Review / Irish history in song, dance and mist

Producer Caroline McNicholas pulled off a coup in securing Irish singers Alice Gildea and soprano, who travelled from Ireland, to headline the production.

Conway impressed with several well-known traditional songs. Her beautiful voice and clear vibrato perfectly suited to ‘My Lagan Love’. Gildea, with her flowing, flame-coloured hair embodied the Irish spirit as she played the Bodhran (Irish drum) and sang in Gaelic. Her gutsy vocals and intensity were nicely juxtaposed with Conway’s singing and gentle demeanour. They were accompanied by a band of talented and enthusiastic musicians, some of whom had donned sequinned cloaks for the performance.

The Druids, Fairy Folk, Saint Patrick, the Vikings and Oliver Cromwell’s influence on Irish history were depicted. At times, the specifics of people or events, such as the wedding of Strongbow and the presentation of Handel’s Hallelujah, performed by a small choir from Coro, perplexed the audience.

The displacement of women during the Great Famine provided the backdrop for several songs of loss and longing, which would have been better delivered without the aimless wandering around on stage, as also seen earlier during St Patrick’s time.  The projected paintings by Patricia Reynolds, which had a Boyd-esque feel to them, added another layer to the storytelling.

A lovely, melancholy song, with piano and fiddle, expressed the pain of Irish exile and a recitation of Yeats bought us into more modern times as did the Irish dancing.

It was exciting to see Conor Simpson, who won the World Irish Dancing Championship in Canada earlier this year, lead a small and very talented troupe of polished young dancers from the Simpson Academy of Irish Dance. These dancers were a highlight of the program, but their sporadic appearances were fleeting and used to punctuate the show.

The unexpected appearance of the Latin dancers from Kokoloco sent audience members diving for their program notes. It appeared the rumba and samba-inspired dances were a nod to Ireland’s Spanish connections.

The beginning and endings of pieces were poorly timed throughout the production and tightening and polishing of the production would have been beneficial.

Conway’s pure rendition of “Danny Boy” seemed a fitting conclusion to the show, but instead it ended with an instrumental “elevator-music” version of the tune, while the Latin dancers swanned around the stage and audience.

“The Haunted Celts” was an entertaining and, with the aid of program notes, educational journey through Ireland, although some of it seemed a little lost in the metaphorical mist.