Kate Bush and '80s music inspired Culture Night events in Carrick-on-Suir

Caption for photo above: At the premiere of Slow Dancing in the Nano Nagle Centre in Carrick-on-Suir last Friday night were: Tudor Artisan Hub founder Linda Fahy, writer and actor Joe Whelan, musicians Kate McDonald and Neill Bourke, writer and actor Mary McGrath and director Maria Clancy.  Picture Noreen Duggan 

Carrick-on-Suir’s artistic community pulled out all the stops to mark National Culture Night in a unique way by organising a group painting challenge called after a famous Kate Bush song, staging a new experimental play and a tribute to local poet Michael Coady.

The town’s Culture Night kicked off with the Running Up That Hill painting switch challenge in the Sean Healy Public Library.

A group of artists connected with the town’s Tudor Artisan Hub - Mia Carney, Laura Regan, Sheila Wood, Renée Ní Gig, Kathleen Farrell and Breda Power – started the challenge by spending 20 minutes painting an image based on the lyrics of Kate Bush’s song Running up The Hill.

As they painted, the hit song was performed live by singer/songwriter/musician Neill Bourke.

Every ten minutes for an hour the artists passed the canvas they were working on to the person on their right and continued to paint.

Linda Fahy of the Tudor Artisan Hub said it was magical to watch each piece pass from artist to artist and the art piece being transformed along the way.

She declared it to be one of her most favourite Culture Night projects of the last nine years and thanked all the artists for participating and Carrick Library for hosting the event.

The six art pieces went on display in the Tudor Artisan Hub on Main Street on Tuesday. The Hub is also putting together a slideshow of the stages of the painting challenge, which will be showcased in Carrick Library.

The paintings will be sold in an upcoming “blind” auction to raise funds for Carrick-on-Suir Lions Club.

After the painting challenge, Carrick’s Culture Night celebrations moved to the stage of the Nano Nagle Community Resource Centre chapel where the premiere of Slow Dancing was performed before an audience of over 60 people. It was the first time a play was staged in the centre’s beautiful former nun’s chapel.

Linda Fahy described Slow Dancing as “an experimental live dramatic acoustic performance” with a nostalgic link to the 1980s, written and performed by Mary McGrath and Joe Whelan with music by Neill Bourke and Kate McDonald. Maria Clancy directed the drama and the Tudor Artisan Hub produced it with technical support provided by Pete Smith and Margaret O’Brien filling the role of prompter.

The Culture Night project was workshopped and rehearsed in the Tudor Artisan Hub with Maria Clancy over a period of 11 weeks

“The writers, who created this piece, were inspired by the part that music played in their lives as teenagers,” Linda explained.
Slow Dancing told the story of two people who find themselves at a turning point in mid-life, as they stumbled upon each other again.

The play poses the question should the past be left behind or is it like an old favourite song that you can return to again?

“It was a funny, moving, powerful performance and held the full house on the edge of their seats. Slow Dancing enchanted everyone in attendance with the references to the 80s, very nostalgic, relatable and real,” Linda added.

Slow Dancing writer and actor Mary McGrath from Carrick-on-Suir had treaded the boards on a number of occasions at Carrick’s Brewery Lane Theatre but this was her largest role to date and her first time performing her own work. Her co-writer Joe Whelan from Clonmel is a veteran of reciting his own work at open mics and has had his work featured on RTE Sunday Miscellany several times.

He was new to performing on stage and this was his very first acting role. Mary and Joe are long-time members of Writing Changes Lives and Poetry Plus, creative writing groups founded by Margaret O’Brien from Carrick-on-Suir.

Linda thanked the Nano Nagle Centre for the opportunity to stage Slow Dancing in its chapel, Culture Night funding bodies Tipperary County Council and the Arts Council Ireland and all who attended the Culture Night events.

Elsewhere in Carrick, members of Brewery Lane Drama Group hosted a Culture Night tribute to renowned Carrick-on-Suir writer Michael Coady at Brewery Lane Theatre at which they recited his poetry and prose works.

Caption for photo below: Artists Kathleen Farrell, Breda Power, Mia Carney, Laura Regan, Reneé Ní Gig and Sheila Wood who took part in the Running Up That Hill painting switch challenge in Carrick-on-Suir on Culture Night