Arts and Culture

Jennifer Johnson reviews 'A Singer at the Wedding' by Bruce Arnold. Hamish Hamilton. £4.95

A review of Theatre, (by EAVAN BOLAND), film (By DEIRDRE FRIEL) and the best of Film and Theatre throughout the country in the next six weeks.

He sustained a belief in the dream world that could be created out of ordinary life as it surrounded him, writes Bruce Arnold in an evaluation of the work of the late Sean Keating.

Reviews and listings of Film, Galleries, Music, Pubs, Restaurants, puppetry and more in the coming months...

Below is a list of some of the year's best recordings in classical, traditional and popular music. Prices vary mysteriously from shop to shop, but the index numbers should help you find or order ariy of them. You might also check the catalogues for recommended prices! Incidentally, Ian Fox informs us that if)77 marks the centenary of the gramophone .. Edison having filed his phonograph patent on December 4, 1877

A personal choice by Magill's writers

Restaurants by Ulick O'Connor, Traditional Music by Ciaran MacMathuna, Pubs by Anthony Cronin, andTheatre by Conor Cruise O'Brien

IF MR. James Joyce were to return to Dublin today and if Mr. Leopold Bloom were to come back and make his famous journey through the city as he did on the first "Bloomsday" in 1904, they would both find great changes indeed. Being the kind of persons they were, they would certainly notice very quickly the change in musical taste and the changing face of the Dublin pubs; and, in our day, music and pubs are not unconnected subjects.

When Rudolph Valentino died in 1926 at the age of 31 one hundred thousand people filed through the New York funeral parlour where his body lay. Now the legendary Hollywood lover has been brought back to the screen. Valentino, which opens in DiIblin next month, is the product of an explosively talented partnership. Ken Russell, the director, has become a byword for extravagant controversy with such films as Isadora, The Devils and Savage Messiah. To play Valentino, he chose another superstar, the Russian ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev. By DEIRDRE FRIEL

'Dear Davy, send a bottle of the best over to the City Hall for myself and Carson - your's Mick.'

I HAVE ALWAYS been constrained to regard Davy Byrne's as the archtype, the doyen, the centre, the place where the trams go: in other words as the downntown pub. If somebody says on the teleephone "pub" and "down-town" I think of Davy Byrne's.