Gaelic
shape-shifter focus of Banff concert
DAVE
STOBBE – REPORTER
Death,
immortality and a mythical character will be the foundation for a
unique music/prose performance to take place later this month.
Classical
guitar player Catherine Thompson and poet Monica Meneghetti have collaborated
to bring a unique blend of music and the spoken word to Banffites
Friday (Nov. 28).
“I
want to understand the old way of learning things,” said Thompson,
who speaks Gaelic and studied the craft of traditional story telling
in Northern Ireland.
Part
of understanding the ancient way of story telling is inventing an
ancient character for the performance. Thompson’s character
Mairghreg inghean uí Thaimhais (pronounced Mairag nee Havish)
is an ancient mythical Gaelic character who is a shape-shifting carrion-eater
found in ancient European folklore.
“She
is in the middle time of living,” said Thompson. The character
would be thousands of years old, trying to make sense of death and
immortality.
With a blend of modern folk songs and Scottish/Irish songs belonging
to a former age, Thompson’s character explores the modern world
in a nonlinear time fashion.
“She is singing them as if she were experiencing them,”
said Thompson, admitting she’s been fascinated with the concept
of time since she was a young child.
She
herself has an ancient look to her as she sips an espresso in her
sunroom, surrounded by ferns, bamboo and other foliage. Her long hair
blends in with a hair piece entwined with raven feathers to be used
by her character.
“She is trying to remember what life was like in the earliest
of times,” said the accomplished classical guitar player.
The
concert will take place in Banff ’s St. George’s In-the-Pines
Anglican Church, which provides a beautiful setting, and superb acoustics.
“Where else do you go to contemplate these issues,” adds
Meneghetti about holding the show in a church, “Is there such
a thing as mortality?”
“We will be in the same space but not necessarily interacting,”
said Meneghetti about how the show will look to the audience.
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