At The Hawk's Well
Written by W B Yeats
Directed by Aoibhinn Healy
Performed in: The dlr Mill Theatre Studio and at six One Act Circuit venues between October and December 2017.
The Spring 2018 edition of the DLI Magazine featured Máirín O’Sullivan in Balally Players production of ‘At the Hawk’s Well’.
An old man climbs to a mystical well in a high and barren place everyday for fifty years, seeking to drink the magic waters of eternal life that one day will fill the well. The well is guarded by a woman of the Sidhe, a she-hawk. One day, on foot of a rumour told over too much wine, a young Cuchulain has sailed to Ireland to find this enchanted well and drink its waters.
A magical reawakening of one of Yeats’ ‘Four Plays for Dancers’. Through movement, sound and poetic language Balally Players will transport you to a land of mythology. Over one hundred years since it was first performed, this production is a creative re-imagining of the play while staying true to the Japanese Noh theatre which originally inspired it – a fresh and dynamic production to delight the senses and revitalize the soul.
'At the Hawk's Well' by William Butler Yeats was first performed in 1916 and is loosely based on the stories of Cuchulain. Yeats wrote five such plays about the mythological hero of ancient Ulster. This work was the first play written in English to incorporate aspects of the Japanese Noh Theatre.
Through movement, sound and poetic language this presentation of the play transports you to a land of mythology. It is a creative re-imagining of the play while staying true to the Japanese Noh theatre which originally inspired it.
One Act Finals in Letterkenny 1 to 3 December 2017'At the Hawk's Well', directed by Aoibhinn Finnegan, was awarded first place in four of the five festivals at which it competed and qualified for the All Ireland One Act Finals in Letterkenny at the beginning of December 2017, where it won the Adjudicator's Harlequin Award for Ensemble Music Work.
The play was performed at the following festivals on the One Act Circuit:
- Fri 27 October in Skerries - 1st Place
- Sat 28 October in Coolgreaney - 1st Place
- Sat 04 November in Naas - 1st Place
- Fri 17 November in Dundrum - 1st Place
- Sat 18 November in Ballymahon - 2nd Place
- 1-3 December, All Ireland Finals, in Letterkenny - Adjudicator's Award
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