While browsing the LineUp for the Autumn season at the MAC, I noticed a play entitled, 'I A My Own Wife' with the caption - a one woman show performed by a man. For one, I've always liked the idea of a one person show, but a one woman show performed by a man sounded very interesting indeed!
The blurb for the play describes it as "the real-life tale of German transvestite Charlotte von Mahlsdorf. Charlotte lived openly as a cross-dresser for almost her entire life under two of the most conformist regimes of the 20th Century, Nazism and Communism." Naturally I was intrigued, this sounded like nothing I'd seen before. |