TEACHT I DTÍR: VOICES FROM IRELAND PARK created by Cathy Murphy and Autumn Smith, directed by Smith, with Eli Ham, Richard Harte, Viv Moore, Murphy and Aidan deSalaiz. Presented by MacKenzieRo at Eireann Quay (foot of Bathurst). Opens Wednesday (August 12) and runs to August 22, Monday-?Saturday, 7 pm. Pwyc. mackenziero.com. See listing.
As many as 38,000 Irish sailed to Canada in 1847 to escape the Irish Potato Famine.[rssbreak]
For many who left their homeland full of hope, the Atlantic crossing and its aftermath were as tragic as the life the immigrants left behind.
MacKenzieRo, Toronto’s Irish repertory theatre troupe, recounts that history in the environmental show Teacht i dTír: Voices From Ireland Park, a piece that gives a human face to history-book statistics. The Gaelic title means The Arrival.
“We were inspired by Rowan Gillespie’s five statues that stand in Eireann Quay at the foot of Bathurst Street,” says performer Cathy Murphy, who compiled material for the work with director Autumn Smith. “They represent those who came from Ireland, and have their counterparts on a Dublin quay: seven statues dedicated to the Irish who sailed to North America.
“The five Toronto statues range from hope to total despair,” she continues. “Their faces suggest stories that we wanted to tell in another medium. It’s fitting that we’re staging the show around the statues and a memorial wall, close to the spot where the Irish newcomers arrived in Canada.”
Drawing on the Toronto and Ontario archives, Murphy and Smith collected entries from journals, newspapers, city and ship records to create the script. The production, which combines physical theatre and text, examines intimate narratives that contribute to the lists and numbers of the public records.
“We want to give voices to the anonymous statistics and also tell a story that goes beyond that of a single family. The cold, hard facts are there, but we’ve juxtaposed them with the people affected by the journey and their attempt to find a new life in Canada.”
The show blends English and Gaelic many Irish only spoke the latter. A scene between a Canadian officer and an Irish couple suggests the couple’s alienation, because the officer (and most of the audience) can’t understand them.
“The episode suddenly brings the work into our world, for that sense of being the ‘other’ is still so true in the immigrant experience,” adds Murphy, who’s performed in previous MacKenzieRo productions bedbound and The Rake’s Progress.
Moving from Toronto’s Widows and Orphans Asylum to a ship filled with as many dead bodies as living ones, from fever sheds on King Street to newspaper offices where writers complain about the rowdy newcomers, Teacht i dTír relies on a pair of props to create atmosphere: a piece of sailcloth that transforms into a number of objects, and the bodhrán, an Irish drum.
“The bodhrán was the people’s instrument, so we’re using its beat to connect the audience to real figures rather than distanced general history. It can help us change a scene or punctuate a moment as we move from the personal to the large-scale.”
The script also makes striking use of a description of the potato blight. The infection has a parallel in the diseases that affected many of the Irish who landed here.
Just as important, notes Murphy, is the production’s use of silence.
“We present so much information, personal and statistical, that at times we just want to be still and let the material drop into place for viewers. There’s a certain strength and despair that can only be read in silence, and we want to give the audience a chance to feel it.”
