Dublin - Event Notice
Thursday January 01 1970

Storytelling evening with the Oh-Aissieux in the Seomra Spraoi

Thursday August 09, 2007 21:44

by Seomra Spraoi

Storytelling evening with the Oh-Aissieux

in the new Seomra Spraoi,

4 Mary’s Abbey

Friday 17 August.

Show starts 9 pm. Doors 8.30 pm.

Soft drinks and biscuits will be served in the break.

Suggested donation: EUR 2.

Proceeds to the Seomra Spraoi.

You are invited to forget what Irish storytelling was, and find out what it might be.

The Seomra Spraoi is delighted to host an evening of storytelling with a performer who has already done a lot to promote his art as an innovative form of entertainment for savvy young urbanites.

Coilín Oh-Aissieux is the founder and a co-organiser of the Narrative Arts Club, which has brought innovative storytelling to young adults in Dublin since November 2005.

Here’s how one visitor to the Narrative Arts Club in the Central Hotel in May described the experience:

“This is something modern, perplexing and thoroughly engaging, which knows no boundaries and succumbs to few taboos.”

Coilin performs from a very diverse repertoire, ranging from accounts of his own misadventures with mushroom soup to shamanic tales from Greenland, the Arabian Nights and the Tibetan saga, Gesar of Ling. He also performs the old Irish saga, Mael Dun’s Voyage, though he wouldn’t like his work with Irish motifs to overshadow his international repertoiire.

“There’s no point being nationalistic about it,” he says. “As far as I’m concerned, the Greenlandic shaman stories are just as much my heritage as any Celtic saga.”

Coilin is looking forward to performing for members and friends of the Seomra Spraoi. At a recent meeting of the collective, he told us how he wants to reclaim some of the territory that has been captured by corporate media such as the cinema, and to establish storytelling as a form of entertainment that is just as relevant as movies like Trainspotting and Fight Club. If the response is good, he is prepared to make it a series of evenings for us in the Seomra Spraoi.

So come on over, and invite your friends. Let’s see a good crowd for this first new event, so he knows we want him to come again. Phone your friends and invite them in person!

Be entertained.
Be perplexed.
Be moved.
Or bemused.
But be there!

Background detail:
Narrative Arts Club to be founded in Dublin
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/71918

Beginning at the end: Dublin's Narrative Arts Club

http://tinyurl.com/2barxo

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Comments (2 of 2)

Thanks for making storytelling history!

by The Oh-Aissieux - Narrative Arts Club

Sat Aug 18, 2007 16:10

narrativearts at gmail dot com

Cill Mhaighneáin

086 060 38 18

Thanks to everybody for the storytelling show last night.

Particular thanks to Mark for being my contact person, to Gráinne for decorating the space, and to everybody who has worked so hard to establish the Seomra Spraoi and invite such a good crowd.

I counted 30-odd people listening intently throughout both parts of the show. That's a very good turn-out, particularly for a first evening. Most people by far came by word of mouth, with an invaluable few new faces turning up on the basis of e-mail, text or Web-based notice.

This was the programme:
History of Mary's Abbey
Caoineadh na dTrí Mhuire (Song: The lament of the three Marys)
Mushroom soup
Handicap races
Meeting the garuda (Gerry of the clan MacGregor)
Guns in the chapter house
The demon on the cliffs of Drangey

break

Countess Markievicz anecdotes
She moved through the fair (song)
Brigit meets the Morrigan (Gerry)
Out! (Robbie Sinnott's free music session)
Ripples (Seán O'Donoghue)
Mother of the Sea

I would love to receive feedback:
How would you describe the experience to your friends?
Which stories did you most enjoy? What did you not enjoy so much?
How would you rate the _sequence_ of the stories, timing of the programme, break, etc.?
What other kinds of stories would you like to hear?

Best,
Coilín.

Guest performers Gerry McGregor and Seán O'Donoghue

Fri Aug 10, 2007 16:35

I am delighted to announce that Gerry McGregor and Seán O'Donoghue will be joining me as guest tellers for the event in the Seomra Spraoi.

Gerry and Seán performed with me at the Narrative Arts Club in the Central Hotel in May.

The following blog post includes a group photo with Gerry:
Beginning at the end: Dublin's Narrative Arts Club
http://tinyurl.com/2barxo

Note Gerry's devilishly snazzy shoes!

Indeed, Gerry is a snazzy kind of a performer, with a warm and mellow stage presence. And I see a spiritual thread running through his repertoire: sighting the garuda in the Far East; a Cherokee story about wolves; the hairraising tale of the poltergeist that haunts a cemetery in Edinburgh; and his own misadventures as an altar boy.

This post from the same blogger includes a picture of Seán and a review of a recitation of his narrative poem, Ripples:
A harrowing tale from the undersea depths
http://seanchai.vox.com/library/post/a-harrowing-tale-f....html

This is a very good description of the experience:
"When he tells a story, Mr. O’Donoghue speaks with a kind of understated intensity. His voice is gentle yet persistent, and it’s hard not to be captured by his words."

Looking forward to seeing you there, so that we can all be captured by Seán and charmed by Gerry once again.
Coilín.

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Storytelling evening with the Oh-Aissieux in the Seomra Spraoi

Comments (2 of 2)