That’s Life: Among the Trees

With support from Creative Ireland

Imagine that the wind in the trees whispers prophecies and in this encounter you hear them and know that these are the trees of  ancient wisdom.  Poet Mary Madec and four co-authors from the That’s Life creative writers group in Gort, Mary Kinsella, Áine Nolan, Andrew Quinn and Lorraine Mahon invite you into the spirit world of the trees drawing from the Greeks and the Druids as they imagined them long ago.

Together they have created voices for the Oak, the Ash and the Apple tree in this time of turmoil for the world.  Using the myth of Eurydice (the wife of Orpheus) they explore her journey as tree nymph or dryad, the strongest tree spirit of all.  She is pursued by Aristaeus, the greedy beekeeper who wants to possess her beauty and strength and causes her death. His bees die and he begins to see the error of his ways.  This suite of poems with its chorus has a gentle narrative of how we can be more accountable to the trees and the world of nature around us.  The poems are performed by Vanessa Earl and the videography is by Alison McDonnell-White.

 This short performance will be followed by a Q&A.

That’s Life is an award-winning arts and personal development program of the Brothers of Charity Services, Galway. People with intellectual disability have opportunities to discover and realise their artistic potential through working with established artists and participating in a wide range of high-quality arts programs.