Over the past few years, I’ve had the good fortune to spend an increasing amount of time in Ireland, which has only made me more attuned to the vibrant Irish cultural happenings on offer here in NYC. (And, no, I don’t mean stepdancing.) There are lectures and readings from award-winning Irish authors at NYU’s Glucksman Ireland House, cutting-edge theater at the Irish Repertory Theatre, and all manner of Irish music, from trad to classical to rock. In November, I saw Galway’s award-winning Druid Theatre Company’s stark, breathtaking production of Samuel Beckett’s Endgame at the Irish Arts Center, located in a striking new building on the edge of the once predominantly Irish-American neighborhood of Hell’s Kitchen. What a privilege it was to experience the work of contemporary Irish artists without having to take a seven-hour flight.
Last Saturday, I returned to the Irish Arts Center to see “Bellow“, a sort of live-theater memoir about former All-Ireland button accordionist Danny O’Mahony and his life in music. Part confessional, part paean to music and the self-sacrifice it takes to master your craft, “Bellow” is ultimately about honoring tradition while embracing innovation – a tightrope musicians and artists have been walking for decades, if not millennia.
In one particularly revealing speech that rings true for musicians across all genres, Danny reflects: “I’ve used my music all through my life to give ease to myself. To give joy to myself. To give delight to myself. I’ve used my music to give all of those feelings to others. But there is a horrible aspect to music for me—there is a darkness for me in that very bright space. That space wasn’t a safe space, so music led me to danger.”
Produced by the Dublin experimental theater company Brokentalkers and presented as part of the ongoing Under The Radar theater festival, “Bellow” featured an electronically-centered score by Icelandic composer/producer Valegeir Sigurðsson – a once-familiar face in the NYC alt-classical scene – that amplified the narrative without ever feeling in-your-face.
On the downside, much of the evening O’Mahony seemed uncomfortable talking about himself – after all, he’s a musician not an actor – and the detailed recapitulations of the “piece”‘s development by Brokentalkers’ Gary Keegan often felt tedious. Still, this was a rare and compelling exploration of the inner life of a musician, with Danny’s various moments of crisis and triumph exquisitely enhanced by the movements of dancer Emily Kilkenny Roddy.
After 80 minutes of self-revelation, we finally got to hear Danny play an extended set on his accordion that was soulful, penetrating, and pure while Keegan and Roddy silently surrounded him with life-sized cutouts of his musical ancestors: a seisiún for the ages. It was one of those magical moments in the theater that you only rarely get at a concert, the kind that makes you wonder what you might be missing out on all of those nights out listening to music.
Fortunately, you don’t always have to choose between the two.
More pics on Instagram.