Our history of shame about sex laid bare
The outdoor show, which runs for four nights, from Friday, over the summer solstice weekend, begins at 4am. Audience members must gather at the Lough Road, in Cork City, for the performance.
Witches is the brainchild of Cork choreographer, Ruairí Donovan. “I’ve been away on tour for the last three years, on and off, so it was important for me to look at home for this piece,” he says. “Thinking about home made me think about the mother. There’s been a lot of violence around the treatment of female bodies in the Irish State, lately, with the Magdalene laundries, the X case legislation, and everything that’s been going on over the last 12 months, so it’s a response to that. I didn’t want to dwell on the negative aspects of what’s happening, but to take the female form and celebrate it, and to look at it further back in our ancestry and Celtic roots, at a time when the female was regarded in reverence. I wanted to create a spectacle that could be shared across the city.”
