Today Sunday, March 27, as darkness falls across The Mall, If walls could talk, opens a door to olden days, revealing past stories hidden beneath the surface of the town.
Castlebar was once the epicentre of British rule in Mayo and The Mall was home to key institutions of colonisation - the prison, courthouse and barracks - that controlled the native Irish people.
Its soil and stones are steeped in so much history. Its landscape and buildings are a repository for memories of the lives that passed through them. If these walls could talk, what secrets would they tell?
This tale is inspired by a collection of stories from locals about the park, the buildings and their memories of The Green and Mall that confront some of the darker narratives of Castlebar, as well as some of the most beautiful aspects which deserve celebration and remembrance.
But only by exhuming the ghosts of the past and laying some of our more shadowy histories bare, can we really come to understand the nature of this place and our relationship to it.
Join as Elaine Mears disrupts space and time by interweaving people’s lives and stories from different ages, into one synchronised moment. Encounter elements of both traditional and experimental theatre in this outdoor sensory experience.
If walls could talk is a theatre work in progress by Elaine Mears, associate artist with the Linenhall Arts Centre. It is an outdoor show and headphones will be supplied to the audience. This work is funded by Arts Council Ireland and the Linenhall Arts Centre.
Limited tickets are available through The Linenhall Arts Centre website. For more stories and photos of The Mall and Green in Castlebar follow If walls could talk on Facebook and ‘mselainemears’ on Instagram.
