The line up for the official opening of Seamus Heaney HomePlace weekend has been announced.
Fifteen events will take place across four days in Bellaghy. It runs from Friday 30 September to Monday 3 October.
There'll be music, theatre, poetry and song.
All the performances will celebrate the life and work of Heaney, and they'll involve leading poets, musicians and actors.
The weekend includes three specially commissioned pieces of music and theatre, beginning with a world premiere on the Friday. A nine-piece ensemble of globally-renowned traditional musicians from Eastern Europe, America, Greece, Scotland, Japan and Ireland - cultures and countries that have been closely associated with Seamus Heaney’s life and work - will perform ‘Lifecycle’.
And, singer and songwriter, Paul Brady, gives a very special performance in the first of a series of concerts The Home Key which will take place across the opening year.
On the Saturday evening there'll be a re-telling of the story of Beowulf, as translated by Seamus Heaney, and presented by Tron Theatre group.
Sunday evening brings a unique musical experience to audiences when internationally acclaimed cellist, Christina Poltéra, plays the famous 300-year-old cello ‘Mara’ for a performance of Bach’s first three cello suites.
The recital, entitled Bach to Broagh, will be intercut with readings of Seamus Heaney’s poems, including In Time, the last poem he wrote in August 2013, while listening to the music of Bach at the Proms.
The weekend’s inaugural poetry reading will bring together Michael Longley and Sinéad Morrissey, and two special discussions will see Tom Paulin, Christopher Reid and Julie O’Callaghan Remembering Seamus on the Saturday, followed by Pater Fallon, Olivia O’Leary and John Horgan on the Sunday.
Other weekend highlights include The Wild Dog Rose, combining the talents of The Chieftain’s Paddy Maloney and Tríona Marshall with the poet John Montague, and readings from All Through The Night, a new anthology of night poems and lullabies edited by Marie Heaney.
Readers will include Marie Heaney, Gerald Dawe and Michael Longley with performances by Bronagh Gallagher and Iaona Petcu Colan.
Closing the celebrations is a performance of The Burial at Thebes by the Magherafelt-based Off The Cuff Theatre Group.
The celebratory opening weekend is also a prelude to the year-long artistic programme, ‘12 Months, 12 Books’, based on the 12 original volumes of Seamus Heaney’s poetry. It begins with Death of a Naturalist in October, and finishes with Human Chain in September 2017.
The core feature of HomePlace is a permanent exhibition about the life and literature of Seamus Heaney, arranged over two floors. The centre is filled with personal artefacts, family photographs, video recordings from friends, neighbours, world leaders, cultural figures, and the voice of the poet himself reading his own words. The exhibition is interactive using the latest touch screen, video and audio technology and includes a recreation of the poet’s Dublin study.
For full programme details and to book, call the Seamus Heaney HomePlace box office on 028 7938 7444 or visit www.seamusheaneyhome.com/whatson.
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