Cessair

30th June - 3rd July 2021

Chamber Square, The Civic Theatre, Tallaght and online

Booking Details Coming Soon

A participatory performance and sound installation of over 100 female stories at The Civic Theatre and Chamber Square.

Tallaght Community Arts and SoloSIRENs are currently working on the dissemination of their upcoming participatory performance and sound installation 'Cessair', directed by Jenny Macdonald.

Cessair - The Story

Cessair is a story. Cessair is a little known story. It’s an Irish myth of a fierce and feisty woman who leads a brave journey in a time of floods. It is one woman’s story, and it is every woman’s story. Cessair is denied a place on her grandfather’s boat. Rejected and dejected, she regroups and builds three boats of her own, asking for help from 149 other women. She is a leader, and she knows how to work in a team. She has vision and she inspires others; she also admits that she needs help and that she doesn’t have all the answers. She is the kind of leader our world needs.

As the three ships journey from the north of Africa to Ireland, two are lost. 100 stories do not continue.

SoloSIRENs in partnership with Tallaght Community Arts are remaking this journey as a sound installation and performance at the Civic, Tallaght and Chamber Square in July, 2021.

As part of the process, we are collecting 100 female, audio stories from South County Dublin, other parts of Ireland, and every continent of the world. We want to share the stories of difficult journeys, unsung heroines, deep love and deep care. We want to add one hundred female voices to a world that still doesn’t listen enough to women. And we want to hear the stories that haven’t been heard enough.

The stories represent the breadth of what it means to be female. We are collecting stories from women of diverse ages, cultures, bodies, and sexual identities. During the production week, we will collect 50 more stories from our audiences-stories of where we are now and the future we hope to create. We will continue to share all the stories in the months following the production on our website.

It is time to hear a wide range of stories from a wide range of storytellers. It is time for women to have autonomy over how their stories are told.

'Cessair' Team

Director - Jenny Macdonald

Producer - Jennifer Webster

Sound Designer - Martha Knight

Musician/Composer - Farah Elle

Choral Facilitator - Pauline Dalton

Choreographer - Deirdre Murphy

Lighting Designer/Technician - Ciara Meehan

Sound Engineer - Fia Kavanagh

Production Manager - Sorcha Shanahan

Filmmaker - Annette Barnaville

 

SoloSIRENs Collective

Ibi Akigbogun, Melody Chadamoyo, Neltah, Chadamoyo,  Sumaira Chady, Aoife Dempsey, Pauline Dalton, Farah Elle, Sailí Áine Ní Mhurchú, Alma Sanchez, Nicola Whelan.

For Tallaght Community Arts

Director - Tony Fegan, Administration - Ruth Clancy, Outreach - Sharon Doyle

Listen to the story of ‘Cessair’

narrated by SoloSIRENs Community Collective

Do you have a story to tell?

If you would like to contribute a story for our installation, we would love to hear from you, please email us at solosirens@gmail.com. We host regular online story workshop to help you develop and record your story.

 

We are delighted to share with you a selection of recorded stories by SoloSIRENs Collective members that will form part of the 'Cessair' sound installation.

cessair image 03 farah

Farah Elle

Farah tells her own story, and reflects on how it really feels to be Cessair.

cessair image 04 Alma

Alma Sanchez

Alma embarks on a journey, inspired by a yearning for change, an adventurous spirit and a couple of towering chimneys.

About SoloSIRENs

Tallaght Community Arts is delighted to partner with SoloSIRENs on this exciting project.  SoloSIRENs is a new theatremaking and producing collective based in Tallaght. Its core team is director Jenny Macdonald, producer Jennifer Webster and emerging theatre artist and assistant producer Martha Knight.  SoloSIRENs amplifies women’s voices onstage and beyond. We are committed to widening access to the arts for all people in our society and to addressing the systemic discriminations that intersect with gender inequality. Our work is feminist, anti-racist and non-hierarchal. We have a universal design officer who ensures that all our productions incorporate accessibility for all people from their inception.  To find out more about SoloSIRENs please visit www.solosirens.info

Cessair – a SoloSIRENs / Tallaght Community Arts project in association with The Civic, led by Creative Director Jenny Macdonald and produced by Jennifer Webster.

Cessair 2021 is funded by Tallaght Community Arts, The Civic Theatre, South Dublin County Arts Office and the Arts Council of Ireland.