Islanders with expertise in stone have completed a “jigsaw puzzle” of rock upon timber for an Irish language production of Beckett’s Happy Days on the Aran island of Inis Oírr.
As The Times Ireland reports, director Sarah Jane Scaife worked with designer Ger Clancy and a number of islanders to construct the outdoor set in preparation for the Galway International Arts Festival.
“We all have experience of building stone walls, but this was different,”Inis Oírr resident Matt Seoighe said.
“Tomás Noel Sharry was our stonemason, and five of us worked together in a field at Creig an Staic, and it was difficult enough,” Seoighe said.
Actors Bríd Ní Neachtain and Raymond Keane have been cast as Winnie and Willie for Laethanta Sona, which was translated by Michéal Ó Chonghaíle.
“I’ve been coming here for 28 years and have always been inspired by the place, which is both surreal and existential” Scaife explained.
“My husband, late sound engineer Tim Martin fished from here, my children have been coming since they were small - and after Tim died, so many islanders came for his funeral,”she said.
“So “Beckett sa Creig”, as we call it, has been 28 years a bubbling,” she explained.
Island photographer Cormac Coyne worked with Scaife for the production, which is a collaboration between Company SJ and the Abbey Theatre.
Costumes created by Sinead Cuthbert were inspired by flowers that grow between the cracks in the rock, as Winnie herself appears from the cracks in the rock.
An accompanying exhibition in the island’s arts centre, Áras Éanna documents the building of the set and interviews and photos with women on the island.
Curacha, the exhibition of currachs used as canvases by artists, is also continuing at Áras Éanna and on an outdoor trail until September 12th.
Tickets for the Inis Oírr production of Laethanta Sona from August 30th to September 5th have already been booked out.
However, the play will be performed with subtitles at the Dublin Theatre Festival from October 14th to 17th, with online booking from August 24th.
Read The Times Ireland here