Written by 10:30 am Smitten

We Came. We Danced. We Sang.


It’s day three of Solstice here in Cork and the opening night performance of Smitten seems like it was last week, such is the hive of activity around Solstice, Cork Midsummer Festival and just Cork in general.

For us, it was curtains up to a great audience on Thursday evening for a 6pm performance to very warm, generous and busy audience that contained two or three familiar faces from home. But familiar faces is not totally what we’re after for a festival run, it’s all about the new faces, the new contacts, the new relationships established in a place like this.

When we to Scratcher to Theatre Machine earlier the year it was very much bring show in, perform show, empty venue, head for home or post show drinks to talk things out. There’s almost a familial atmosphere here with each company supporting each others works, performing to fellow performers, everyone providing feedback, and over the four days there’s an awful lot of it to be had.

So for us, the Smitten audience was a great test for the show itself. When we perform it in Kilkenny first in 2008, we were already established locally, were creating a particular brand of humour that had already been tested across four or five shows at a local level. Bringing that brand of humour to a new location and a new audience on Thursday evening showed that when we get to open in Kilkenny next week, home audiences are in for a real treat.

The laughs were there, along with the disgust, the sadness, the singing, the dancing, and it all seemed to go down very well. Feedback that we’ve received thus far has been extremely encouraging and it will all factor in to the Kilkenny performance. And while the audience enjoyed the show, we as a company very much enjoyed the show and we’ve been lapping up all we can of Solstice thus.

Half have returned home but those of us still in Cork have taken in shows like Red Shoes and Makeshift Ensembles comedically energetic Osteoporosis last night. As day 3 gets warm up here in the Old Fás Building on Sullivan’s Quay we’re looking ahead to a day of theatre and talk, along with a chance to catch up on some shows we missed out on at Theatre Machine in February.

The Solstice programme wraps tomorrow but there’s still a load of shows to catch before Sunday night along with the installation and exhibition pieces in the visual arts space. Take a look at SolsticeCork.com to see what awaits!

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