THAT DOUGHTY scion of Dundalk, the inimitable Jinx Lennon, takes to the stage at the upcoming Galway Theatre Festival with an electrifying new audio-visual performance - Man v Energy Vampire Behold - This S-S-Self Indulgence Gene.
The title is a phrase to conjure with in anyone’s book, so what can audiences expect from the production?
“I don’t think anyone who has seen my live shows will be too surprised by it, though it does see me move in a more theatrical direction,” Lennon declares. “The show is about creativity being the cure to keep one’s sanity especially in times like now when people are being bombarded by dread.
“The show aims to uplift while addressing the darker aspects of urban Ireland and surviving it by seeing it and acknowledging it. Hopefully people will find it entertaining and get them thinking about what is going on here through the cracked-mirror view of my lyrics.”
Lennon continues; “In this performance I perform lyrics/beats while my alter-ego the Free State Nova addresses the universal ailment of spiritual sickness and offers the cure through intrinsic creative spark. That’s what the show aims to do - uplift!uplift!uplift!
“Recently I read the book Man’s Search For Meaning by Victor Frankl and that put everything in context for me about brevity here on earth and getting out of the wallow of self defeat.
“In this theatre show within the performances themselves a recorded voice comments on themes concerning the songs in a method similar to William Burroughs’. This sets the scene much better than me talking to the audience through the microphone in the usual symbiosis performer/audience method.”
It was friends like actor Mikel Murfi who encouraged Lennon into essaying a more theatrical type of show and he is relishing the experience of working on it.
“Someone suggested I should do ‘Jinx the Musical’ and I answered ‘I’m no Andrew Lloyd Weber!’” he laughs, “but working on this has given me a real surge of excitement, I’m like a fella in the dark who’s found a light switch. The songs and spoken word pieces are a mix of new material specially written for this and a few things from my back catalogue. Hopefully audiences will get a kick out of it.”
Man v Energy Vampire Behold-This S-S-Self Indulgence Gene runs at Nun’s Island Theatre for two performances - Friday October 28 at 8pm and Saturday 29 at 1pm.
Tickets are €12/10 from the Town Hall on 091 - 569777 and www.tht.ie
