Off-the-wall story telling at ruins of Belvedere folly

Sinéad O’Loughlin

Saturday June 11 in Belvedere House and Gardens in Mullingar in Westmeath was glorious – not meteorologically but culturally.

A storytelling event supported by Westmeath County Council and featuring Westmeath writers and actors took place outdoors at the foot of the Jealous Wall, a Gothic folly built in the estate in 1760 by Robert Rochfort out of spite towards his brother.

Four dark and disturbing tales written by Westmeath writing talents were narrated by Westmeath actors Eimear Keating and Daniel Egerton. A suitably surreal soundtrack was provided by Dublin based artist and musician, Jennifer Moore of DreamCycles.

As the audience sat in the lush green setting on the soft, misty evening, we were in the ‘twilight zone’ in more ways than one. Timed for the hour ‘twixt’ day and night, the stories had been promised to be spooky, and they were, in varying degrees and different ways. There were no ghouls nor goblins, no witches nor wizards but the sometimes off-the-wall tales ran deep with human emotion and double meanings.

Blackbirds flew overhead between the Jealous Wall and the hundreds-of-years-old trees surrounding it as some beautiful, contemporary music signalled the beginning of the performance, and Eimear positioned herself in the arches of the famed wall to take the mic’.

Written by Dublin based artist and writer, Isadora Epstein, ‘Augur’ told the story of a woman who practices “augury”, the ancient art of “reading entrails to predict the future and confirm whether decisions are good or bad”.

The character uses her art-form to pursue a man who is of romantic interest to her but the story concludes when she realises it wouldn’t take a clairvoyant to realise her suitor was gutless and, she says, “guts are my particular area of interest”. This strange, suggestive and clever tale, was the first of four, and was delivered by Eimear with clarity, precision and warmth.

Next was ‘Obedientia Civium’, written by Westmeath visual artist Avril Corroon, the story of a separated, middle-aged, solitary man who works as a night security guard in a factory that makes a technology that creates holes in the ground for people to be sucked into. The climax in the character’s isolated, lonely existence arrives when the factory, one night, “is finally being broken into”... by a swallow.

This was a weirdly wonderful tale delivered with great clarity and humour by Daniel. Midway through this performance, the skies opened and quite a shower came down on the audience but nobody budged except to pick up our umbrellas or sneak ever-so-slightly sideways to the shelter of a great big old tree.

‘The Body’ by Glasgow-based Mullingar-native writer Anna Walsh is the story of an unwittingly single 34-year-old woman living with a snide 25-year-old female house-mate, where vegan chillis, assorted stews, tofu and flavoured waters from Lidl are the dietary mainstay.

The woman, who suffers inexplicable physical symptoms and one night has a dream where she is deeply in love with a faceless, formless figure, finds herself going out to her allotment at night, in her overalls, coats and gloves and meeting a paranormal body made of clay.

She gradually develops a relationship with the clay figure and eventually beds down with him in the hope that “tomorrow something will be different”. Another well-crafted, strange story delivered with Eimear’s clarity and warmth.

‘Mortar’ by Mullingar writer Ronan Kenny was the deeply emotional story of Finbar, a boy who grows up in Cork with a love of history... and boys. Longing “to be seen, felt, truly heard and loved”, Finbar is outed by a neighbour and subsequently “thumped in the face” by his father who tells him “you’re no son of mine”.

A desperate search to build a life “that makes sense to him” leads Finbar to Mullingar, where he finds refuge working as a ground-keeper in Belvedere House and Gardens. Finbar identifies with the story of the Jealous Wall with its themes of jealousy, hatred and paranoia and develops a belief that he is being visited by the spirit of Lady Belvedere.

This gripping and heart-wrenching story was delivered with emotional intensity and urgency by Daniel. The first three stories were dark and disturbing, but Ronan’s less supernatural story of contemporary Irish homophobia was truly terrifying.

As the performances came to an end, an after-party with DreamCycles and Eliza was about to begin.

Those of us leaving, were, of course, jealous.