by Saoirse Anton

On both sides of the fourth wall, we are feeling the pinch at the moment – whether it is grocery bills soaring, the price of accommodation for touring companies jumping to prohibitive levels, electricity bills stinging our budgets, or fuel costs driving prices of transport and everything else through the roof. We are all having to be more careful about what we spend, and sometimes treats like going to the theatre have to be the first to go, but conversely, these are the times we need those treats the most. Picasso once said ‘art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life,’ so if you’re weighed down by the dust of all that is in the news lately, read on to find some ways to wash that dust away on the cheap.

Check out a work-in-progress

Is there any better feeling than being one of the first to discover ‘the next big thing?’ Whether it’s being able to say you saw a Grammy winner play an awkward open-mic set when they were just starting out, or seeing a scratch performance of a soon-to-be-award-winning show, that smug satisfaction is something money can’t buy. Literally. Many scratch nights, open mic sessions and rehearsed readings are free to attend, you just have to keep an eye out for when they are happening. So head along to an event like The New Theatre’s rehearsed reading of Collette Cullen’s play Heaven, or indulge in some poetry and music at an open mic like The Sunflower Sessions.

Get futuristic

Lately I’ve been seeing some interesting arts experiences pop up in the mediums of augmented-reality and virtual-reality. These are often free or cheap to experience, and can be a fun and interesting way to rediscover familiar spaces. In Belfast, children’s author Oliver Jeffers has designed Our Place in Space, a journey through an epic scale model of the solar system, incorporating a 10km sculpture trail and an interactive AR app, which is free to download. Heading further south to County Louth, the Louth Culture Quest is an app-based, county-wide arts and culture treasure hunt created by 14 local artists and produced by An Táin Arts Centre. It costs €5 to download the app, so while not free, it is a cheap option for some family fun! Or, if AR isn’t your thing, you could venture into This Is Not A Passive Experience, an “online interactive playthrough performance,” created by Danielle Braithwaite-Shirley for Project Arts Centre.

Tune in

Like every other creative medium these days, radio stations are facing cuts in funding and support, so tune in and make sure that listener numbers stay high. Radio plays are a brilliant way to escape from real life for a little while, and bring some free entertainment into your day. RTÉ’s Drama on One features a whole host of new and classic Irish writing, as well as interviews and features with artists. Or, chun do chúpla focail a cleachtadh, éist le drámaiocht ar RTÉ Radio na Gaeltachta, beo nó mar phodchraolta.

Dive into a festival programme

As I wrote last month, there’s a festival happening somewhere in Ireland every single week of the summer, and most of those will include some free events. So whether it is enjoying ‘a very silly show made by very silly people about very important things,’ in the form of Swarm at the Clonmel Junction Festival Dome, being enchanted by the blend of aerial and circus arts and traditional Irish music and dance A Handful of Dreams at Éargail Arts Festival, or marvelling at Mars in Galway, have a look and see what free fun is on offer near you.

It is fantastic how many free arts events and experiences are available, but it’s vital that we make their value known. Many theatres and arts organisations are still struggling with the effects of the pandemic, combined with years of making the most of relatively small amounts of funding. If you have some spare cash, do try to support your local venues and theatre companies, but even if you don’t have a euro to spare, there are ways to show your support. With the budget looming on the horizon, it is a great time to email your TDs and local councillors to tell them how much you value arts provision in your area, and how important it is that it continues. At the moment, Ireland has one of the lowest investments in the arts in Europe by percentage of GDP, and the National Campaign for the Arts is trying to change that, by asking the government commit to an investment 0.3% of GDP over the lifetime of the next government, taking us halfway to the European average – put your voice behind that call and tell your representatives how much your local venues and organisations mean to you.