Cloaked – The Performance

Cloaked – The Performance

The performers: Theo Connolly. Lucy Cooney. Sam Cosgrove. Cian Geraghty. Ferdia McDonald. Sarah McNamee. Amber Mulholland. Kai (Hazel) Mulholland. Sarah Mullholland. Leo Mullen. Keri O’Donoghue.

On opening night we met 12 performers from Mad Youth Theatre and their movement coach Antonio DiMare for the first time. I shared the word list (Manifesto for capes) prior to opening night as a set of rough guidelines but we asked that free association and movement inform their actions. Allowing agency to fully reside with each cape dweller.

I felt equal measures of mild panic and the joy of surprise during the course of it all. Knowing and not knowing simultaneously. The performers saw the potential in the capes and their intuition guided action. They mingled informally with the space, the artwork. Bodies in the capes, each movement unique, made and unmade within each small performance. Unfolding the habitable painting naturally. It was the energy of it all that affected me emotionally, it felt like an awakening. Bodies colliding with these fabric things brought something alchemic out. An act of worship, celebrating the joy of movement in an otherwise empty damp temple.

Spectators felt it was “mysterious, hidden figures revealing in movement, energetic, odd and curious, dark, menace with a sense of play that was engaging and immersive.” (We will collate our full feedback after the event ends, negatives included.)

Within the whirling of the performance I was seeking those slices of pure ritual. These are the pictures that speak to me of Theurgy*

I am working through all the images I received from other peoples responses. I also have a disposable camera to develop. I haven’t looked at any video footage yet and for some reason it was not my intention to work with video. The show came down last Saturday.

With all the activity of the show I missed seeing this very relevant one –https://visualartists.ie/news/tactical-magic-tulca-2019-programme-announced/ but look forward to reading the reviews in the next bi-monthly Visual Artists newspaper.

“TACTICAL MAGIC sees art as a magical tool that allows us to access and create realities beyond our own. “

Theurgy */ˈθiːəːdʒi/noun

  1. the operation or effect of a supernatural or divine agency in human affairs.