Zeitgeist Jukebox is a new immersive theatre experience from one-man theatrical powerhouse Little John Nee, promising a soulful antidote to the disconnection of our times, and a testament to the healing power of music.
Ahead of an Irish tour as part of this year's First Fortnight mental health, arts and culture festival, Little John introduces Zeitgeist Jukebox below.
"I danced myself out of the womb, isn't it strange to dance so soon?" - Marc Bolan, Cosmic Dancer
I danced myself from a Donegal womb into a Glasgow maternity ward in November 1959. I had no words but I was a good dancer and a real charmer. I was also a good learner, I learned words. I learned how to behave so as to avoid violence - it wasn’t easy. I learned that fifteen years before I was born the world had been at war, bombs had pulverised cities and there had been death camps and genocide. I learned that even though we were in Glasgow we were Irish. Glasgow was a great place to learn about sectarianism. I learned about heaven and hell. I tried to make sense of it all. Time passed, I learned more, it still didn’t make sense. The Beatles became hippies and Muhammad Ali wouldn’t go to fight in Vietnam. When I was twelve we moved back to Letterkenny and one Sunday when I was at my auntie’s house my cousin came home with the news that paratroopers had opened fire on civil rights marchers twenty miles away in Derry. I learned that governments lie when innocents die and justice is prejudiced.
The transcendent power of the creative arts. The soul food that helps me survive and thrive.
What I’m saying is the world was already broken when I got here, it was already a head wreck, however, I can’t say exactly why I developed the self-destructive tendencies that came to define my own story, the familiar faulty coping mechanisms. I’m still learning new words "neuro-divergent". What I do know is that it was songs and stories that kept me alive and got me through the darkest times. I don’t need a health specialist or academic to explain the benefits, it’s been my lived experience since my earliest memories. The transcendent power of the creative arts. The soul food that helps me survive and thrive.
that kept me alive and got me through the darkest times.'
So Zeitgeist Jukebox is about how in the most overwhelmingly desperate times, when we feel powerless against the juggernaut of fear, hate and despair, when the baddest have all the power and seem invincible, it is then that we rely on the last currency of the dispossessed - songs and stories, dance and poetry, throwing shapes and making pictures - the language of soul.
Zeitgeist Jukebox is about a bunch of people coming together to make the greatest album of the twenty-first century. The most zeitgeist songs you ever heard, freshly made in front of you. Songs that move you, songs that sooth you, songs that groove you. It’s going to be funny. It’s going to be brilliant. If you feel so inclined you can bring an instrument but see if you just want to sink back in your seat and disappear nobody will say a word. Let the fun go deep.
Little John Nee's Zeitgeist Jukebox is on tour, with performances on Thursday January 16th at Hawkswell Theatre, Sligo, Friday January 17th at Riverbank Arts Centre, Newbridge, Co. Kildare, Saturday January 18th at St John's Theatre, Listowel, Co. Kerry, Tuesday February 7th at Wexford Arts Centre, Wexford, and Wednesday February 8th at An Grianán, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal - find out more (and explore the 2025 First Fortnight programme) here.
