Creating a festival in 2020 has been a whitewater rafting exercise on the most challenging of cultural rapids. After numerous course alterations owing to the ever-changing restrictions, Bram Stoker bobs its head above water. Here is what we’re most stoked about!
Walk with
Declaration of deadly here, our editor is one of the co-producers of DracuHa! Originally conceived as a self-guided audio walk, it has fallen foul of Level 5 restrictions and like much of 2020 has become an ‘at home’ experience. The curdling call-out was made to some of our finest scribes to recount, depict and imagine some horrors in the city. Expect horror hotlines, violent brides, goths, werewolves and – the most dreaded horror of all – scavenging seagulls as your mind wanders on its original route from O’Connell Street to Molly Malone.
The sick ink is coming from humorists including Hannah Mamalis, Séamas O’Reilly, Sonya Kelly, Michael Fry and Tony Cantwell. Visual interpretations of these tales by The Project Twins, Holly Pereira and Lightscape which were originally meant to be projected on iconic buildings have been coverted into free, limited edition, poster prints.
The audio file for the tour will be available to download or stream from Friday October 30 at 10am via bramstokerfestival.com.
Create
Macnas are the maestros of conjuring up giant imaginations and creatures to inhabit it. Their annual parade was one of the highlights of Bram but in times of a pandemic, while one may have to retreat indoors there remains no limits to our flights of fancy.
The Boy Explorer will be on hand, via a series of online tutorials released during the October mid-term, to help kids magic up creatures for their own parades. On Hallowe’en, everyone is encouraged to upload their creations to social media using the hashtag #BramStokerMacnas, for the whole world to be spooked and raptured by.
Videos created by Macnas exclusively for Bram Stoker Festival, will be released via Bram Stoker Festival’s YouTube, Facebook and Instagram pages daily from Tuesday 27 October until Saturday 31 October.
Listen to
“I want you to believe…to believe in things that you cannot,” said Bram. Eternal is the creation of British theatre company Darkfield – who craft exceedingly popular, goosebumps-inducing, immersive at-home theatre experience. Eternal explores the quandary of eternal life and wonders what price you would settle for to achieve it.
We’re not sure, we’d be tempted to sign up for eternity based on the shitshow of 2020, but we’re willing to find out. The suggested venue is your bed so you may want to quench your eternal flame at the outset too.
Friday October 30 to Monday November 2, Daily at 5pm, 6pm, 7pm, 8pm & 9pm, €5
Watch
Cult horror film Night of the Living Dead undergoes a radical reworking by Italian artist and filmmaker Andrea Mastrovito. Creating a screenplay composed entirely of quotes from famous films, books and other sources; it calls to mind Christian Marclay’s acclaimed The Clock where he looped a 24-hour video montage of scenes from film and television that feature clocks or timepieces.
Mastrovito augments the film’s original frames to create a completely new story arc. His characters use the words and gestures of others to propel his narrative forward, which Mastrovito likens to how people communicate today via social media and memes – reusing and recycling quotes and images from other sources to comment on their own experiences. The accompanying score has been created by Matthew Nolan and Stephen Shannon.
9pm each night of the festival, access link sent with booking, €5
Bram Stoker Festival runs from Friday October 30 to Monday November 2
Full programme details at bramstokerfestival.com
