Jun 24Jun 27, 2025
OONA DOHERTY
Specky Clark • French Premiere
THE SHOOTING STAR OF BELFAST RECOUNTS THE FAMILY STORY IN NORTHERN IRELAND, BETWEEN MYTHS AND CHANGE.
Oona Doherty had never told the story of her parents and forebears. The woman once a rebel with jagged movements has returned to her initial realism as related to the younger generation in Belfast, their attitude to violence and their expectations. Now that she has settled in France she can talk about her roots, background and childhood in Northern Ireland, a land of industry and farming, and look at her views on myths from the distant past. Specky Clark is described as a series of theatrical images from Oona Doherty’s investigation into her grandfather Clark, nicknamed Specky (for wearing spectacles). The audience encounters the working class of Belfast, the docks, the pigs in the backyard, slaughterhouses and the butcher’s shop run by her mother’s family. Here is an experience of that time and world, and she is the worthy custodian of that world.
Overtitled in French
Artistic direction Oona Doherty
Choreography Oona Doherty
in collaboration with les danseurs
Music Lankum (Irland), Cantu Tenore - Gavino Murgia (Sardinia)
Sound composition Maxime Fraisse
Dramaturgy Enda Walsh (Irlande)
Lighting design John Gunning
Sets Sabine Dargent
Costumes Darius Dolatyari
With 9 dancers
PRODUCTION OD WORKS
COPRODUCTION Ballet Preljocaj / CCN Aix- en-Provence (FR), Dublin Dance Festival & The Abbey Theater (IE), Sadler’s Wells London (UK), International Summer Festival Kampnagel (DE), Festspielhaus St. Pölten (AU), Théâtre de la ville Paris (FR), Tanz Köln (DE), MC2: Grenoble (FR), CCN-Ballet national de Marseille (FR), RESIDENCIES Ballet Preljocaj / CCN Aix- en-Provence, KLAP-Maison pour la Danse Marseille, CCN-Ballet national de Marseille (accueil studio) Avec le soutien de Culture Ireland et de l’Adami
