Irish music, dancing, storytelling and laughs – A Taste of Ireland at The Palms theatre in Crown was the perfect way to spend St Patrick’s Day.
It’s no secret that Australians love a bit of the ole Irish culture. Walking through the city on Sunday, it seemed there were enough Guinness drinkers, four-leaf clover hats, and every shade of the colour green to fill up the whole of Dublin. Whether they be immigrants, expatriates or just appreciators of Irish tradition, it’s broadly known that Melburnians love all things Irish.
And so it was no surprise that A Taste of Ireland’s performance was received with warm enthusiasm from the patrons who came out to The Palms Theatre at Crown on St Pat’s Day. An exciting performance of Irish dancing, music and storytelling, A Taste of Ireland took attendees by the hand and led them right into the centre of an Ireland past. Donned in modernised Irish dress and smiles as wide as their cheeks allowed, the ensemble that participated in the show’s performance carried the concert with their clearly deep-seated passion for a country of rich culture and tradition.
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Whilst the show was light on storytelling through language, the cast instead wielded dance and song to tell this snippet of a story of Ireland. It’s no surprise they were able to do so effectively, even without dialogue, considering the nation they were telling the tale of is one so incredibly cemented in storytelling – a tradition that has made its way over to Australia, no doubt, thanks to so many of the Irish that have immigrated here.
A Taste of Ireland was at its best when it focused on what it was that made the show so unique. That is to say – all those Irish storytelling devices that you won’t see anywhere else. The dancing was driven by the click of the performers’ shoes, the sound of their feet tapping in time to the music at points becoming the music themselves. It bolstered the feeling of not being able to look away from the dancers as they moved their bodies in ways unseen in other kinds of dancing and performance – in ways of immense passion and expertise.
For some of the paired-back songs of emotive significance, as the singer belted out lyrics of Irish life and the quest for home, you could hear members of the audience’s voices lift up from the crowd, joining the performer on stage as they sang along to songs that one can only expect would be as dear to their hearts as those that were performing them.
The passion was undeniable from those on stage. Every now and again, the stage smile would fall as a dancer took to the centre to perform a solo stint of movement, and in its place the most genuine smile of love and affection for the art at hand would appear. It was impossible not to smile along with them.
A Taste of Ireland was a perfectly suited outing for St Patrick’s Day, but any time of the year is the time to go see this engaging, emotional, and one hell of a craic of Irish storytelling and culture.
You can find more dates and cities for A Taste of Ireland here.
