Junk Ensemble presents
We’re thrilled to present ISL Performance featuring Caoimhe Gray, followed by a post-show discussion moderated by Cian O’ Brian on Thursday, March 28th.
A powerful, uplifting duet exploring ageing and care, blending visceral imagery, dance and music.
Celebrating the strength of mature bodies and challenging the cult of youth, the show is a reclaiming of the ageing body created by dance-theatre innovators Junk Ensemble. Featuring acclaimed actor Mikel Murfi and leading dance artist Finola Cronin (formerly of Pina Bausch’s Tanztheater Wuppertal) the performers are heroic, vulnerable, comedic, and completely themselves in the work.
They care fiercely for each other and defend their independence. As they hold each other up and push each other down, the ‘performance’ of age is unpacked as a reminder of ourselves: our worst and our best.
Accessibility
If you require assistance for your visit, please do not hesitate to contact us at access@projectartscentre.ie or call 01 8819 613. You can find the latest information about Project’s accessibility here.
Credits
Creation and Direction
Jessica Kennedy and Megan Kennedy
Choreography
Jessica Kennedy and Megan Kennedy
in collaboration with Finola Cronin
and Mikel Murfi
Performers
Finola Cronin and Mikel Murfi
Set Design
Sabine Dargent
Music
Denis Clohessy
Lighting Design
Stephen Dodd
Costume Design
Saileóg O’Halloran
Text
Finola Cronin and Mikel Murfi
Voice Coach
Andrea Ainsworth
Set Construction
Ger Clancy
Stage Manager
Marella Boschi
Chief LX
Alan Mooney
Production Manager
Simon Bird
Producer
Gwen Van Spÿk
Assistant Producer
Michelle Cahill and Tilly Taylor
PR
Stephanie Dickenson
Social Media
Sally McCarthy
Biographies
COMPANY BIO
Junk Ensemble is a multi-award winning Dublin-based dance theatre company founded by twin sisters Megan Kennedy and Jessica Kennedy. The company is committed to engaging diverse audiences through the creation and presentation of brave, imaginative and accessible work that sheds light on important human issues relevant to society today. Current Associate Artists at Project Arts Centre and previous Artists-in-Residence at The Tate, Junk Ensemble has built a reputation as one of Ireland’s leading voices in dance. Junk Ensemble frequently collaborates with artists from other disciplines to produce a rich mix of visual and performance styles that challenge the traditional audience/performer relationship. This approach has led to productions being created in non-traditional or found spaces as well as more conventional theatre spaces. The company often work directly with communities in the creation and performance of their work. Their work has toured to New York, Europe, UK & Ireland.
Junk Ensemble productions include Ritual (Cork Midsummer Festival 2023), Dances Like a Bomb (Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2023/Dublin Dance Festival 2022), The Cold Sings (Dublin Theatre Festival 2022), Crossing Skin (Cairde Sligo Arts Festival 2022), The Misunderstanding of Myrrha (Dublin Dance Festival 2021/Mermaid Arts Centre 2020), The Veiled Ones (Baboró International Arts Festival for Children 2021/Dublin Fringe Festival 2021), A Different Wolf (Cork Opera House/Cork Midsummer Festival 2019), The Bystander (Dublin Theatre Festival 2018), Dolores (Dublin Dance Festival 2018), Man at the Door/Cork Midsummer Festival 2018), Soldier Still (Irish Tour 2018/Belfast Festival/Dublin Fringe 2017), Walking Pale (GPO Witness History Commission/Dublin Dance Festival 2016), It Folds a joint production with Brokentalkers (Edinburgh Festival 2016/Mayfest Bristol 2016/Dublin Fringe, Abbey Theatre 2015), Dusk Ahead (NYC La MaMa Moves Festival 2015/Irish Tour 2015/Dublin Theatre Festival 2013/Kilkenny Arts Festival 2013), The Falling Song (UK & Irish Tour 2014/Belfast Festival 2012/Dublin Dance Festival 2012), Bird with Boy (UK Tour 2016/Dublin Theatre Festival 2012/Dublin Fringe Festival 2011), Sometimes We Break (Tate Commission 2012), Five Ways to Drown (National Tour 2012/Dublin Dance Festival 2010), Pygmalian Revisited (Áix-en-Provence Festival Commission 2010), Drinking Dust (2008), and The Rain Party (2007).
Choreography for film includes It Is In Us All (dir. Antonia Campbell Hughes), The Tower (dir. Jesse Jones), Wildfire (dir. Cathy Brady), In Velvet (Junk Ensemble), Five Letters to the Stranger Who Will Dissect My Brain (dir. Oonagh Kearney), Fallow Table (Junk Ensemble). Choreography for theatre includes The Last Return (Druid Theatre), What Did I Miss (The Ark).
DIRECTORS
Jessica Kennedy is an award-winning choreographer and dance artist based in Dublin, Ireland. She is co-founder and Co-Artistic
Director of Junk Ensemble, a multi-award winning & leading Irish dance-theatre company. Jessica trained in the United States,
Dublin and London, completing a Bachelors Degree in Dance Performance & English Literature at Middlesex University London
and a Photography Diploma at Dun Laoghaire College of Art & Design. She has performed extensively with dance and theatre
companies throughout Europe and the UK including Blast Theory (UK), Retina Dance Company (UK), Tanz Lange (Germany), Firefly Productions (Belgium.) In Ireland she has collaborated regularly with Brokentalkers and has performed in and choreographed for numerous short and feature films (dir Oonagh Kearney; Alice Maher; Robert Manson; Antonia Campbell-Hughes) and opera work. She was awarded Best Female Performer for Dublin Fringe Festival 2006. Jessica co-created the internationally acclaimed short film Motion Sickness (2012) which has screened across thirty festivals worldwide and has worked regularly in Scotland as a movement director for productions with The Tron (Glasgow/Beijing) and Theatre Gu Leor. She is part of an all-female experimental electronica group ‘Everything Shook’.
Megan Kennedy trained at Alvin Ailey Dance Center in New York City and received a B.A. Honours from Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh. Megan is Co-Artistic Director of multi-award winning Junk Ensemble, who are previous resident artists at the Tate and creators of Dolores and The Falling Song. Choreography / direction for live performance includes Portia Coughlan (Abbey Theatre, dir: Caroline Byrne), What Did I Miss (The Ark, dir: Sean Dunne), Fleeting (Seve Feathers), Gym Swim Party (O’Reilly Theatre Dublin), Villette (West Yorkshire Playhouse), Town is Dead (The Abbey Theatre), Tasting Blue (Live Collision), Tchaikovsky’s Queen of Spades Opera (Edinburgh Festival Theatre), Marble & Bread (Dance Limerick).
For film, choreography and performance include Wildfire (Samson Films/dir: Cathy Brady), It Is In Us All (dir: Antonia Campbell Hughes), In Velvet & Fallow Table (Junk Ensemble), 6SKIN (dir: Alice Maher & Aideen Barry), Five Letters to the Stranger Who Will Dissect My Brain (dir: Oonagh Kearney), The Wake (dir: Oonagh Kearney), Óiche Nollaig na mBan (RTÉ), Wonder House (Dublin Film Festival), Her Mother’s Daughters (Winner Best Actress Capalbio Festival Italy/dir: Oonagh Kearney). Megan has performed with Retina Dance Company (UK), Brokentalkers (The Blue Boy, On This One Night) (IRL), CoisCéim Dance Theatre (Faun, As You Are) (IRL), The Abbey Theatre (Romeo & Juliet) (IRL), Loosysmokes Aerial Company (IRL), Tanz Lange (Germany), Blast Theory (UK), Bedrock Productions (IRL) and productions for The Ark and The Pavilion (IRL). She is a Fellow of Salzburg Global Seminar.
PERFORMERS
Finola Cronin trained in dance in Dublin and London. She performed for over 15 years in Germany with Company Vivienne
Newport (Frankfurt) and Tanztheater Wuppertal (dir. Pina Bausch). She has performed also with Raimund Hoghe (Montpellier Dance, France), Liz Roche Company (Dublin) and John Gerrard (Austria and Galway 2020). In 2021 she performed in Junk Ensemble’s The Veiled Ones at Dublin Fringe Festival and Baboró International Children’s Arts Festival. She is Emeritus Assistant Professor in Drama Studies at UCD.
Mikel Murfi is from Sligo and trained at École Jaques Lecoq, Paris. His performances in theatre include In MiddleTown (Gate
Theatre), Here Comes Trouble – a show about Friendship (Loco and Reckless Productions/Hawks Well Theatre), Dolores (Junk
Ensemble), Swan Lake (Teac Damsa), The Man in The Woman’s Shoes and I Hear You and Rejoice (Loco and Reckless Productions), The Last Hotel and Ballyturk (Galway Arts Festival/Landmark/Wide Open Opera), The New Electric Ballroom (Druid), The Chairs (Blue Raincoat Theatre), Morning After Optimism, Playboy of the Western World (Peacock Theatre), The
Comedy of Errors, The Tempest (Abbey Theatre), Giselle, Rite of Spring and Petrushka (Fabulous Beast) Desire Under The Elms
(Lyric, Hammersmith). Directing work includes Toraiocht (Fíbín), The Walworth Farce, Penelope (Druid), Trad, The Great Goat
Bubble (Galway Arts Festival), The Country Girls (Red Kettle), Diamonds in the Soil (Macnas), Waiting for Godot (Theatre Du Pif,
Hong Kong), The Far Off Hills (Nomad Theatre Network). Film includes: The Ballad of Kid Kanturk, Intermission, Sweety Barrett,
The Butcher Boy, Love and Rage, Guiltrip and most recently Jimmy’s Hall. As a director, Druma and John Duffy’s Brother.
Press
THE LIST ★★★★★ ‘Triumphant’ ‘Thoughtful, curious passages of elegy’ ‘Surreal, beautiful and extraordinarily human’ ‘This is a piece whose beauty and complexity demonstrate exactly why older artists, whatever their discipline, should never be underestimated’
THE TIMES (London) ★★★★ ‘Big, powerful’ ‘Pithy and pitiless honesty ‘No motions are wasted, half-hearted or unclear’ ‘These two people own the stage and have earned the right to be there.’
THE STAGE ★★★★ ‘Intriguing … clever … poignant’ ‘A tender piece … outstanding’
THE GUARDIAN ‘Arresting’ ‘Inspired’ ‘Macabre and comical … a delight’ ‘In this dance theatre show, age also gives cause for reflection, some regret and a healthy dose of ceasing to care what anyone else thinks of you’ ‘Unsentimental straightforwardness’
THE SCOTSMAN ‘Compelling’ ‘Real poignancy … compelling’ ‘Wonderful to see older bodies move, older minds share and, crucially, older people being listened to’
THE IRISH TIMES “Superb performers… a heartfelt celebration of two people growing old together.”
Funding
Funded by The Arts Council Touring Award.
Original production funded by The Arts Council Arts Grant Fund and Dublin City Council, and supported by
Mermaid Arts Centre, Dance Ireland and Shawbrook Dance.
Project Arts Centre is proudly supported by The Arts Council and Dublin City Council.
Disclaimer
Contains scenes of violence.