Culture 5 - your cultural highlights for the next seven days

THEATRE: A CHRISTMAS CAROL

For the Christmas show at Belfast's Lyric Theatre, hometown stalwart Marie Jones offers her own take on Charles Dickens' immortal tale, with a cast led by another Belfast legend, Dan Gordon, as Scrooge (Lyric Theatre, Belfast until January 11th 2025)

MUSIC: SUN DIVIDER

This EP is the first music from Cork musician Eoin French (AKA Talos) since his untimely passing in August of this year. A collaboration with Icelandic composer Atli Örvarsson, the project was completed in advance of his death, and is being released in accordance with his wishes - it's the first of a trio of projects that will see the light of day, and a vivid reminder what a loss of a formidable artist (Now streaming)

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ART: RDS VISUAL ARTS AWARDS

One of the most important platforms for visual art graduates in Ireland, this year's RDS Visual Art Awards exhibition can be seen at RHA in Dublin until the end of January, showcasing an electic emerging crop of formidable young art talent - find out more here (RHA Gallery, Dublin, until 18th January 2025)

STREAMING: BLACK DOVES

Meet the spy-assassin duo you didn't know you needed... Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw team up in this six-part spy thriller set at Christmas, also starring the mighty Sarah Lancashire, Tracy Ullman and rising Irish star Ella Lily Hyland (Netflix, now streaming)

BOOK: BIG JIM BEGINS

For young readers the arrival of a new book in the massively popular Dog Man series is a major literary event, and Dav Pilkey doesn't disappoint with the latest installment, a must for every discerning child's stocking this Christmas. It gets better - the first Dog Man movie hits cinemas next February! (In bookshops now)

MUSIC EXTRA: RATTLING ARK

Currently recording their first album, Rattling Ark is an experimental trad/folk outfit established by Irish cellist (and founding member of Slow Moving Clouds) Kevin Murphy, weaving a sound evocative of Pentangle, Haxan Cloak and The Gloaming - support at this eagerly anticipated Dublin showcase comes from viola player Lisa Dowdall and musical polymath Matthew Nolan (Whelans, Dublin, December 11th)