Theatre review: Winter Journey sparks adventure through Shandon for Cork Midsummer Festival
Winter Journey at Cork Midsummer Festival. Picture: Celeste Burdon
★★★★☆
Threatening black clouds hung over Shandon as people gathered for Winter Journey, the Cork Midsummer Festival reinterpretation of Schubert’s Winterreisse. The famous song-cycle for voice and piano, based on the poems of Wilhelm Müller, is an existential cry of despair from a heartbroken young man travelling through a wintery landscape.
The symbolism may have been heavy, but the atmosphere was light, the audience letting out a cheer as the bell from St Anne’s Church chimed, signalling the start of our own perambulatory adventure. The event, curated by Jonathan Pearson and Sophie Motley, comprised a series of artistic and musical vignettes taking inspiration from Schubert’s song cycle, which were staggered across nine different venues in the historic northside neighbourhood.
The range of takes varied from the compelling hip-hop stylings of Cork artists KeSTine and Outsider Yp in the leafy surrounds of St Anne’s Church Park to the sublime vocals of soprano Emma Nash, a vision of purple tulle in a dramatically blustery Community Garden. Nolan’s butcher’s shop on Shandon Street was utilised for a downbeat tableau featuring a depressed worker in a backroom office, while tea and cake was served in The Guest House to the dreamy and meditative synths-backed vocals of Rachael Lavelle.
A standout performance came from musicians Johnny McCarthy on the fiddle and Irish flute and Ciara O’Leary Fitzpatrick on the concertina in the cosy confines of Maureen’s pub. It was clear a lot of thought and effort had gone into their reworking of three songs from the cycle — Frühlingstraum, Gute Nacht and Der Wegweiser — into a suite. In their confident and expert hands it was revelatory to hear how the trad style lent itself so well to the plaintive and melancholic elements, while also adding a hopeful, more upbeat vibe.
While the disparate elements of Winter Journey didn’t quite come together to give an overarching sense of what the venture was out to achieve, to be part of such a communal theatrical event more than made up for the conceptual fuzziness. And all credit to those involved for utilising this vibrant but neglected part of the city; setting off from the Firkin Crane, the home of dance in Cork, the Winter Journey trail was a valuable reminder that with a little TLC and more investment, the whole area could be developed into an attractive hub for arts and culture.
- Presented by Islander, Sophie Motley and Cork Midsummer Festival Venues throughout Shandon
