Upstate Theatre Project needs no introduction to the people of Drogheda, their productions have always attracted great interest and respect from local audiences.
Their latest work “The Morning Side of the Mountain” is being staged in association with Drogheda Arts Festival and Carlingford Heritage Centre in Droichead Art Centre this Sunday, 1st of May, at 8pm.
The Morning Side of the Mountain is a multimedia presentation based on community recordings collected in 2019 by Upstate Theatre Project in partnership with Carlingford Heritage Trust.
It focusses specifically on the stories of Peadar and Kathleen Elmore which combine personal memories with the social history of the Cooley peninsula resulting in stories of forbearance and resilience and told with humour and wit.
The result is a beautiful example of the power of the oral tradition blended with the artistic visual interpretations by artist Vivienne Byrne and the compositions of composer Breifne Holohan.
‘There was an explosion in the fire. On a Sunday morning. Sunday the 24th January 1947 the start of the very first day of the heavy snow around here. They all got more of a bang of it than I did. I got the least but I got the most dangerous one. That set my life. That set the plan of my life.’
This project pays tribute to a wonderful couple whose stories of a long life lived in the beautiful surroundings of Cooley was shaped by landscape, time and culture. With a lyrical brogue and a feel for the funny bone Peadar and Kathleen illustrate the wondrous in the everyday with tales of endurance through the upheavals of World War II and the trials of the Troubles to the delight in the finer things of a simple life in rural Ireland.
Mammy said I was a villain now. “Our Kathleen was a villain!” I often hear her saying that, and I’d think “What did I do that was so bad?”
Upstate augments the oral tradition with stunning interpretations of the family photographic archive and filmed footage of the imposing beauty of the countryside all set to a soundscape that celebrates the ordinary as the extraordinary phenomena it is.
Vivienne Byrne is a cultural activist, visual artist, a founding member of Borrowed Ground Artist Studio and Chairperson of the Droichead Arts Centre.
Her work crosses the boundaries of visual mediums working as an illustrator, videographer, graphic designer. She also incorporates drawing, painting, print, sculpture, performance as well as video editing, projections and digital technologies in her solo work. Her personal work aims ‘to explore methods of presenting captured moments as visual music’.
Breifne Holohan is a musician and composer from Drogheda, he has won a number of awards including the Bill Whelan International Music Bursary for Young Composers. He released his debut, Eastern Passages, an album of original compositions for electric guitar and electronics. His second album, San Francisco Dreaming, was released in 2016.
He has written scores for The Dream Work, a Collaborative Artists Company production, and Kelley-Abbott Dance Theatre productions, Launch Day and Deeds Not Words. He has produced albums and recordings for My Fellow Sponges, Roisin Ward Morrow and Sean Matthews. He is founding member of fusion/ambient project, six-string drum and is guitarist in traditional Irish duo, Uisneach.
Kathleen and Peadar Elmore.
John McGovern is the Technical Manager for the Droichead Arts Centre and has been Production Manager for a number of Upstate Theatre Project’s previous presentations. John also collaborated with Vivienne Byrne on Light Boat at High Tide a sculptural installation in Ship Street, Drogheda.
John has been the technical support for many artists and organisations both professional and non- professional across a variety of disciplines. He is also a musician, both percussionist and bassist, and has performed with many musicians and bands including Drogheda Samba Band and Ceol Batucada.
Tickets for Morning Side of the Mountain cost €10 and are available by clicking here
