Connemara based Twisted Lane Productions are bringing their breathtaking brand of spectacle theatre to Cairde Sligo Arts Festival this summer.
Aoife and Mark Curry always aim to excite, intrigue and astonish audiences with the highest quality, one of a kind spectacle experience.
The duo have been working internationally on large scale circus and spectacle shows since 2014 and have worked with companies such as Cirque Du Soleil, Franco Dragone and MGM.
They are excited to bring this extensive experience in large scale spectacle into their own work and to the Irish audience.
The artists will be in residence in the lead up to and during the festival which gives them time and space to research and develop the creation of a spectacle performance.
Twisted Lane’s work will be inspired by a traditional circus, and set in a mature forest.
This is part of a longer creation process and Sligo audiences will have the opportunity to see the work in progress at this year’s arts festival.
Cairde Festival Director Tara McGowan said, “We are excited to work with Aoife and Mark who we have been developing a relationship with since their return to Ireland in 2021.”
“We are very interested in their artistic background and experience; their way of working, their connection with landscape and their artistic ideas.”
Cairde Sligo Arts Festival is one of two Irish festivals leading projects as part of EFFEA – the European Festival Fund for Emerging Artists.
It is this European funding which has allowed the festival to host the Connemara artists in residence.
“The EFFEA award provides a perfect opportunity for us to support them at the starting point of the development of a large-scale piece of work,” Tara explained.
Cairde has also partnered with PASSAGE Festival in Helsingør, Denmark – one of Northern Europe’s largest street theatre festivals and Oerol Festival on the island of Terschelling in the Netherlands.
The latter has come to be known as one of the most exceptional landscape arts festivals in Europe.
It has been described as ‘Imagine the Edinburgh Fringe Festival marooned on an island in the North Sea’.
Mark and Aoife’s work will be showcased at both of those festivals once it is completed in 2024/25.
