This month she's back in cinemas with a leading role writer/director Eva Birthistle's affecting tale Kathleen Is Here, playing a troubled young woman leaving the care system who returns to her childhood home, with suitably dramatic consequences...
We asked Hazel for her choice cultural picks...
FILM
Practical Magic (1998) - I watched the film for the first time recently with my Mom, and then again a month later with my Sister. I will be watching again on Halloween night and nobody can stop me.
MUSIC
There are two albums on a constant loop in my headphones at all times. Number one is Soon by Hannah Stretton. The album has the tone of a daydream. I feel like I’m lying in a field with the sun on my face while nature is just happening around me. It is my absolute favourite album of the last few years. The other is Mk.gee’s Two Star & The Dream Police. The track I Want is my personal favourite on that album.
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BOOK
I go for fiction mostly. It is the internal compromise for actually getting myself to read. My favourite book to read at this time of year is the 1962 novel Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury. It’s this atmospheric and nostalgic story that manages to freak you out and comforts you all at once.
One book that I’ve just recently read and adored was Dreamland by Rosa Rankin-Gee. Her second novel is this beautiful queer love story between two young women set in the near future where climate change has become omnipresent. It was so much more than I could ever put into words. Heartbreaking, breathtaking and deeply affecting. Just read it.
TV
So very late to the party with this one but I just started watching The White Lotus. The world was correct.
I also loved Nobody Wants This like everyone else in the world. Far too long have romantic storylines hinged on the poor communication trope. This was a really refreshing watch.
GIG
I’ve got about 5 gigs coming up and 2 of them are Ben Howard. I have been so in awe of him since I was a kid. His guitar playing, singing and his lyricism. It’ll be a dream to see him play one of my favourite albums live, twice.
The most recent gig i went to was a UK-based band called Sorry, I saw them in Dublin last year and in London most recently, they are mesmerising live.
ART
I’ve been following Geraldine Carton since she was part of the Irish sustainability duo called The Useless Project. She has branched off on her own path now as an artist and I have loved seeing her work since. The piece We See You in particular. It feels so confronting to the viewer, like a real triumphant rejection of shame (She’ll have an exhibition of her work named Sisters, Not Twins in the City Assembly House, Dublin from November 7th - 17th).
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PODCAST
I’m a big fan of the How to Gael podcast. Any podcast that promotes the Irish language is my kind of podcast. And I think the girls are hilarious. And I have hope that more bilingual/Irish podcasts are to come. Tír gan teanga, tír gan anam lads.
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TECH
There is one app that I think is great, though I try not to use my phone as much as I used to. It’s called RoutineFlow. My brain really craves routine but I’m not very intuitive with it, I need to be told what to do. With the fact that the working day is always changing for me, it is so nice to have a structure to live by when I’m free. It also prompts me to stay off my phone in the morning and evening which has become a habitual thing for me now regardless of whether I use the app.
THE NEXT BIG THING...
Matcha.
I think everyone I know is sick of me talking about it. But it has genuinely changed my life. I was doing a run of a play for about a month in The Gate Theatre this year and discovered it courtesy of my castmate and great pal Imogen. It became our ritual for the run, pre-show Iced matchas. It was like suddenly the executive function button in me had been switched on. It has so many benefits beyond the slow release caffeine, if you have roughly 5 hours I will tell you all of them.
Kathleen Is Here is in selected cinemas nationwide now.
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