MY CULTURAL LIFE
Jim Culleton is the artistic director of Fishamble theatre company, and has directed many productions —in Ireland and internationally, winning awards including an Olivier Award in 2016 for Silent. He has also directed for companies including the Abbey, Gaiety, RTE, as well as on Broadway and the West End. He lives in Phibsboro with his wife and children. Fishamble: The New Play Company has had hundreds of entries for its Tiny Play Challenge, and has announced a final call for submissions. The deadline is Friday, May 8. All details are on fishamble.com
Movie: Marriage Story
I really like the Billy Wilder classics, Some Like It Hot and The
Apartment, as they are so well written, beautifully directed, and brilliantly performed. Recent films that stayed with me for a long time after seeing them are Marriage Story, with such brilliant performances from everyone, the beautifully observed
Ladybird, and Roddy Doyle’s deeply moving film about a homeless family, Rosie.
TV: Derry Girls
I’m a huge fan of Derry Girls, and am looking forward to another series coming out. I’m also enjoying Normal People on TV (with Daisy Edgar Jones, pictured right), an excellent adaptation of Sally Rooney’s superb novel. With evenings free during the current lockdown, I’ve been catching up on watching TV series — The Crown with my wife,
Black Mirror with my son, and Stranger Things with my daughter. It is good that, during these times, it’s possible to see some amazing theatre online as well, including productions from National Theatre Live, Druid’s Playboy of the Western World, the Abbey’s Cyprus Avenue, and Guna Nua’s Bread Not Profits.
Gallery: Hugh Lane Gallery
We are so lucky in Ireland that our galleries are free. The Hugh Lane Gallery is very close to the Fishamble office, so I sometimes pop in there if I have a few minutes to spare. You can walk off the street into the gallery and within a few seconds see the amazing stained glass windows of Harry Clarke. There are lots of contemporary Irish artists whose work I really admire, such as Eadaoin Glynn, Nickie Hayden, Michelene Huggard, Deborah Donnelly, Dorothy Smith, and Brian Fay.
Book: Shadowplay
The book I most enjoyed reading recently is Shadowplay by Joseph O’Connor, a fantastic exploration of the triangular relationship between Ellen Terry, Henry Irving, and Bram Stoker, set in the world of Victorian theatre. I also really enjoyed Actress by Anne Enright, perhaps predictably enjoying theatre-related novels! I’m looking forward to reading Liz Nugent’s new thriller, Our Little Cruelties. I am also looking forward so much to reading
Sebastian Barry’s new novel, A Thousand Moons, as it’s a sequel to
Days Without End, which was such an amazing book.
Design: Tate Modern
I really like the Turbine Hall at the
Tate Modern in London for how it has been reimagined to exhibit sculpture of enormous scale. I’ve been there a few times when I’ve worked in London, and saw Carston Holler’s Test Site, with interactive slides that you can travel down from five stories up, Shibboleth by Doris Salcedo, with a huge crack in the floor all the way from one end of the hall to the other, and Fons Americanus by Kara Walker, a startling sculpture that shows the horrors of colonisation.