Dublin, Ireland’s Abbey Theatre Celebrates 100Written by Kriss Hammond
Dublin, Ireland’s Abbey Theatre Celebrates 100 Read Jetsetters Magazine at www.jetsettersmagazine.com Read this entire feature FREE with photos at: http://www.jetsettersmagazine.com/archive/jetezine/shows/theater/abbey/abbeytheatre.htmlEveryone in Israel is an archaeologist, while everyone in Ireland is a poet (or writer, playwright, or singer, or at very least, a critic). Mirth and merriment is woven deeply into fabric of Irish consciousness. You can sit in a pub and in middle of a conversation they will break out in passionate song or quote prose and poetry from William Butler Yeats or other national literature heroes. After all, this is Isle that invented limerick. The National Theatre of Ireland is celebrating its centennial in 2004 with nationwide events called Abbeyonehundred that not only sees wonderful staged plays at theatre that W.B. Yeats built, but major museum shows about drama, acting, and even stage sets. For ten decades Abbey Theatre in Dublin, has staged provocative dramas and comedies and musicals by playwrights who have observed and absorbed tumultuous changes that have taken place in Irish society. Since 1904 these distilled and poignant revelations have been revealed on two national stages, Abbey and more recent Peacock. The new Abbey Theatre in Dublin rests on namesake of WB Yates' original theatre. 26 Lower Abbey Street 00 353 1 887 2200 www.abbeytheatre.ei The Abbey was founded at a time of social, political and intellectual ferment in Ireland and its story is well woven into fabric of nation. It has served with distinction in asserting Irish identify under yoke of English rule. The names of its champions are legendary and it is fascinating to see among them names of so many women, among them Maud Gonne, Augusta Gregory, and English philanthropist Annie Horniman, who bankroled Yeats' thespian endeavor. William Butler Yeats' own vision of Abbey at its inception was a vision not only of future for drama but future of Ireland. The decades have seen considerable applause and a predictable quota of criticism and controversy prevaricated by Abbey.
| | Bootlet Bandits Deliver Sub-Par DownloadsWritten by Joshua Tyler
This week notorious internet news nanny Matt Drudge reported presence of advanced bootleg prints of The Two Towers floating about online available for download. While validity of this story is actually quite questionable and completely unconfirmed, for me it raises question why?Why would anyone want to download bootlegs to begin with? Sure, I'm not a total innocent; I've dabbled in it once or twice and know what I'm doing well enough to find same things all you hardcore bootleggers find. But I simply don't see point. Presumably hardcore downloaders are doing this for love of film. It takes a real movie lover to put that kind of time and effort into hunting down something just to have chance to see it first. As a movie lover, how could you watch something so totally inferior? Put aside questions of legality or morality involved with such things, this isn't a rant about breaking law or unjust behavior of fat cat studios that makes them richer and screws rest of us over. I'm talking about loving movies. Bootlegs are an inferior product. Generally they are grainy, fuzzy, and of poor sound quality. Most of them are taken by some guy with a camcorder in a movie theater, recording what's up on screen. There are a few high quality prints out there, most of these from stolen press screening copies, featuring type of quality you'd expect from a purchased dvd but these are rare and still not perfect. So you download and if you're lucky you manage to find a quality bootleg that's actually watchable, instead of aforementioned camcorder mess. You download and you sit, hunched over a tiny computer screen. Alone. Isolated. Squinting to make out pictures compressed onto your 17-inch monitor. Listening intently to tinny sound coming out of your outdated Altec-Lansing computer speakers. Imagine this is way you see The Two Towers or next Star Wars installment for first time. Not in a theater, not on opening night, not surrounded by other movie lovers basking in glow of a crystal clear 75ft screen enraptured by pure digital surround sound that pumps out every click, boom, and ping from Howard Shore's magnificent soundtrack. No not like that. Instead you get it early, you get it at home, and you watch it alone in dark squinting for clarity.
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