WATERFORD 16-25 OCTOBER 2020 imagineartsfestival.com TICKETS AVAILABLE FROM THEATREROYAL.IE OR 051 874 402. 2 SEE MORE ABOUT OUR COVID-19 SAFETY GUIDELINES HERE WELCOME Welcome to the 19th Imagine Arts Festival, and to our new online programme, in which we hope there is something for everyone to enjoy. 2020 has presented challenges to us all, and this year’s festival, for the first time, includes both live and online events, an exciting departure which promises to enhance Waterford’s tradition as a centre for the arts by making events available to a wider audience than usual. Our programme includes music, literature, dance, visual art, performance and history, as well as incorporating the John Dwyer Trad Weekend and Waterford Writers Weekend. Imagine would like to say ‘thank you’ to all of our artists, volunteers and audience, and also to the sponsors and advertisers who have contributed in so many ways over the past 19 years. We would also like to say a special ‘thank you’ to Waterford Council, the Arts Council and our venue and media partners for their continued support, especially in these uncertain times. Jane Keen - Chairperson, Imagine Arts Festival FUNDING PARTNERS FESTIVAL PARTNERS Bag-A-Cats & MEDIA PARTNERS FESTIVAL FRIENDS Imagine Arts Festival realises that 2020 has been a difficult year for all workplaces and industries, and we would therefore like to acknowledge the continued support that Waterford businesses, large and small, have given to us over the years. Thank you! 3 FLOOD Thursday 22 - Saturday 24 October Theatre Royal | 8.00pm | Matinee 24 October 1.00pm €18 Booking through www.theatreroyal.ie or 051 874402 Flood, by Ger Bourke is a look into the lives of Stella and Jack, a married couple in their fifties adrift in a small boat in modern day Ireland. The rising water has knocked out all lines of communication. Power lines. Electricity. Television masts. Phone masts. Covered all stop signs. As they desperately bail water from their now sinking boat the interaction becomes frantic. Can anything be salvaged from a marriage that is literally and metaphorically; ‘on the rocks’, before it is too late. Written by Ger Bourke, directed by Jim Nolan, starring Lynda Gough and Joe Meagher. Lighting design by Richard Lippy Collins. A co-production of Bag-a-Cats and Rigout Productions. Supported by Waterford City and County Council, Art Links and Imagine Arts Festival. 4 SAINT SISTER Named “Best Irish Band” Sunday 25 October by The Irish Times, Saint Sister is the collective moniker Theatre Royal | 8pm of alt-folk duo Gemma €25 Booking through www.theatreroyal.ie Doherty and Morgan or 051 874402 MacIntyre. Fusing a unique blend of electronica, Celtic harp, and soulful vocal harmonies, the duo call their music ‘atmosfolk’ and were outstanding on their last visit to Waterford when they were a huge hit at ‘All Together Now’ in 2018. “The thick, eerie electro-folk of Ireland’s Saint Sister, not so much haunted as delicately possessed” The guardian 5 JUNIOR BROTHER WITH SUPPORT FROM TRÁ PHÁIDÍN Saturday 24 October An idiosyncratic, challenging and richly lyrical singer/ Theatre Royal | 8pm songwriter, Junior Brother is €18 Booking through www.theatreroyal.ie the pseudonym of Co. Kerry, or 051 874402 Ireland singer Ronan Kealy. Chosen as one of RTÉ's Rising Irish Stars of 2018, and as one of The Irish Times' contenders ready to break through in 2019, Junior Brother has built a rabid following thanks to unmissable live shows, and music both excitingly forward- looking and anciently evocative. His strange stories unfold with reckless abandon upon an idiosyncratic guitar and foot tambourine accompaniment, influenced as much by the avant-garde as music from the middle ages and his home place in rural Ireland. Trá Pháidín are a collective improvisation and experimentation. Their debut one track album Set a hAon was released late last year by Cork City’s Sunshine Cult Records. 6 JOIN ME IN THE PINES Join Me in the Pines is the Wednesday 21 October solo moniker for Kildare’s David Geraghty, also known Theatre Royal | 8pm to audiences as a founding €18 Booking through www.theatreroyal.ie member of Bell X1. or 051 874402 As a member of Bell X1, David has released seven studio albums to date. In addition to this, Geraghty released two solo albums under his own name. In 2014, David decided to delineate his solo work by giving it a new name, and so Join Me in the Pines was born. Inherit was JMITP’s first album release in 2014, followed by Monomania last year. Monomania brims with David’s distinctive vocal and song-writing style but this time he has ventured into an edgy 80s synth-pop world with hints of funk, conjuring shades of Prince, Bowie, Gary Numan and Grace Jones. The album was mixed by the masterful Ross Dowling (James Vincent McMorrow, Talos, Brian Deady) and was released on Decal Records. Lockdown, although devastating to the live music scene, has provided an opportunity for the writing and recording of a new JMITP album. Some of this new music will be released in the coming weeks. 7 MUSIC OF WATERFORD MUSIC OF THE 17th AND 18th CENTURIES FROM IRELAND, ENGLAND, FRANCE AND SPAIN Tonos: Róisín O’Grady - Soprano Eamon Sweeney - Baroque Guitar, Bandora and Lute Special Guest: Cárthach Mac Craith - Sean Nós Singer The Port City of Waterford in the 1600s was a thriving place, busy with trade from all corners of Europe. The coming of Oliver Cromwell and the Siege of Waterford in 1649 was to change the face of the city and Ireland’s culture forever. While ‘to Hell or to Connaught’ were the options presented to poorer Irish, merchants of means fled Waterford to far-off lands including France and Spain. Meanwhile Irish culture, language and traditions were sent underground, to live on in the more remote corners of the country. This concert presents music that was heard both in Ireland and abroad during this turbulent period. Tonos and Cárthach perform a beautiful selection of European and Irish music from the 17th and 18th centuries - mixing Irish song with works by English and Continental masters and highlighting common threads and distinct differences. This concert provides a unique opportunity to hear the sean nós singing tradition alongside that of the classical style, both telling stories through song in different ways. Composers performed will include Purcell, Handel,Lully, Aranes, Marín, O’Carolan, Mac Domhnaill and Ó Riain. Saturday 24 October This concert is kindly Garter Lane Theatre / Live Online | 8.00pm supported by the €10 Booking theatre tickets through Arts Council of Ireland. www.garterlane.ie or 051 855038. Online Event see www.imagineartsfestival.com 8 MESSRS. SMILEY & VENEER SERVICE WITH A SMILE Friday 23 October Vincent Smiley and Samuel Veneer are a pair Cathedral Square | 2.00pm | 3.15pm | 4.30pm of infamous salesmen, Booking through www.imagineartsfestival.com masquerading as world- famous dentists. They travel from town-to-town trying to sell their “pearly-whites elixir”—a cure-all remedy that will eliminate the need to ever visit the dentist again. What happens when their plan fails and their façade falls...can these “greatest salesmen” survive to sell another day? Come one and all to see the hilarious duo, Smiley & Veneer, perform their quirky street show jam-packed with song, dance, slapstick, comedy and live music, which will have you grinning from ear to ear! Smiley & Veneer will make you laugh so hard you’ll be picking up your false teeth from the floor! Created and designed by Curious State Directed by Eoin Ó hAnnracháin Starring Nicholas Kavanagh and Killian Browne Composed by Killian Browne Soundtrack by Joe Harney Choreographed by Jess Rowell 9 IMAGINE presents A WATERFORD COUNCIL INITIATIVE Brian Conaghan Colm Keegan Daniel Mulhall Doireann Ní Ghríofa Felicia Olusanya Frank Farrelly Kerry Hardie Leke Ogunde Mark Roper Jimmy Murphy Mary Murphy Samuel Yakura Sarah Baume Jim Nolan Deirdre Dwyer Eimear Cheasty 10 SARA BAUME HANDIWORK Saturday 24 October Garter Lane Theatre | 2.00pm €5 Booking essential through www.garterlane.ie or 051-855038 Sara Baume talks about her first non-fiction title – an exploration of productivity and what it means to be an artist. handiwork offers observations that are at once gentle and devastating, on the nature of art, grief and a life lived well. Not to be missed. DOIREANN NÍ GHRÍOFA A GHOST IN THE THROAT Saturday 24 October Garter Lane Theatre / Live Online | 4.00pm Theatre €5 Booking essential through www.garterlane.ie or 051-855038. Online Event see www.imagineartsfestival.com The stunning debut prose title from multi- award winning writer Doireann Ní Ghríofa is a fluid hybrid of essay and autofiction. Ní Ghríofa explores the ways in which a life can be changed in response to the discovery of another’s – in this case, the life of Eibhlín Dubh Ní Chonaill, and her poem Caoineadh Airt Uí Laoghaire, famously referred to by Peter Levi as ‘the greatest poem written in either Ireland or Britain during the eighteenth century.’ A devastating and timeless tale about finding your voice by freeing another’s. 11 COLM KEEGAN THIS IS WATERFORD Friday 23 October Garter Lane Theatre / Live Online | 5.00pm Theatre €5 Booking essential through www.garterlane.ie or 051-855038. Online Event see www.imagineartsfestival.com Waterford Writers Weekend have commissioned acclaimed poet, playwright and performer Colm Keegan to collaborate with local writers and write This is Waterford, a vibrant and contemporary literary work. After a series of workshops with a wide range of Waterford residents, Keegan has created a rousing review of Waterford old and new that speaks of us, and to us, and will be launched on the day as a limited- edition print.