Performance at Dublin Castle and St. Werburg’s Church, Dublin
This work was part of These Immovable Walls: Performing Power at Dublin Castle was curated and commissioned by Michelle Browne with assistant curator Ciara McKeon. The series was produced with the support of The Arts Council of Ireland and The OPW. The performance, The Spy at the Gate was in four parts and performed with Renée Heléna Browne and Sinéad Keogh.
In Pauline Cummins’ The Spy at the Gate, she looks at the extravagant consumption by the aristocracy in Ireland in the 18th century. It focuses on Emily, Duchess of Leinster and the mother of Lord Edward Fitzgerald one of the leaders of the 1798 rebellion. Cummins’ work meditates on the birth of a revolutionary from inside the body of the aristocracy.
The performance design was as follows:
Part 1 The Apollo Room, where Emily, Duchess of Leinster, (Cummins), tells about her life and times.
Part 2 The tea party, where the audience provide the soundtrack for Emily’s dancing with their tea spoon and tea cups.
Part 3 The journey through the Castle, led by Keogh and Browne.
Part 4 Lord Edward Fitzgerald (Cummins), Emily’s 5th son, in Saint Werburg’s Church the site of his secret burial in June 1798.
