Director/choreographer Mary Wycherley and some of her artistic collaborators introduce Weathering, a new work combining film, dance, poetry, live music and song, premiering in Limerick later this month - watch a preview above.
Mary Wycherley, director/choreographer: The Gearagh/An Gaorthadh in Macroom is the site of the last surviving full alluvial oak forest in Western Europe, dating back 11,000 years, which was felled in the 1950s for the building of two hydroelectric dams which provide electricity for the nearby city of Cork and the surrounding area.
I first encountered the poignant and striking landscape of this now submerged glacial woodland, as a child, growing up in West Cork. It always fascinated me when we passed it on the way to Cork city. It was such a mysterious place to me with all the remaining tree stumps evocatively submerged in the water. As a child I had imagined many stories about these flooded trees.
During the last decade I’ve been engaging more with the area and very drawn to its ecological significance. It’s an extraordinary resonant place filled with incredible biodiversity, wildlife and history. During the research for Weathering, I’ve particularly benefited from the knowledge of local born ecologist and author Kevin Corcoran. The Gearagh is a place that really compels us to think deeply about how we impact on our natural world, our relationship to our ancient past and how we might ground ourselves within the precarious social, political and environmental landscape of our present and future.
Four years ago – just before the pandemic! – I began to move towards creating the piece which has now become Weathering, a work of film, dance, poetry, live music and song, which takes The Gearagh as its point of departure. We now have an incredible assembly of creative people involved in the project. Cinematography from Raja Nundlall, who filmed our wonderful dancers Justine Cooper and Aoife McAtamney in this unique landscape, will be accompanied by live music from composer Jürgen Simpson, Alec Browne on cello, and song from Irish contemporary vocalist Ceara Conway, together with poetry from Jools Gilson, as we present the premiere of Weathering on 30th March.
Composer Jürgen Simpson: One of the unique aspects of creating for hybrid cinema is the potential of music and sound. Weathering is conceived as a live multiscreen film incorporating a traditional approach to sound (synchronised sound effects and foley) but moves much of the music into a live context. The idea of the music score changes: it becomes a performative experience, both for the audience and for the musicians, singer Ceara Conway, cellist Alec Brown, and myself with laptop. "With" is the key word as the laptop is almost a fourth performer, generating music in real-time using a coding language that defines not what happens but how it happens. We are all really responding to the moment, the music is not locked down and there is a lot of creative space in how we engage with the experience of the film and with each other.
Sound plays an important part in how we understand our natural world. But human-induced noise has silenced the voices of our natural soundscapes, damaging how insects, birds and other animals communicate and survive. Weathering pays particular attention to these sounds, allowing them to speak and drawing attention to the need for us to consider how important sound is in rekindling our own relationship with the natural world on which we depend and in turn which depends on us.
Extract from Tree Felling, written by Jools Gilson for Weathering
…the tree, this great oak, this thing of a hundred summers, who isn’t singular, but a great cacophony of living things, of generations of birds and mistletoe and ferns and seeds and moss and lichen and small boys swinging and girls climbing and a thousand rain storms, a hundred winters of falling leaves and bitter air, a hundred Springs of new leaf turning into expanded summers and fruited Autumns with their acorns dropping into damp earth, this great thing…
Lyrics from Gol an Gaorthadh, written by Ceara Conway for Weathering
Gol an Gaorthadh
Crainn a Gaorthadh, dair darach caillte
Crainn a ólann talamh sáithithe
Crainn gan cheann, stumpaí gortá
Crainn caoineadh, crainn dubha
Crainn chlann, gluntá scriosta
Crainn iuir, crainn fhuinnseoige
Crainn na ngleann, abhainn dar adhmaid
Crainn choirp , crainn anam
Crainn caum, crainn anna’halla
Crainn sullane, crainn gaorthaigh
Crainn bhealaglashis, crainn ummera
Crainn Tooma, Crainn Faha
Trees of the Gearagh, lost oaks
Trees without a crown, famine stumps
Trees that drink the saturated ground
Mourning trees, black trees
Family tree, deleted knees
Yew tree, Ash tree
Trees of the valley, river trees
Soulful, body trees
Trees of Caum, Trees of the Anna’halla
Trees of the Sullane, Trees of the Gearagh
Trees of Bealaghlais, Trees of Ummera
Trees of Tooma, Trees of Faha
Baile an Gaortadh , stair faoi uisce
Baile gon chaint s gan comhra
Baile anois gan dha chead feirme
Baile gan aer, gan análaithe
Weathering will premiere at St John's Church, Dance Limerick on 30th March - find out more here.
