A lyrical mother-daughter story set to a gently immersive score and told through glimpses of memorabilia and fragments of memory.
In this nostalgic, funny and moving show writer-performer Michelle Read has collaborated with composer Brian Keegan to create a portrait of her mother in words, music and pictures.
‘Margaret is the soul of the house, guardian of the money, a hoarder of anything that might be useful…’
The beautiful score – composed by Brian Keegan and performed live by local string quartet Donegal Camerata with Victor Yélamo – creates a subtle atmosphere of musical echoes, which alongside glimpses of old photographs, retellings of childhood memories and the challenges of living with Alzheimers, evokes a portrait of Margaret as a younger and older woman in this highly relatable and affectionate personal story.
‘…told without even a hint of sentimentality, slowly building a picture of a woman… who created a world for herself and her family from the most common items found in any house… who emerges as a formidable personality, able to make her own decisions about life.’
Show of the Week **** Michael Moffet, Irish Mail on Sunday
Sometimes in a gesture or a turn of phrase, sometimes in a cherished object or glimpsed in an old photograph, a loved one reappears. On A House Like A Fire explores a relationship through the shifting repetitions of long term memory and explores the importance of all the places where memory resides.
“In this beautifully crafted piece of writing and performance, set to music by co-director Brian Keegan, Read fills in the other gaps, flashes of memory that make up a person and a life”
Emer O’Kelly, Sunday Independent
Michelle Read and Brian Keegan are An Grianan Artists in Residence, June 2022
