2023 marks Cliona Maher's 5th year as Artistic Director of the Clonmel Junction Festival, and is a culmination of the re-thinking of the festival that has been a hallmark of her programming of the multi-disciplinary arts festival celebrating its 22nd anniversary in Tipperary’s largest town.
"When I returned to Clonmel from France in 2017," she says, "I found that there was a vibrant arts community here, working with a really poor infrastructure. Clonmel is the largest urban area in the country without a professionally-run performing arts space, and this despite the wealth of talented professionals, as well as enthusiastic audiences".
Taking the helm at Junction in 2019, Maher re-oriented the festival by creating work by, about and for Clonmel. Producing and commissioning work, supporting development of artists, and providing a platform for this is at the heart of the festival's ongoing work.
Despite difficulties thrown up by lockdowns and the on-again, off-again nature of production over recent years, the festival now has its own theatre performance space – the Junction Festival Dome – and, through partners South Tipp Arts Centre, a new arts space, the STAC Chapel.
For 2023, both venues will be at the heart of the festival on the new Civic Plaza, and this access to space for the arts has given this year's event its theme.
"We wanted to look at the place of art in people’s lives," explains Maher. We also wanted to celebrate this new civic space by planting a flag on it as a place for the arts to happen".
As well as the theatre taking place in the Dome – from regular visitors Fishamble with their current tour of Pat Kinevane’s King to young Tipperary theatremaker Aine Ryan’s homecoming with her revival of Kitty In The Lane following a highly successful London run – there are two bespoke productions that the festival is co-producing.
Performer and writer Aideen Wylde has a long history with Clonmel Junction Festival, going back to her student days as a volunteer. Several festival productions later, she is back in 2023 heading a cast of 5 as they perform in her play Found, directed by Julie Kelleher in the unique location of Mulcahy’s Bar, a co-production with Aideen’s theatre company BrokenCrow and the Everyman in Cork.
Another new production is Hucklebuck. Directed by Jack Reardon, this immersive spectacle features a live band and a dance troupe as audiences are transported back to the Ireland of 1969. "We wanted to create a really theatrical piece that holds a door open to a broad audience base," says Jack. We’ve had lots of support in creating it, and it’s been a joy to have two companies of actors and theatre-makers here in Clonmel all June, creating work for the festival".
With a world premiere of a new music commission for Roger Doyle, as well as a programme that features responses to open calls in literature, music and visual arts, the wealth of original work that will feature in the 2023 Clonmel Junction Festival is a treat for the senses.
The Clonmel Junction Festival runs 01 - 09 July - find out more here.
