Soup – blending art forms to explore memory and grief

Soup, a new show that explores grief in an Irish context, using live art and physical theatre, will be performed in an intimate setting in the city’s Black Box Theatre next Monday, October 3 at 8pm.

Created by choreographer and dancer Deirdre Griffin in collaboration with sound artist Craig Cox, it’s performed by Deirdre and was inspired by her mother Mary Heneghan.

Originally from Claremorris and living in Meath, Mary died from stomach cancer in 2013. A keen gardener and great cook, according to Deirdre, Mary’s illness left her unable to eat the nourishing food she created.

Since Mary’s death, Deirdre has been collecting the everyday reminders of their life together and in this 45-minute show she explores these, alongside the surreal experience of watching her mother’s body become something other; her sensation of detachment following Mary’s death; and a series of dreams charting her grief.

Deirdre describes Soup as a live diorama that celebrates her mother while considering her own relationship with the grief of Mary’s death.

She does this by including memory-inducing sensory material, such as the disembodied voices of radio presenters; the tactility of hair; the smell of a herb that may not exist and the warmth of home-made soup.

The Artistic Director of Dublin Fringe Festival, Ruth McGowan, described Soup, which premiered at the 2019 festival, as “a genre-bending performance that rewrites familiar experiences in thrilling, intimate new ways”.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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