Fuaigh was shown by National Theatre Scotland as part of its Home Away Festival, alongside a week of performances from Chicago, New Delhi, Brisbane, Dundee, Tomintoul and Glenlivet, Glasgow, Jamaica, the World Wide Web and Rio de Janeiro.
“Fuaigh centres around a traditional Gaelic Ceilidh. Using evocative song and dance, combined with striking visuals and a compelling narrative, the show will explore what happens when you leave behind your homeland and sail away to the metropolis. Fuaigh is an exciting new Gaelic theatre experience, promising a unique night at the theatre. Devised by an artistic team including celebrated singer and performer Gillebride McMillan, playwright and performer Rona MacDonald, visual artist and photographer Judith Parrott and director and writer John Binnie”.
Fuaigh is performed in Gaelic and English.
The audience are invited to join us at the fire towards the end of the play. They bring with them something they would like to save from the fire, or an acknowledgement of their family line. A short clip can be viewed on this link at Vimeo
Review by Tom Chadwick, Chairman of Enterprise Music Scotland:
Fuaigh is a truly excellent show! Rona, Judith, John and Gillebride should be extremely proud of what is in my view a masterpiece. I would give it at least seven stars. The singing was really lovely and the stories and images warm and beautiful. The funeral scene and the Paisley bard trying to burn his work were really emotional, but the warmth that shone brightly through the entire event, the brilliant mixing of your singers with an obviously enthusiastic and encaptured audience during the dancing etc. really made Fuaigh what I guess it actually means. The lovely photography and inspired use of the beautifully smooth stones. The dram at the ceilidh. We really did feel as though we were from South Uist ourselves! You made a big impression on us all which I am sure will live in our memories. You also attracted a very large and one of the most diverse audiences that we have been in and left us all with some Gaelic.
Outstanding!
Thank you very much indeed!
Supported by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation. In association with British Council and in partnership with Glasgow Life. With funding from National Theatre Scotland, Creative Scotland, Bord na Gaidhlig, Traditional Arts Fund, Gaelic Books Council, and The Mod.
Meanwhile, Grounded is still touring with Flying Arts Alliance in Australia. Coming up at:
Gallery 107 Dalby 9 January – 23 February 2017
Goondiwindi Art Space – 11 March – 22 April, 2017
Mundubbera Regional Art Gallery 5th May 2017 – 28th June 2017
Gladstone Regional Art Gallery 22 July to 26 August, 2017
Tableland Regional Art Gallery, Atherton Dec’17 – Jan ‘18
You can book Grounded, and other great shows here: http://flyingarts.org.au/exhibitions/exhibitions-by-request/
Feedback from the comments book in Brisbane can be viewed via this link: Comments from Grounded at Judith Wright Centre of Contemporary Arts. And for a small selection of the feedback from the same show in Glasgow, during Festival 2014, XX Commonwealth Games, you can find comments here.
You can link to information about the exhibition at these links: Introductory panel in Englishand Introductory panel in Gaelic.
For those new to the blog, the Grounded exhibition, a commission by Glasgow Life for Festival 2014 XX Commonwealth Games, has also shown since at An Lanntair Art Gallery in Stornoway, Isle of Lewis, as a partner event at Hebtember Festival.
The Colour of Language arts educational project came out of Grounded’s showing at An Lanntair in Stornoway, Scotland. The Colour of Language frieze is growing and now almost big enough to cover a wall at An Lanntair Gallery in Stornoway, with the latest additions by some children from Hazelwood North school in Gippsland, Australia. If you are interested in joining in you can contact me through this blog here.
The story of my time in jail in Alice Springs whilst on artist residency for Grounded, the subsequent lack of conviction in court, and implications of this story for the local Aboriginal population, can be linked to here. Then here for the court process following arrest. And a response to the Alice Springs jail post by Professor Smith can be found here.
Three audiovisuals that were part of Grounded, (Wadlu-gnana; Freumhaichte; Who Cares for Country) can be watched here
The book that accompanied the exhibition can be found at Exhibition explanatory book
Educational workshops run at An Lanntair Gallery in conjunction with Grounded can be viewed here and here.
Joe’s educational video of me talking about the exhibition can be viewed here.
Photos of the Glasgow opening event are here. Glasgow workshops, talks and exhibition details are here. And the Digital Resources pages of the blog for further information are here and here.
An interview about my work with journalist Jim Gilchrist is on the Struileag website which can be read at Jim Gilchrist’s review or linked to here.
A review by Dr Kate Robinson can be found here. And you can listen to a cut down recording of “In Conversation: Connecting through Culture” at this Vimeo link. (16 mins.) (One of our afternoon events at Glasgow Festival 2014 showing). Or listen to some music from one of our Glasgow afternoon events here.
A radio interview with BBC Radio Scotland Voices of the Commonwealth, which explores some of the concepts behind Grounded, is now available for listening to here.
My artist biography can be linked to here and here and my personal website is here
The introductory page for the blog can be found here.
The Grounded residency diary entries begin here in Scotland and then in Australia here. This is a record of my thoughts whilst gathering the material. These thoughts and images inform the production but are not part of the final exhibition.
Some other sites that link to Grounded can be found here
Funder acknowledgements can be viewed here
Grounded 