Mags on playing the piano with Christopher Plummer...and more

She is also an arts consultant specialising in fundraising and project management for individuals and arts organisations including R-Space Gallery. She is originally from Lisburn and now lives in County Armagh with her partner Anthony, son Charlie and stepson Oisin. When she isn’t painting and writing funding applications, you can find her jumping into freezing Lough Neagh, patiently waiting to get back to gigging again with her band Summer Of Love, and trying to find a ‘quiet’ corner of the house without resorting to stealthily squeezing into the bread bin.

Q. What is your favourite song/album and why?

A. This is a challenging one! I’m a lifelong music lover from a household of musicians, and could quite easily list ten albums for each mood, decade or genre. I love 60’s folk rock, 70’s glam, 80’s pop and 90’s alternative/grunge and pretty much everything in between.

So when I’m posed a question like this I have to make it my ‘desert island disc’ moment and consider the one album that I really couldn’t live without. For the impact it has had on my life, and being my constant companion on road trips, I’m going to go for ‘Blue’ by Joni Mitchell and the track ‘Little Green’, which is about the daughter she gave up for adoption (and reunited with later in life). It’s a beautiful tear jerker of a song within an album that was so groundbreaking and heartfelt, that it still feels every bit as relevant today.

Q. What is your favourite film and why?

A. Goodfellas, every time. There are so many stand out scenes, catchphrases and the detail is beautiful. It’s amazing how the psychotic mobsters of New York can seem so relatable, but that’s the genius of Scorcese and I find something new on every rewatch.

Q. What is your favourite piece of classical music and why?

A. I saw The Marriage of Figaro for the first time in 1997 in the Grand Opera House - it was also my first live opera - and I was completely unprepared to be so thrilled, and moved, by what was happening onstage. Mozart’s operas are so emotive that no translation is needed.

Q. Who is your favourite artist (eg van Gogh) and why?

A. Another tough one! My house is full of art and my particular favourites are prints by Gustav Klimpt and Alphonse Mucha. If I had to choose one particular artist though, it would have to be Frida Kahlo. Her background, life story and politics are so effortlessly reflected in her work and she is a true feminist icon. She is also the inspiration for my most popular commissions, so I have a lot to thank her for!

Q. What is your favourite play and why?

A. I’m a Theatre Studies graduate and my background is in the Performing Arts, so unsurprisingly I’m an unashamed Shakespeare fan. I was the weirdo who read Shakespeare for fun at school, which meant my English teachers loved me and the other kids eyed me with genuine suspicion. In answer to this one I would have to say Hamlet. I wrote my undergraduate dissertation about Ophelia, and watched every film representation from Olivier to Branagh as research, which was pretty fun and made me very grateful for my degree choice. Around 15 years ago I saw David Tennant play the lead at the Swan in Stratford (from the third row) and I can honestly say it was one of the most exciting things I have ever seen on stage.

Q. What is your favourite musical and why?

A. For the deep nostalgia feels it has to be Grease - particularly the movie. I’m also a fan of Grease 2 for completely different reasons - it is complete nonsense. I’m convinced there is no such thing as a guilty pleasure, however Grease 2 might be the exception. One thing the original and the sequel have in common is that they feature men and women who are obviously in their thirties playing high school kids, something I’m sure I didn’t notice when I was ten.

Q. What is your most special moment in the arts and why?

A. After I graduated I worked in the world famous Stratford Festival of Canada for a year as a Production Assistant, running around after famous actors such as Paul Soles (the original voice of Spiderman) and Christopher Plummer (who joined me for a duet of Chopsticks on the piano at an after show party - he must have been honoured). There were so many stand-out moments for the 20 -year -old me (a long way from Lisburn), and I didn’t realise at the time how glamorous, life changing and surreal it all was.

Q. What ‘classic’ just doesn’t do it for you?

A. I’m an avid reader, and I usually stick with books even when they don’t grab me immediately in the hope I’ll warm to them. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway is by far the dullest I have ever read though - I think my English teacher even gave up on it. I can’t answer this question without also mentioning the movie Atonement based on the book by Ian McEwan - I think I attempted to watch it three times in stages as I couldn’t stay awake. Apologies to Keira Knightly, but her frolics in the fountain couldn’t save it for me.

Q. What have you been reading/watching/listening to/revisiting during the Coronavirus period?

A. Just about everything! We have been buying a lot of vinyl records to play on our beloved 1979 Sharp turntable, the most recent being ‘Wasteland, Baby!’ by Hozier, and the production is amazing. I also rediscovered Pearl Jam’s ‘Ten’, seminal album of my secondary school grunge phase, and was amazed at how well it stands up despite being (shhh!) 30 years old. I’m also listening to a lot of audio books and radio plays on my daily walks... and have discovered Radio 4 drama in my old age. The Whisperer In The Darkness series satisfies the mystery/horror lover in me. Like everyone else I was a Tiger King fanatic during the first lockdown, and now we are binge watching ‘This Is Us’ on Amazon Prime. It’s great to have a long-standing series that isn’t too demanding to watch when the kids are in bed!

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