In Ireland, a wake is no ordinary farewell. It’s a ritual of release where music, stories, and laughter spill through the night into the dawn as community gathers to honour endings and embrace new beginnings.
WAKE takes that spirit and transforms it into a contemporary spectacular. Come for a kaleidoscopic variety show featuring world-class Irish talent – from pole dancers and breakdancers to tap and aerial artistry, from slam poets to live musicians. This is tradition spun sideways, a riot of artistry and energy that juxtaposes the ancient and the now.
Read on to discover more about WAKE and its creator and director, Jennifer Jennings.
How would you describe your show to someone who knows very little about it?
We Irish like to think we’re quite good at telling stories. And music. And Irish dancing. And death. The Irish wake – an ancient funeral ritual – is not only a deep immersion in grief and honouring of the dead, it is also historically an all-night gathering full of ritual, music, stories, party pieces, hijinks, community spirit and collective catharsis. It is also, it turns out, a fantastic backbone for a theatre show. WAKE brings together Irish superstars of tap, trad music, circus, cabaret and storytelling through a prism of club culture and queer culture to give audiences a wild night out that is as silly and sexy as it is moving and profound.
What makes it stand out and why should people see it?
It’s a brilliant night out, first and foremost. Extreme talent on stage busting a gut to give audiences the time of their lives. But in the midst of all of the chaos, silliness and sexiness, it will open up your heart and let you grieve in just the way that you need to.
How long was the process from idea to writing to stage? Any challenges along the way?
It was a very very very long process – a difficult ‘second album’ after the success of a previous show we had called RIOT. The process was interrupted by the pandemic, which ultimately shaped the show and made it all make sense. Bad for the world – good for the show!
Please tell me about what attracts you to the Sydney festival and why you love performing there.
We consider Sydney our second home. Both myself and my co-Director Phillip have lived there over the years, and we have toured quite a bit with various shows beyond that. Any opportunity to get down there to be honest. Sydney Festival is of course the gold standard in terms of how well artists are treated, the calibre of other work you are presented alongside, and the sheer fabulousness and fun of the whole endeavour.
How would you describe your relationship with the audience and what do you love the most about live performance?
The audience is absolutely central to the work — every moment on the stage is created entirely with the audience in mind. And beyond that, pieces like this only live when the audience arrives — they are the final piece of the puzzle. When making a piece like this, we ask ourselves: what do people need right now, in this moment? How can we sooth, surprise, shock, scandalise even, while providing the ingredients for connection and catharsis. Theatre could be seen as the last analogue space, and when that magic co-creation happens in the room between audience and performers — well, there is nothing like it in the world.
Who would you say has been your biggest inspirations?
Not a person but a place — I religiously went to Glastonbury every year for two decades to get my fill of wildly inventive art, village-scale installations, and monumental music. It’s too expensive now, so attracts a slightly different audience and has lost a lot of that subversive edge….but not all of it. In terms of a who, shout out to our art director Niall Sweeney, who I actually wrote my masters thesis about in 2003, years before he became one of my closest collaborators and greatest provocateurs.
What are three things that would surprise people to learn about you
I was brought over to Australia in 2011 to help start a festival called Harvest, which ran in Parramatta Park in Sydney, as well as in Melbourne and Brisbane. One of the areas I programmed nearly got shut down by the NSW Police. Dum dee dum…
My parents let my older sister name me, but coincidentally it’s also the name of the Belgian Entry to the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest.
I once ran a half marathon but at the finish line they awarded me the medal for a full marathon, clearly because I looked so wrecked. Maybe that one is not so surprising…
Ich bin zu einem Viertel deutsch.
Finally, what would you like audiences to take away from the show?
To walk home after the show a little lighter, to feel a whole lot better about their fellow humans, and if they are grieving – to feel that they are not alone, that the sun will rise tomorrow…and the beat goes on.
Created by Dublin trailblazers THISISPOPBABY (RIOT, 2018), this dynamic ensemble is unapologetically alive. It has wowed audiences across the globe, praised as “a raucous, pole-dancing rollercoaster”(The Guardian) and “Riverdance for club queens” (The Irish Times).
Both spectacle and communion, this is a celebration of life, loss and wild joy, showcasing the very best of contemporary Irish culture. Step inside, and live.
January 14 – 25
