Anaïs Mitchell: 'I have a sense of Cork as an alive, creative city'

The American singer is back touring following her Broadway success, and  takes in two Irish dates

Anaïs Mitchell plays in Cork and Dublin. Picture: Jay Sansone

Anaïs Mitchell has a far more intimate knowledge of Cork than the average touring American musician. She’s played the city previously and has worked with Mary Hickson, the creative producer who has a long-standing artistic connection to Bryce Dessner of The National and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon (and who programmes Cork’s Songs From A Safe Harbour festival).

“I am a huge Enda Walsh fan," says Mitchell of the Irish playwright who made his breakthrough with Disco Pigs, set in Cork. "I discovered Enda because when I was studying musicals to work on Hadestown [her hugely-successful musical]. I went to see Once on Broadway. I loved the book of that musical that he wrote. I thought it was such a brilliant adaptation. The movie was great. But the musical was this whole other animal that he beautifully brought to life.