St Patrick's Day delight

The St Patrick's Day festival will run through April 6. It draws upon a wide range of disciplines, including Irish traditional and modern dance, traditional Irish music, visual arts, theater, literature and poetry. An Irish Ball at the Kerry Center Hotel tonight will kick off the festival, to be followed tomorrow by a parade on Wangfujing Street (please wear green!).

Next week, each day from noon to 8 pm, Wangfujing's streets will feature a variety of Irish cultural events, such as music and dance, classical concerts, poetry, drama, tourism and education promotions.

These will include the Irish modern dance "Match" by choreographer Fearghus O Conchuir and dancer Mattew Morris.

The festival will also have an exhibition featuring Irish new media art from March 16 to 30 at the Beijing Art Museum of Imperial City. Theater events include that of Rex Levitates, an established modern dance group, at the 'Nine Theaters' at the Chaoyang Cultural Center (tel: 8599-6011) from March 25 to 28 and Pan Pan Theater's Oedipus Loves You at Pioneer Oriental Theater (tel: 6559-3600) from April 3 to 6.

Oedipus Loves You is a wickedly funny and wonderfully theatrical take on the Oedipus plays of Sophocles and Seneca and their legacy, Freudian psychology. These performances are part of a world tour following the premiere in 2006.

For more info go to www.discoverireland.com and on the Embassy website http://embassyofireland.cn/index.htm.

(China Daily 03/15/2008 page6)