THURSDAY, MAY 14, 2026
Where We Bury The Bones
Production Photo: Dylan Vaughan
Like Joni Mitchell's Big Yellow Taxi but by way of experimental, eloquent, eclectic and understated art in many a form, John McIlduff and Kate Heffernan's Where We Bury The Bones, composed by Brian Irvine, is a brief but brilliant trip back to the past to face the future, here through song, dance, verse, visuals and wisdom newfound, re-found and profound. It's an unusual and excellent archaeological quest which simply reeks of artistic and aural detail, a feast of aesthetic admiration which carries almost certain reward in being rewound and replayed either in one's head or on the stage - not unlike a classically continental music box.
By drawing one's attention both to an archaeological quest, and before that, a famous big yellow taxi, I'm hinting at not only the excavational discoveries which define the wonder of Where We Bury The Bones but the lamentable aspects of a change in location which Joni Mitchell so bluntly yet so poignantly hinted at. Except here the context seems broadened. Even if a one-time "paradise" is paved for a "parking lot", it doesn't have to be a tragedy in its entirety – and I think that's what McIlduff, Heffernan and Irvine are getting at. The metaphorical paradise as what we imagine the past to be from a distance, the equally metaphorical parking lot as a routine, repetitive numbness – and Where We Bury The Bones is an explorative means of breaking that routine by examining the imagined.
Production Photo: Dylan Vaughan
The first of the excavations is a bone, one of several specimens found prior to the redevelopment of Kilkenny's Abbey Quarter. As part of our programmes, we are given cards describing each of the discovered specimens, which include a contaminated soil sample, a fossilised fruit pip and a fragment of wood. This is educational for us and for the pair who will, within the show, take part in the on-stage observation and investigation of each specimen, portrayed by actors and choreographers Cristian Emmanuel Dirocie and Stephanie Dufresne. Their accompaniment, and ours, is an atmospheric orchestra, informative video footage, some most impressive model work and the angelic tones of soprano Megan O'Neill, vocals which provide an eerie, ethereal backdrop to a most complicated but extraordinarily ambitious piece.
It is a lot to take in, but McIlduff, on directing duties as well as writing, unifies the potentially incongrous elements with a sure hand and the audience's attention never wavers, the mind of the production attuned to the discoveries, the heart with the performers. One could add that, in the middle of its historical narrative, Where We Bury The Bones is also about a duo who find themselves setting out to reach a mutual and potentially enduring connection with the assistance of the arts and an archive amble. Theirs is a journey that is as outwardly trusting as it is inwardly thoughtful, with each likely concluding that as the contradictory craziness and bewildering beauty beneath the ground and above it becomes more apparent, their bond with each other can be strong and lasting – a little like the strong bond and lasting memories that we have taken from the production, and continue to hold weeks after this staging of the event at Belfast's Lyric Theatre.
Simon Fallaha
A Dumbworld & Kilkenny Arts Festival production, Where We Bury The Bones was performed at Belfast's Lyric Theatre on Wednesday March 11. You can find more information about the show here.