This show is a true celebration of life, a complete and utter joy from start to finish. I’ll be popping a request in my will immediately. Summary
Rating
Unmissable!
When I was five years old, my Mum took me to Galway to visit her friend. I have limited memories of the trip but my Mum tells me the story of when I, a very well behaved child who was stickler for the rules, wandered off without her. She found me in a music shop, drawn in by the trad music playing inside. There’s something about it that’s always called to me, that led me to go to Irish Dance lessons in South London, to obsess over Riverdance and to pick up the violin.
All this is a long-winded way of saying that when I heard about Wake, the show that The Irish Times dubbed “Riverdance for Club Queens”, I knew I had to be there. Trad musicians are playing on stage as the audience filters in, winning me over instantly, and the stage has touches of the Riverdance set about it, with steps leading up to a large circle of light on the back wall. But nothing prepared me for what was to follow.
It’s hard to know where to start with Wake, at one point my Mum remarks that it’s like being at Glastonbury, and this is an excellent description. It’s the quirkier fields of Glastonbury meets Cirque du Soleil meets a trad night in the pub meets club culture. It’s a celebration of what it means to be alive whilst reflecting on the grief that comes with it. It’s trad Irish music and dance, with giant pink balloons on their heads. It’s acrobatics with subdued club anthems, infused with trad harmonies. It’s honestly the most fun I’ve had at the theatre in a really long time.
It would be impossible to list all the acts and scenes that appear during the show within this review, and it would also be a shame to do so. The joy of this show is the surprises it chucks at you, shifting gear with startling speed but bringing you along for the ride.
Some particular highlights include the appearance of the English cousin, Duncan Disorderly (Emer Dineen), who has the entire audience roaring with laughter with his DJ button and retro dance moves. FELISPEAKS is the storyteller, holding the audience in the palm of her hand as she evokes strong emotions, talking about grief and the purpose of the wake. Her spoken words are captivating. And Michael Roberson’s performance mixing trad Irish dance with aerial acrobats is truly astounding.
As well as being a comedy show, dance show and all-round celebration of life, Wake does have its naughtier moments. The highlight of these has to be Lisette Krol’s truly astounding pole dance performance. Who’d have thought a trad violin would accompany a pole routine. It just works.
That’s the biggest triumph of Wake, it is truly bizarre at times yet it works. It’s a complete and utter joy to experience. Euphoric moments when we’re all dancing to 1997 club hit ‘Freed from Desire’ are met with rapturous applause, and so are moments when the trad musicians are given a quieter spotlight. A moment of stillness as we let the wonderful music pour over us.
This show is pure joy, I left the theatre aware that I hadn’t spent a moment of thought on the craziness of the outside world. Wake is a tonic for the soul. It will make you sob at its beauty, at the reflection it forces, then it will make you laugh so much you’re gasping for air. It respects Irish traditions but it turns them on their head, chucks some glitter at them, and brings the jig into 2025 with a bang.
You can read more about this show in our recent interview here.
Created by Jennifer Jennings, Philip McMahon and Niall Sweeney
Directed by Jennifer Jennings and Phillip McMahon
Composition, sound design and musical direction by Alma Kelliher
Choreography by Phillip Connaughton
Wake plays at Peacock Theatre until Saturday 5 April. It also plays at Manchester’s Aviva Studios from Thursday 17 – Monday 21 April
