The Dream of Eithlínn – Smock Alley – Review by C K MacNamara

Boys School – 17 – 20 Aug | 8pm | Matinee Sat 20 Aug | 3pm

The play begins with an argument about how the play should begin.

The Dream of Eithlínn, produced by Candlelit Tales, tells the saga of the Battle of Magh Tuireadh from Irish mythology, wherein the Irish Tuatha Dé Danann defeat the invading Fomorian army. Full of monsters and heroes, it is an age old and worn-smooth epic reminiscent of the likes of Beowulf and the myriad of heroes that populate mythology. A unique twist would be needed to spice up this ancient epic.

Candlelit Tales achieves this in spades, utilising a multimedia of live music, dance and the natural storytelling of co-narrators Aron Hegarty and Catríona Loughlin. The duo delivers an infectiously gleeful mix of performative storytelling, comedy, and even audience participation as they weave their way across the stage. In keeping with the theme and their ability to capture an audience, they resemble nothing less than medieval bards.

But good as the duo are, it is the live music that really elevates the performance to match the epic scale of the legend they are retelling. After a brief introduction from the narrators and with the scene set the band springs to life in a flurry of violins and pounding war drums. The audience is hooked in an instant.

Indeed, in all the in-your-face grandeur of the live music and the dancers it is easy to miss some of the other technical cleverness that further enhances the spectacle: the excellent use of low angle lighting is used at key points to cast menacing shadows during the description of the monsters that populate every Celtic legend, and a projector throws up images of bloody battle to compensate for what can’t be performed live on stage.

But despite all the multimedia skill, the production suffers a near-fatal problem with acoustics, with the music and ambiance constantly drowning out the voices of the actors trying to tell the story, to the point where they often fail to deliver their lines to the audience sitting only a few feet away. If the plot had been any more nuanced than an old Irish legend of a hero defeating a villain, this issue may have wrecked the performance entirely as the audience would be unable to follow along with what the characters were trying to convey.

Despite this technical hiccup, the dance-theatre spectacle delivers on its promise to “steal your imagination away.” Between the immersive experience of live music, to the natural talent and charisma of Hegarty and Loughlin, the play climbs to match the epic-scale of its subject matter and achieves a performance worthy of the Irish legends of old.

Narrators: Sorcha Hegarty, Aron Hegarty, Catríona Loughlin.

Dancers: Aisling McCormick, Emmet Byrne, Jade R O’Connor, Gráinne O’Carrol.

Musicians: Rú O’Sé, Darragh Kenny, Jim O’Donoghue, Aoife Nyhan Kavanagh, Antonella Scanu, Audrey Trainor.