Distillation seats a small audience around a peat-covered table and asks them to breathe in the Irish Midlands for an hour.
Landing at Abbotsford Convent as part of Melbourne Fringe, Distillation is a scent-led performance from Irish artist Luke Casserly, built around a custom perfume made from the peat of his childhood home in Longford.
Casserly teamed up with perfumer Joan Woods to capture the essence of the Midlands bog, then hands it over to a small group seated around a table layered with soil and moss. Across the session you’ll be smelling, touching and slowly sinking into a landscape most Melburnians will never set foot in.
Distillation
- Abbotsford Convent (Industrial School), 1 St Heliers St, Abbotsford
- 1 to 4 October 2026, sessions running 2pm to 8.30pm
- Standard $28 / concession $25 / Blak Tix $10
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The piece didn’t come out of nowhere. Casserly created Distillation in direct response to the closure of Ireland’s peat harvesting industry, a change that’s quietly reshaping the boglands that have shaped the country’s midlands for generations. Rather than lecturing anyone about the climate, it leans into memory, place and the odd, powerful pull of a single smell.
It premiered at Dublin Theatre Festival in 2023 and has since toured across Ireland, the United States and Canada. The Melbourne stint sits inside the festival’s Passport program, which brings international work to town without the jet lag, alongside acts from the UK, Canada and beyond under this year’s Turn Towards the Heat banner.
Expect gentle moments of participation, plenty of organic material to get your nose into, and sessions kept deliberately intimate. It’s family friendly and wheelchair accessible too, so there’s room for most people to find a way in.
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