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National Celtic Folk Festival director Una McAlinden and Geelong actor Amanda LaBont\u00e9. Photo: SUPPLIED<\/p>\nA THEATRE project developed through the National Celtic Folk Festival will take it next development step overseas this year, after being invited to undertake an international residency in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n
Never Always Ever Was, written by Melbourne playwright Fleur Murphy, has been selected for a two-week residency and workshop in Belfast in February, which will culminate in a staged public reading at the Northern Ireland Science Festival.<\/p>\n
The project was commissioned by Portarlington\u2019s annual Celtic folk festival in partnership with Northern Ireland\u2019s c21Theatre Company. Its journey began at the 2025 festival with a public reading that was well-received by audiences.<\/p>\n
Spanning six decades from 1989 to 2049, the project traces the lives of people in vulnerable coastal communities, exploring themes of family, legacy and climate change.<\/p>\n
The work is performed by two people, one Australian and one Northern Irish actor, with both performers playing multiple characters across time and place.<\/p>\n
The production is directed by c21 founder Stephen Kelly, and local actor Amanda LaBont\u00e9 will represent Geelong in the Belfast residency, performing alongside a Northern Irish cast member.<\/p>\n
LaBont\u00e9 said working on the play in Northern Ireland would allow the creative team to deepen the work through direct engagement with its setting.<\/p>\n
National Celtic Folk Festival director Una McAlinden and Geelong actor Amanda LaBont\u00e9. Photo: SUPPLIED<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt\u2019s such a wonderful opportunity to work in Northern Ireland and immerse myself in the landscape where this play is set,\u201d she said. \u201cTo stand on those coastlines, absorb the sounds, smells and stories, and develop this work in partnership with international collaborators is incredibly exciting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Murphy and LaBont\u00e9 will travel to Northern Ireland for the residency, which will focus on further development of the script through workshops, rehearsal and place-based research before its public presentation.<\/p>\n
The National Celtic Folk Festival\u2019s international activity will also continue on the music industry front, with festival director Una McAlinden attending TradFest Dublin and Celtic Connections in Scotland.<\/p>\n
The events are among the largest winter Celtic music industry gatherings in the world, bringing together artists, presenters and producers from across the globe.<\/p>\n
Attending the events, McAlinden said, connects the Portarlington festival with a rich network of international arts organisations and artists.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the life of the festival, these relationships have grown into strong, enduring partnerships that continue to shape and strengthen both our festival and our creative community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany ideas for international collaborations have emerged from these meetings, and of course, I\u2019m also really looking forward to experiencing some of the best acts from across the world so we can bring them to Portarlington.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A THEATRE project developed through the National Celtic Folk Festival will take it next development step overseas this…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":688315,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-688314","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-northern-ireland","9":"tag-uk","10":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115874955583030489","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688314","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=688314"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/688314\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/688315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=688314"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=688314"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=688314"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}