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STOP PRESS - THE PERFORMANCE ON WED 6 NOVEMBER HAS UNFORTUNATELY BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO ILLNESS. PLEASE CONTACT THE TRAVERSE BOX OFFICE ON 0131 228 1404 FOR FURTHER INFORMATION.
Upstate Live, under the direction of writer/director Declan Gorman, has emerged as one of the most incisive and exhilarating new energies in the Irish theatre over the past five years.
Based in post-ceasefire border country, the company has used contemporary local narrative and myth to investigate universal questions facing not just the new Ireland but all societies where urban/rural faultlines exist.
Epic is a vivid collision of ancient legend and modern obsession. A small time criminal transports a cargo of smuggled sheep from Cumbria across the Irish border, triggering a sequence of actual and spiritual events that resonate and spread, virus-like across the whole island. Urban vigilanteism, sexual betrayal, meditations on eco-culture - all feature in Gorman's poetic, visually exciting and sometimes hilaruously comic canvas of a society on the edge. From exiled small-town teenagers to corrupt public servants to a quiet farming community devastated by a total cull of livestock, this is a theatrical kaleidescope of a Northern European nation in a time of change and anxiety.
Post Show Discussion - An opportunity to meet with Declan Gorman and discuss the work of Upstate Live after the performance on Thursday 7 November.
This performance is supported by:
The Arts Council of Ireland
The Cultural Relations Committee of the Dept of Arts, Tourism and Sport, Ireland
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‘The acting from all four actors is spirited and energetic.’ (RTE)
‘So well staged, such a wonderful use of theatre as a space for the potential of the imagination - so contemporary and very exciting.’ (Irish Theatre Magazine Critics’ Forum)
‘This is engaging and intelligent drama.‘ (Sunday Tribune)
‘This is a fine, immediate piece of ensemble theatre, where whispers of the past resound deafeningly on events of our own time.’ (Irish Times)
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