Equinox - Bog Beauty

Rose Lawless shares two one-woman stories in the town hall inspired by Newgrange. The first, A Strange Annunciation, tells the tale of a modern day Solstice journey. This takes place on Saturday 9th November at 3pm.The second, Bog Beauty, relates the story of a cathartic Equinox moment in the Pandemic of 2020. This takes place on Sunday 10th November at 3pm.

These are two separate works that are complimentary to each other. They can be viewed separately or as a series. Each must be booked separately.

At 7pm after both plays, as a special event, Rose invites the audience to visit her home which she has transformed into an art installation called Newgrange Chapel. The capacity on this post show event is very limited and a separate ticket is required (see below).

2. Equinox - Bog Beauty

With the Pandemic of 2020, Filia and Diarmaid find themselves again ‘stuck with one another.’
However, the silence of Covid opens the doorway to nature. They go on a trip to Limerick, where they both have roots.

Their histories go back further than their grandparents. With another coincidence, Filia discovers the ancient myth of the Goddess Macha and her weird curse on the men of Ireland.

Filia feels this legend is key to her Celtic Vision Quest. It’s very weirdness seems to be par for the course of her very strange adventure.

Is she being led on some kind of crazy Jungian journey of the unconscious (against her will, like the ‘f’ off Mary) to integrate Ireland’s different historical legends and spirituals beliefs as part of a bigger picture of who she is?

And are her sleepless nights playing a part in this struggle for greater understanding?

In Bray, Filia’s mural work spirals onto the walls of her home. She paints through the dark, meeting the morning with motifs of Newgrange.

The neighbours peer in the windows and scratch their heads. One says that it looks like a ‘H-block protest.’

Has Filia now become the weird woman of the neighbourhood? Diarmaid thinks so. Meanwhile he is hired to mind a lurcher called ‘Beauty’ on the wild bogs of Wicklow.

This turns out to bring more threat of danger than just a dog-walking job.

Then as a story of warfare on the boglands pushes Diarmaid to tests of his courage, Ollie, their friend, is out on the streets, as part of a worsening national homeless crisis.

He begins a fairytale hunt for a long-lost father, which takes a devastating turn.

Filia, still sleepless, continues with the layering of spirals on her house. Led by the ghosts of ancestors who laboured for generations to build cathedrals in stone, her quest to create an art installation seems like a continuation of their search for light. Filia wonders whether the curse of the Goddess Macha is a symbol of a deeper need to heal a community lost in violence on the boglands – and if her Jungian journey to rebuild her house is linked to Ollie and her country’s larger search for home.

A finale with a modern-day Equinox moment brings catharsis to this cast of characters, who discover that they are as much in need of light and miracle as their cave art ancestors five thousand years ago.

Link to second Newgrange show: 1. Solstice - A Strange Annunciation

About Rose Lawless

Rose wrote her first play, ‘The Romantics’ at age 20 and produced it in a warehouse on Dublin’s Liffey. She studied acting in Focus theatre’s Stanislavsky studio. She became a comic and was a finalist in BBC Newcomer’s Comedy awards and Channel 4’s So You think You’re Funny. She then found her voice in the theatrical art of cabaret, writing and delivering comedic, political and poetic songs with her troupe, ‘The Fallen Angels.’ They won Best Show in the Spiegeltentin the Dublin Fringe.

She yearly performs Molly Bloom from Joyce’s Ulysses, in venues like the Joyce’s fictional Sweny’s pharmacy, The Mermaid Arts Centre and the Irish president’s Áras an Uachtaráin. She studied art in BAEC and has painted murals on Bray’s Albert Walk. For this show, she has created an autobiographical art installation in her home called, ‘Newgrange Chapel.’ She has worked with the Yarn Festival on three previous occasions: With her cabaret show, and with two other one-woman ‘Yarns,’ The Sunflower and the Lion, and A Strange Annunciation.

Artwork by Rose Lawless, photo by Ally Nolan