Published: Thursday, 11th March, 2010 10:24am

Bruiser brings powerful story to life

Ardhowen Theatre

With the 30th Enniskillen Drama Festival ending this weekend, thoughts turn to a variety of different shows and productions coming up over the next couple of weeks.

Be Careful What You Wish For!

Bruiser Theatre is one of the most popular small scale theatre companies to consistently play at Ardhowen Theatre and always delivers very fine productions. On Thursday 18th March at 8pm, they bring one of Bertolt Brecht's best known plays to the stage in a very interesting adaptation directed by the excellent Lisa May. It's an alarming, yet savagely hilarious allegory of Adolf Hitler's rise to power in which the Fuhrer is portrayed as charismatic Chicago gangster Arturo Ui, who is endeavouring to seize control of the city's fruit and vegetable racket from top dog Al Capone. He systematically seduces the public and sets out to eliminate his political rivals in a bid for total domination. 'The Resistible Rise Of Arturo Ui' is a play where six talented actors play a variety of different roles and is political theatre at its best and most powerful. Widely regarded as one of Northern Ireland's most progressive professional theatre companies, Bruiser brings this powerful story to life in true Bruiser style. Unnerving and scathing, the battle for political status and the corruption of power still fill our newspapers today.

Clever lighting, an energetic cast and strong imaginative direction are the hallmarks of this production that should be well worth seeing.

Brendan Grace

One of Ireland's most popular and talented comedians, Brendan Grace, brings his 'It's A Funny Old World' show to the Ardhowen Theatre stage on Friday 19th and Saturday 20th March at 8pm in an performance of fun and laughter, with lots of new material and a few old favourites. It's a funny old world when seen through the eyes of Brendan Grace. The sanctimonious priest who knows more than he's telling; "Blessed is he who gets married in the nick of time". The father of the bride makes a speech at his daughter's wedding: "She could have married someone with money. She could have married someone who was working. She could have married someone who wasn't working but who was willing to work." Then there's the schoolboy with the unspeakable personal habits and a fine line in sympathy pleas. Brendan Grace is all of these and more. Each cockeyed portrait he paints has a ring of truth that brings audiences to the point of apoplexy. Brendan's material owes more to the best of the traditional stand-up comics than it does to modern alternative humour and his show is very much a show for all the family.

Albert Lee In Concert

On Wednesday 24th March JW Promotions present the amazing Albert Lee in concert. Albert Lee has spent the last 15 years laying his guitar down with the very best in the business. Now he's finally fulfilling his own career goals, brilliantly. As ever he brings with him a top class band including Pete Wingfield on keys, Gerry Hogan on pedal steel, Brian Hodgson on bass and Pete Baron on drums. He has played with the very best artists in the business in a 40 year career. He made his name with Heads Hands & Feet in the early 70's before living a dual existence either side of the Atlantic, whilst playing with Eric Clapton, John Cocker, Emmylou Harris, The Everly Brothers, Joe Cocker and more latterly Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings. Based in both L.A. and Nashville which partly explains both his recent Grammy Award for Best Instrumentalist with Nashville superstar Earl Scruggs and his most recent 'Heartbreak Hill' album which features the cream of New Country ranging from Jerry Douglass, Earl Scruggs, Rodney Crowell and Buddy Miller to Jimmy Dale Gilmore and Vince Gill. But it is as a virtuoso guitarist that Albert Lee is best known being equally home as a rocker as he is a Country guitarist. His famous show stopper 'Country Boy' features some of the hottest guitar playing ever recorded.

The 2002 Grammy Award Winner for 'Foggy Mountain Breakdown', from the CD 'Earl Scruggs and Friends', won a Grammy on 27th February 2002 for Best country Instrumental Performance (Earl Scruggs, Glen Duncan, Randy Scruggs, Steve Martin, Vince Gill, Marty Stuart, Gary Scruggs, Albert Lee, Paul Shaffer, Jerry Douglass and Leon Russell). Albert is undoubtedly one of the finest guitarists the world has ever seen. Voted Guitar Player Magazine's 'Best Country Guitar Picker' five times, Albert also received two consecutive nominations for a Grammy Award in the Best Instrumental category and in October 1995 received a coveted Gold Badge Award from B.A.S.C.A. (The British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors). The performance at Ardhowen starts at 8pm.

Philomena And Billy Jo

Ireland's Philomena Begley and America's Billy Jo Spears are two fine Country Music singers and both perform for local audiences on 25th and 26th March at 8pm. Billy Jo Spears landed a few big Country hits during the 70s, thanks to a sultry, bluesy voice that made her a perfect torch balladeer.

While she never quite edged her way into real stardom in the U.S., she earned a devoted following in Great Britain and toured there frequently.

Spears was born in Beaumont, Texas, in 1937 and made her professional debut at age 13 in an all-star Country concert in Houston; not long after, she recorded the single 'Too Old For Toys, Too Young for Boys' as Billie Joe Moore for Abbott Records. After High School, she sang in nightclubs and looked for a record deal, recording some demos with producer Pete Drake. She got a contract with United Artists in 1964 and moved to Nashville, where she worked with producer Kelso Herston. Her initial singles fared poorly and when Herston moved to Capitol two years later, Spears followed. Success continued to elude her until 1969, when 'Mr Walker, It's All Over' climbed into the Country Top Five. She charted several more times through 1972 but was forced to have surgery on her vocal cords twice over the next two years in order to remove nodules and polyps that could have robbed her of her voice entirely. Spears made a full recovery, however, and returned to United Artists in 1975. She scored her first number one hit with the sensual 'Blanket On The Ground' that year and two of her 1976 singles, 'Misty Blue' and 'What I've Got In Mind' reached the Top five. She had several other minor hits that year and also cut an album of duets with Del Reeves. 'If You Want Me' made the Top Ten in 1977, the last time Spears would visit that territory. Several more singles reached the Top 20 by decade's end, but songs like '57 Chevrolet' and 'Lonely Hearts Club' were much bigger hits in Britain and Spears began to devote more of her touring attention to the overseas market. Her last Top 20 single was 'Your Good Girl's Gonna Go Bad' after which she and United Artists parted ways. Spears recorded sporadically for independent labels, usually based in the U.K. or Ireland, during the 80's and 90's. She recovered from triple bypass surgery in 1993 and continued to tour, travelling regularly to the U.K. to perform for a still affectionate fan base.

"I would have to say that life in show business is certainly a lot harder now than it was at the start of my career", says Ireland's undisputed 'Queen of Country Music', Philomena Begley, as she embarks on a special tour to celebrate 45 years in the music business ably supported by her son Aidy Quinn and his six piece band. However she added "I still wouldn't like to give it up. It's in the blood and I'm enjoying my work a lot better now than when I started out."

Born in Pomeroy, Co. Tyrone, Philomena started singing at a very early age in The Old Cross Ceili Band, later fronting The Rambling Men. She has appeared in most prestigious theatres and venues throughout the world including Carnegie Hall, New York, Wembley Festival, London's Royal Albert Hall and Sydney, Australia to mention a few. She also performed many times at The Grand Old Opry in Nashville following an invitation from her good friend Porter Wagoner in 1978.

Philomena is now busier than ever appearing at music festival weeks and weekends throughout the world including Spain, Portugal, New York, South Africa and the Caribbean. Having recorded 25 albums and numerous singles, the first of which was a song entitled 'My Little Son", Philomena Begley has graced the charts many times over the years. Prism Records recently released three double albums featuring 40 of Philomena's best known songs on each double collection.