Collapsing Horse Theatre Company at Project Arts Centre

Collapsing Horse Theatre Company, of MONSTER/CLOCK fame, are bringing some of their puppetry magic back to Project Arts Centre at the end of the month before setting off for the company’s first Edinburgh Fringe. The collective have repeatedly taken Dublin by storm with infectious levels of bliss, producing audience-focused shows that genuinely make the world seem like a happier place. Considering a trip to any Collapsing Horse show will inevitably involve catching more than a few DU Players alumni on the credit reel, any Trinity student around town for the summer will want to pay the Project a visit from 23-25 July.

First on the bill is Bears in Space, the subtitle for which reads, “Bears that are in Space.” A play that promises to deliver what it says on the tin, the show centres around two cosmonaut bears and their computer, “hurtling into the impossibly distant reaches of the galaxy on a dangerous quest to save those they love”. Tackling a concept so ludicrous it just might work, Collapsing Horse have proven themselves to work best under the most bizarre conditions, so hopes are high for the return of this 2012 piece.

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Human Child, one of the company’s better known works, will play one more time on its home shores before packing up for Edinburgh. Beginning its success in Smock Alley last summer, this retelling of W. B. Yeats’s The Stolen Child has turned theatres all over Ireland into faraway fairy-lands and jaw-dropping blanket forts. An incredible array of madcap characters performed by some very child-like adults will have any age group giggling throughout. While the show is full of inspiring morals, the real thing to take away from this play is its unshakeable feeling of joy.

Collapsing Horse are also teaming up with a previous collaborator for a pre-Edinburgh triple bill. Winner of the Best Female Performance in 2013’s Dublin Fringe Festival, Genevieve Hulme-Beaman’s one-woman show Pondling will add a little edge to the run. Telling the story of a lonely little girl with an all-consuming crush on an older man, Hulme-Beaman curates a manic humour in this piece to mask the real sadness of her story. The long-established Gúna Nua Theatre are offering something apart from Collapsing Horse’s shows here, but all three will come together in the construction of bizarre and ground-breaking worlds.

 

All three shows run in Project Arts Centre: Bears in Space at 9pm 23-25 July; Human Child at 1pm 24-25 July; Pondling at 6pm 24-25 July.

 In the mean time, take a look at this Collapsing Horse fundraiser video, “What it means to be Irish.”

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