Kilkenny Arts Festival: Around the world in 10 days
Tess Felder
THE subject of chance meetings, unexpected encounters, and how they can shape our lives was on the mind of writer Michael Coady as he read from his recent works in the Parade Tower of Kilkenny Castle as part of the Kilkenny Arts Festival, and it’s also apt for the festival experience as a whole.
It was chance, for example, that led the writer to meet a fellow Carrick on Suir native – an elderly nun who had worked in a prison in the le de la Cit in Paris for all of her adult life – which inspired him to write a beautiful prose piece about the day they spent strolling along the Seine, and which he shared at the reading. It was also chance, albeit an appropriate one, that a village on an island Mr Coady visited in Newfoundland came to be called Seldom Come By.
It was not chance that he has the wit and skill to record such encounters in vivid language, but it was a bit of luck that led me to his reading, as what drew me there was the other half of the double bill, writer Ciaran Carson. Beginning the evening with a pensive ‘aisling’ on the tin whistle, the poet read a selection of his writings, from Belfast Confetti of 1985 up to the new work Until, Before, After. He even shared from a love poem that he chanced to write, a departure from his more customary subjects of violence and his native Belfast.
As fortune would have it, I also lucked upon a fantastic performance by Ballak Sissoko and Vincent Segal in St Canice’s Cathedral, having selected the concert on account of the other act on the bill, brothers Debashish and Subhasis Bhattacharya. Ballak’s kora, a 21-stringed harp, was one of several rarer instruments on this year’s bill, and the combination with Vincent’s cello was simply magical. A sound like energy waves, flowing and morphing, it was a perfect blending of cultures, the cello at times even taking on the sound of an Eastern flute.
The brothers Bhattacharya then gave a taste of their traditional Indian raga music, in this case a combination of slide guitar and tabla drums. It was a lot to take in over one evening – there are 108 standard rhythms in this style of playing – but overall it was enjoyable, particularly Debashish’s own competitions which concluded the concert.
Fortuitous connections were also the order of the day as skilfully spirited clarinettist Evan Christopher and band brought ‘Django la Crole’ to the Set Theatre. Swinging from New Orleans style to Django Reinhardt’s France, with a twist of Haiti and Brazil, the clarinet in particular was positively singing, “doing things that shouldn’t be done on a clarinet”. Taking the best of Old World and New World styles, it was like being transported back to some classy old dive, a time when there were no instant internet recordings, when you had to be there, live, for the real deal.
The Dublin-based TheatreClub was also taking a chance in bringing ‘Group Therapy For One’ to Cleere’s theatre for five lunchtime performances. After hosting the first version of the performance in his house in Dublin last year, Shane Byrne updated the content for the Kilkenny version. As he explained at the outset: “This is Group Therapy For One. You are the group and you will be doing the therapy, and I am the ‘one’.”
Centred on his own life and the contents of his own mind, it was a risk – of which he was fully aware, and duly nervous, which he attempted to preempt by writing his own negative reviews in advance and reading them during the performance. Funnily enough, at Wednesday’s show this included an invented review by Arts Festival blogger John Morton, who happened to be filming the performance at that very moment.
Some audience members weren’t quite sure what to make of it, but it was an interesting experience, a refreshing change from simply watching the staging of a script you could have studied in school. And his hopes and fears – “I’m scared of how much time I’ve wasted” was my line to read out during the participatory element – are something many could identify with.
The Ambiance Affair wasted no time in making their way to the festival though, replacing Geppetto – a favourite form last year’s lineup – in an evening with four acts in the Set Theatre. Taking to the stage first, the experimental two-piece with guitar, drums and other selected effects, they were a pleasant surprise.
The final weekend of the festival then brought And So I Watch You From Afar to the same venue. Lest anyone might be growing weary after so much entertainment, the four-piece from Belfast cranked it up to full volume and energy on Saturday night for a pumping set. It wasn’t all loudness and power chords though, with a multi-layered sound and particularly brilliant drumming.
Sunday night then finished with the more mellow sounds of 3epkano and Tindersticks in St Canice’s Cathedral, a nice way to wind down after taking in so much over the 10 days of the festival.
In all there were 450 artists in over 240 events. There were many hits, and some misses, but well worth taking the chance.
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Weather for Kilkenny
Thursday 17 May 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 6 C to 11 C
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