Arts Rundown - Sept/Oct

It's the time of year when music and theatre really picks up momentum again after the summer recess, and the MAC in Belfast has this month's do-not-miss offer - a new staging, in conjunction with the Bruiser Theatre Company, of Kander and Ebb's Cabaret, one of the all-time great shows to come off Broadway.

The film of Cabaret, featuring Liza Minnelli, is of course iconic, but the stage musical is a darker creation, full of busted lives and haunted by the rising spectre of Nazism in 1930s Germany.

Belfast actress Kerri Quinn will slink it up as Sally Bowles (the Minnelli part), with two other local actors beside her - Matthew Forsythe as her love interest Cliff Bradshaw, and Patrick J O'Reilly as the provocative, gender-bending Emcee character. The infamously seedy Kit Kat Klub where Sally works will be recreated in the main MAC theatre space as an immersive area with nightclub tables, live musical accompaniment, and audiences encouraged to bring their drinks into the auditorium with them.

The show runs for three weeks until October 4, but don't delay booking, as demand is likely to be heavy. themaclive.com

Across town at the Lyric, recently appointed executive producer of the theatre Jimmy Fay will be looking to lay down a substantial marker in a new production of Pentecost, the final play completed by Belfast writer Stewart Parker before his untimely death in 1988.

Set at the period of the Ulster Workers' Council Strike of 1974, the script focuses on the tangled lives of four individuals who happen to find themselves marooned in a house together, with the ghost of the previous occupant an unseen fifth presence.

Hailed by one critic as an "engrossing, magnificently moving" piece of work and a "powerful, personal search for spiritual renewal", Pentecost looks a shrewd choice to launch Fay's first full season at the Lyric, and an ideal opportunity to further enhance his credentials as one of Ireland's leading directors. lyrictheatre.co.uk

There's a new arrival too at the Ulster Orchestra, where the young Venezuelan Rafael Payare assumes the mantle of chief conductor, replacing the departing American JoAnn Falletta.

A product of the famous "El Sistema", a publicly funded programme of classical music education targeting socially less privileged children in his native country, Payare was, remarkably, appointed on the basis of just a single concert last October.

That speaks volumes for the impact that he made on the orchestra, and the undoubted charisma and electricity he brings to his music-making. Those qualities make the performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony with which Payare launches the new season at the Ulster Hall on Friday 19 September a mouth-watering prospect.

There's an open rehearsal (free entry) the day before, which could also be well worth checking, as Payare puts the choir and orchestra through their paces. Fingers crossed that the new maestro will bring a period of much-needed stability to the players of the orchestra, where behind-the-scenes management these past few years has been frankly chaotic. ulsterorchestra.com

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