Oona Doherty's new piece Specky Clark is her most intimate work to date, blending her personal history with Irish mythology. Part fiction, part biographical, all elements overlap, making it challenging to discern myth from reality.
On Oona’s father's side, there is a history of working in Belfast's abattoir and owning pigs in the back garden, along with the docks and shipyard. On the other hand, her mother's family owned a butcher in Belfast.
This new show will follow the story of Oona's Great Grandfather, Specky Clark, a mythical, surrealist adventure of the young boy in Belfast. The story will begin by drawing inspiration from Oona’s great-grandfather's story, Specky Clark, and exploring what it was like to be a working-class man in Belfast at that time.
For this piece, which will unfold in a series of theatrical images, Oona Doherty will collaborate with many faithful and new partners, with Enda Walsh as dramaturge and Sabine Dargent as scenographer. The music will be a collaboration between the Irish contemporary band Lankum and a Sardinian male tenor.
With an international cast of nine dancers, the collaboration between Oona Doherty and Ballet Preljocaj will premiere at Pavillon Noir in Aix-en-Provence in Autumn 2024.
An intention note from Oona Doherty: “My own personal myth, a dark and primal sound, drags us kicking and shouting into another world, an alternative reality: Ireland, the place where the mind can only reach through grief. Inspirations from Pat Mc Cabes the Butcher Boy, Billy Elliot, Francis Bacon, Animal Farm, my father in the Abattoir, my grandfather in the butchers, the Dockers, a seven-year-old boy dancing his heart out, dancing his chains off. Dancing as a fight to survive.”
This project is one of the laureates of the UK/France Spotlight on Culture Fund for and Northern Ireland and Scotland delivered by the British Council in partnership with Creative Scotland.
