I'm so excited to be able to announce that Bold Lip has been commissioned to create a piece of work for this years Cork Midsummer Festival, which for the first time will be going online! The Midsummer Monologues 'Solo le Quays', will be featuring the art forms I'm most passionate about; theatre, music and film.
I'm so lucky to have an incredible line up of Cork actors performing eleven original monologues I've written for them. Each character is named after a Cork location or iconic city landmark, and each monologue inspired by the inner thoughts we keep hidden as we pass each other by on our streets.
I think everyone deserves a lift from the story that has dominated our lives for so long, and the chance to escape for a while through fiction, and so for that reason the monologues will be unrelated in content to lockdown and coronavirus - although, contextually, they will fit into the current pandemic landscape. This aspect of the project was inspired by the thought of artists in Cork persevering and surviving through hard times, while also exploring my love of writing in the genres of comedy and tragedy.
The monologues will breathe and come to life between three music videos that will tell the story of 'Olive Plunkett', a character who is trying to navigate a break up on her own in lockdown. The music and lyrics will map Olive's emotional arc from rock bottom to renaissance, as we watch her "inner monologue" unfold in a stylised narrative from song to song.
The most important part of this project to me is "surrendering to possibility" because if the past year has taught me anything, it's how capable we all are of perseverance and innovation. And so in the spirit of that, I decided to persevere in this new and innovative performance landscape we find ourselves in, and combine the things I love most to create a visual piece of work that can be enjoyed by an audience from home. I hope there is something in The Midsummer Monologues for everyone, whether it be theatre, music, film or all three.
I truly love collaborating with other artists and creatives and I'm honoured to have such a wonderful team behind this project for the Cork Midsummer Festival 2021. You can visit https://www.corkmidsummer.com to find out more about this and other events!
See you in June, but until then - look at our gorgeous poster designed by the incredible Cork artist Holly Keating!
JCL
