Bram is back in all its ghoulish glory. We give fangs for the spooks in store. Here are six absolute screamers.
Irish Composer Matthew Nolan has produced a score for I am Not Legend, a reworking of George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead by American-Italian director and artist Andrea Mastrovito, hosted in The Pepper Canister Church. In collaboration with cellist Kevin Murphy and contemporary vocalist Ceara Conway, the film and live score accompanies a work of horror film-art for our times: the first opportunity for Irish audiences to see the film on a big screen. I am NOT Legend completely reimagines Night of the Living Dead, creating a screenplay composed entirely of quotes from famous films, books and other sources alongside a frame-by-frame reworking of the film’s visuals. Horror and pop-culture fans can expect shivers down their spines as it investigates the existential threat of zombies on our doorstep.
Slaughterhouse Present: Faust (1926) Re-Scored by Shampain
Dublin-based horror film, art and music club Slaughterhouse have been packing out unusual venues across the city with sold out screenings for the last year. From warehouse spaces and tattoo parlours to wine bars and plant shops, they’re giving cult horror classics fresh life with live re-scores, discussions and art exhibits inspired by the films and are upping the ante once more for Bram Stoker Festival. In (reputedly) Dublin’s most haunted church, Slaughterhouse will screen F.W. Murnau’s classic ‘good vs evil’ epic, ‘FAUST‘ (1926), with a soundtrack chosen and mixed live by internationally renowned DJ Shampain. Gather your freakiest mates and book now for an oddball electronic experience like no other this October Bank Holiday weekend.
Saturday 28 October, Pepper Canister Church, 6.30pm, €22
Three Castles Burning Live – Bram and Beyond: The Irish Supernatural
Bram Stoker is undoubtedly the most celebrated Irish author of the supernatural, but the story of this literature in an Irish context does not begin or end with him. In this special live edition of the Three Castles Burning podcast, historian Donal Fallon is joined by author and publisher Brian J. Showers of Swan River Press and the actor Kathy Rose O’Brien. They’ll delve into the works of Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (of course), Katharine Tynan and Dorothy MacArdle, among others, and explore their links to Stoker and the Dublin of his time.
Saturday October 28, Graduate Memorial Building @ Trinity College, 1pm, €13
Dracula: A Journey into Darkness
Enter the macabre world of Bram Stoker’s Dracula at the Abbey Theatre this Hallowe’en, at a staged reading of the opening chapters to Bram Stoker’s gothic horror masterpiece. This marks the first time Stoker’s original text, that has captivated audiences for over a century, has been presented on our national stage. The first four chapters, the haunting diaries of Jonathan Harker, will be read live by Andrew Bennett with Barry McGovern as the unseen voice of Dracula. Directed by Joan Sheehy, Dracula: A Journey Into Darkness will draw audiences into “the land of phantoms” in a once-off literary and dramatic experience featuring Suzie Cummins’s lighting and Tom Lane’s soundscape; a collaboration amplifying the unsettling atmosphere and creating a theatrical event dripping with intensity and intrigue.
Sunday October 29, Abbey Theatre, 6.30pm. €20/€25.
World-renowned pioneers of imagination Macnas back to Dublin for a brand-new, haunting and hair-raising parade of otherworldly magic to close this year’s festival. Join Dubliners and visitors of all ages along city streets as dusk falls for Cnámha La Loba which tells the story of La Loba, a wild wolf-woman, who wanders the world collecting bones and preserving that which is in danger of being lost to the world. This unforgettable spectacle will transform the streets as day turns to night and darkness descends on Hallowe’en Eve. The route will be announced this week.
Monday October 30 from 6.30pm.
Irish premiere of CYGNUS, an enchanting and poetic live installation on the water that has captivated audiences worldwide. Every evening into night, between Friday 27th October and Sunday 29th October, Grand Canal Dock will be home to Cygnus. Cygnus was created by Denis Bivour and Florian Giefer (LOOMALAND) from Berlin, Germany. Accompanying the installation will be a specially commissioned soundscape by Irish composer and artist Alma Kelliher. The soundscape will be an ethereal journey of voice, synth and sound recordings, featuring inspiration from Irish mythology, our native Mute Swans, traditional Irish music and Bram Stoker himself. The music will tell its own story, as the soundwaves carry across the water in Grand Canal dock; haunting and beautiful, both uniquely Irish and otherworldly.
Cygnus plays on a loop, with no defined start or end, so people are invited to view it at their leisure during listed times. Friday October 27 & Saturday October 28: 6.30pm – 10pm, Sunday October 29: 5.30pm – 10pm.
