Kambrya Blake, one of our students, experienced a serious personal loss immediately prior to departing for Ireland with our program. She has generously offered this piece as a reflection on her own experience of the trip, her loss and one of the productions that we saw together. First follows her personal reflection, then her earlier review of the performance.
***
It was the day before I was to depart for
Ireland, and I was on top of the world. I was on a natural high of excitement,
ready to set out on a great adventure. Then came the news that brought me
crashing in on myself – my friend Mikey had died suddenly at the young age of
twenty-two. How quickly my elation turned into sorrow, into an emotional storm
that left me drained and feeling as though there was no way I could continue
with the trip. I spent the entire day sobbing into my pillow, wishing that I
had spent more time with him, taken a second out of my day to comment on his
Facebook pictures – anything to let him know he was on my mind. I knew
that Mikey would want me to continue and have this experience regardless, but I
couldn’t help the feelings of guilt that plagued me. Guilt that I was going to
do something that Mikey would never have the opportunity to do himself,
that I would be out having the time of my life when I should be grieving
his loss. I made a decision that night that I would tell as few people about
his death as possible… I knew my grief would isolate me regardless, but the
last thing I wanted was for people to feel the need to pity me.
This loss shaped my perspective on the trip, it
wasn’t just a summer abroad for me. It was more than schoolwork and pub
hopping; it was an exploration of mortality and what that meant to me. Every
event took on a deeper meaning, which in turn took a great toll on my being. I
felt perpetually exhausted, both physically and emotionally. I was constantly
on the verge of tears. I felt alone in my grief, six thousand miles from
the people who gave a damn. But it a strange way, it was beautiful. I was
forced to face my grief alone, to walk through a dark moment in my life and
come out the other side. But I did it. And little by little, I began to
see small signs that I believe were his presence– a song that would play
suddenly, the lyrics seemingly a response to my thoughts. As the trip
went on I began to open up to others about my loss, to share my pain in order
to overcome it. I was never able to feel completely healed, but I became
strong enough to bear the sorrow. Ireland was a place of regeneration and
personal introspection for me, a place where I found my strength, a place I will
never forget – and I know that Mikey was there with me for every moment
of it.
***
When discussing the great
theatrical works of Ireland, nearly all the pieces mentioned are ones in which
the role of the audience is clearly defined – we are spectators, watching the
world before us unfold; however, in What
the Folk! the lines of audience and performer are blurred. The goal of this
piece is not to create a spectacle, but rather to examine the deeper and more
personal purpose of art. It explores the theme of folk and tradition in 21st
century, and what this means to our modern culture. Folk, as an expression of traditional
culture, still resonates among the Irish population today – it is for the
people and by the people. Folk is then, in essence, family. By incorporating
the audience into the performance, the actors were successfully able to evoke
the tightknit feeling of family and community in and among all involved.
The piece does not take place on
a stage, nor even in a theater, but in a house located in a residential
district of Cork. The audience members are invited into the home as if they
were guests, and the group is limited to a small number of people; fifteen at
most. The home is furnished to look like any other home would – inviting and
warm, not a typical theatrical space. Thus this exemplifies the theme of folk being family by evoking a sense of community and closeness between the
performers and the audience. The
performers are not playing formal characters, but rather themselves as
characters – with their own personal attributes on display. They do not wear
costumes that are apparent as such, but rather clothes that they might wear in
an everyday setting. This in conjunction with the set creates the illusion that
the conversations are organic and unscripted, allowing the performance to flow
freely into the realm of reality.
The plot centers on the theme of folk as an
integral part of family and community, and seeks to explore how this works in a
modern context. At the start of the performance, the actors pose the question
directly: what is folk? Throughout the experience, the cast involve the
audience in very performed (yet seemingly spontaneous) interactions, starting with serving tea in the dining room,
having a bit of fun dancing in the living room, and even sharing intimate
personal stories when the larger group broke off into smaller ones to explore
different rooms in the house. These actions and deliberate choices lead the
viewers to come to the conclusion that “folk” can be defined as closeness and family well before the performers overtly announce this perceived
definition at the end.
The
performers of the piece are members of the National Folk Theater of Ireland,
being not only actors but dancers and singers. As representatives of Irish
folk, they found it important for the audience to “be part of the conversation”
(Cork Midsummer Festival Program). They
chose to focus on finding the culture of their nation, through art, by
incorporating the audience into the personal details of their experience with
folk dance and working with the National Folk Theater, stating that folk
traditions are an important aspect of the nation’s history and should still be
practiced and celebrated today. They discussed the difference between
competitive and traditional Irish Dance, allowing the audience a glimpse at how
the traditions are changing and becoming commodified.
On a personal level, I was
greatly affected by their goal of demonstrating that folk is part of family,
and that it is alive and thriving within the people of today. I was mesmerized
by their ingenuity of staging the piece in a house. As a writer, the way the
production was handled got me contemplating how I might utilize these methods
in my own work – and to question whether this would be a successful piece in
the states. The intimacy of the audience played a major role in creating the
overall feel of What the Folk! and I
wonder how the experience would be different with a different group of people.
Perhaps then, folk is family – but what “family” means or how the themes affect
people varies according to the individual.
At the time of the showing, I
had recently lost a very good friend of mine in a sudden and painful way. When
the performers began speaking of their deceased friend, it hit a nerve. I felt
as though these people were grieving with me.
Cerebrally I knew that this was not the case; they were not grieving for
my friend but for their own, yet through this experience we were connected in a
universal emotion. I felt as though these people were stand-ins for the family that
I was unable to grieve with, that they were now functioning as my family and
that even though we did not know the other’s lost friend we were able to feel
empathy and connect on a deep level. That is folk – folk is connecting with the
community of people around you, with embracing the humanity and emotions of
others and connecting in some way, be it simple or profound.
No comments:
Post a Comment