Caitríona Ní Mhurchú
Actor | Writer Aisteoir | Scríbhneoir
Little Wolf Productions
Aims / Aidhmeanna
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to put the actor at the centre of performance
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underpin performance with a physical discipline that encourages flexibility and strength, illuminates text, and promotes ensemble playing
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work collectively
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to work collaboratively with an artist from another discipline from inception to execution as each text requires
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instigate where possible a lengthy research and developmental period for each project
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to perform in Irish, English and/or bilingually as each project requires
A Suburban Legend
There are magical beings who grant your every wish.
But I didn’t meet one of those.
I met the other type.
The scarier sort.
The magical beings who would eat you for breakfast.
I know. They tried to eat me.
And that’s not a word of a lie…
In A Suburban Legend, the otherworld crashes into ordinary life in this visually inventive tale, as Caitríona Ní Mhurchú builds live images with micro-cameras to an improvised live sound track. She draws on the ancient myths of Tuatha Dé Dannan and their mortal enemies The Formorians.
Transmission
In Transmission, Caitríona explores the nature of human communication itself and our desire to connect with one another, drawing on her experience as an on-screen television announcer and that of her grandfather as a lighthouse keeper, two once-vital communications roles now rendered obsolete by technology.
![TRANSMISSION [LIGHT] LITTLE WOLF Credit Jason Byrne_edited.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/6dabdb_c1f980be47d54a3795c0e819ce5c5e4a~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_147,h_98,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/6dabdb_c1f980be47d54a3795c0e819ce5c5e4a~mv2.jpg)
★★★★ - The Irish Times
"A one-woman show from Caitríona Ní Mhurchú which uses her past as a prompt for a philosophical exploration of the nature of time. Ní Mhurchú started her career as "Caitríona Ní Virtue", a much loved continuity announcer for RTÉ. Performing live for the nation every evening, she was a familiar face and vital companion to hundreds of thousands of TV viewers, but her role was slowly made obsolete by new technologies. At around the same time, Ní Mhurchú's grandfather, a lighthouse keeper, also found himself engineered out of a job, as automated systems replaced the human touch at watchtowers around the country. What are the consequences of our quest for progress? Transmission, Ní Mhurchú tells us, is “a way of communicating with one human being to another”, of connecting people, of bringing them together. Sitting in the Peacock after six months of stage darkness, it is also a rallying cry for the preservation of the live event."
Eating Seals & Seagulls' Eggs
Eating Seals & Seagulls’ Eggs is a show about Super-Peasants from the West
About surburbia in the eighties.
About State Making.
About sound.
About walking in single file.
About chewing seaweed.
About hauling sand.
About squatting.
About smoking cigarettes.
Conceived and created by Caitríona Ní Mhurchú in collaboration with award-winning visual artist Adam Gibney, co-starring Louise Lewis, choreographed by Ella Clarke and with an original sound design & score by rockers Niall Toner Jr and Les Keye., it draws on autobiographical and archive material & rare film footage to explore the loneliness and dislocation of being an Irish speaker in an urban environment, through the prism of Peig Sayers, and the beautiful, bleak landscape of the Great Blasket.
It is a poetic historical piece of documentary theatre. A cat and mouse game of two biographies, in which Peig Sayers, one of the most hated women in Irish history, is re-imagined.
There is a bit of Peig Sayers in us all. This is her story. Largely. But it is also all of ours. Catholic, protestant, English, Irish, religious, irreverent, and loved and hated in equal measure. Meet Peig Sayers as you have never seen her before.
Production & Publicity shots by Ros Kavanagh, Performers Louise Lewis & Caitríona Ní Mhurchú
What they said
This is a play of national interest. A great piece of work, I was mesmerised from start to finish.
Arena, RTÉ Radio 1
Busting taboos is what the Fringe is all about, but such is the transgressive conceit of this multimedia piece that it stretches the limits of decency to breaking point.
Irish Times
Poetic and profound.
The Public Reviews
Intelligent, visual and moving.
METRO
The potency of the language lends an almost musical lilt to the performance.
The Public Reviews
Acute autobiographical snippets and sharp observations on attitudes to the Irish language. Shards of earthy humour and real tragedy help reclaim Sayers as a real and complex person.
Irish Times
