ARTS Fidgety feet, fairies and dramatic frolics at festival

Flying fairies and colourful characters are waiting behind a secret entrance into the woods at Westport House.


Fidgety feet, fairies and dramatic festival frolics


Áine Ryan

SHHH! This is a big secret. At the bottom of Church Lane in weird and wonderful Westport there is a creaky old door that hasn’t been opened for over 100 years. Watch out: On the other side is the sylvan and woody world of Buglite.
So eat your heart out, Alice in Wonderland, Mad Hatter and Cheshire Cat because early next month, during the 36th Westport Arts Festival, families from Westport and beyond are all set to disappear into the mysterious and wonder-filled world of Fidget Feet.
Buglite is the only fairy left in the entire world that hasn’t become a character in a computer game.  
Now Buglite’s story is set to be told in ‘A Fairies’ Tail’, a promenade theatrical circus performance piece which, as the autumnal leaves begin to fall, will lure audiences through the magical woods of Westport House for several performances. Suitable for all the family, this outdoor extravaganza is a mixture of aerial circus and compelling drama.
“This isn’t a once-upon-a-time story, this is a happening-right-now story. You know fairies are the stuff of imagination right? Well, when children’s imaginations are taken up with computer games and techno thingies, we fairies have really got to wiggle our tails. Or is it tales?”
Renowned internationally for its ability to stretch the boundaries between several art forms, including dance, aerial skills, music and circus, Fidget Feet has fast become Ireland’s premier Aerial Dance Theatre Company.
Of course, Fidget Feet isn’t the only dramatic offering at the  Westport Arts Festival 2011, which runs from October 1 to 9. Hometown stalwart St Patrick’s Drama Group is all set to stage the Pulitzer Prize winning play, ‘Doubt’. A parable by John Patrick Shanley, it is set in the fictional St Nicholas’s Church School in the Bronx, New York, in the autumn of 1964. The drama unfolds after the rigidly conservative school Principal, Sister Aloysius accuses the Pastor, Father Flynn of improper conduct.
Directed by Fintan McMahon and produced by Marion MacMahon, the play – which ends with an unexpected twist – features performances by Nuala Currid and Living-section fitness columnist Paul O’Brien. 
The festival’s dramatic pot-pourri also includes Little John Nee as an unlikely gangster in ‘The Derry Boat’. Praised as ‘the highlight of the Dublin Festival’ by the Sunday Independent, the play celebrates the strong and vibrant links between Donegal and Scotland down through the years.
Meanwhile, an hour-long production of Shakespeare’s ‘Macbeth’ encapsulates the magic, madness and murder of this classic play – ideal for all students and fans of the Bard of Avon.
Other theatre offerings in the packed programme include the puppetry of The Dog and String theatre company, with its production of ‘The Wishing Tree’; while ‘Small Maggie and the Enormous Dinosaur’ offers young children an interactive puppetry experience.
Furthermore, as a bilingual treat, ‘An Capall agus an CaisleΡn’, by Cups and Crowns Theatre Company, weaves together traditional and non-traditional art forms in a giddy show about miscommunication.

For more information or to buy tickets (adults, €12; concessions, €10; school children, €8), visit westportartsfestival.com. To keep up with the latest news find the festival at facebook.com/westportarts or twitter.com/westportarts.

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