Taking to the streets

A highlight of Midsummer Festival was a series of plays performed in unlikely locations about Cork city, says arts editor Marc O’Sullivan

THIS year’s Cork Midsummer Festival was the first programmed by artistic director Tom Creed. Its biggest production was Parallel Cities, a suite of eight plays, each placing its audience in a different location, such as the street between two houses on Patrick’s Hill, Barry’s Tea, the Boole library, Kent railway station and the Maldron hotel.

Parallel Cities gave its audience an insight into how the city lives and breathes. It shed light on some familiar spaces, such as the reading room in the Boole. It engaged with the people of Cork, whether it be the long-time staff at Barry’s Tea or the immigrant workers in Hotel, whose stories were often heart-breaking: you wouldn’t leave your hotel room in a mess if you knew the maid was saving to be reunited with her infant daughter in Latvia.