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Cal Folger Day’s autobiographical pop-opera Moondog and Irene was under the direction of opera and theatre director Tom Creed. In a medley of songs, movement and monologues about urinary tract infections, she brings to the stage the story of her step-great-aunt-in-law and her fascination for the mythical Moondog as well as her own final months in New York during the early 2010s. 

 

The audience is welcomed in the relaxed cabaret-style venue, with funky costume, Cal Folger Day shaking maracas to the pieces theme song in the center stage in a cozy old fashioned armchair, surrounded by her laid-back band (Phil Christie, keys and voice; Nick Boon, guitar; Sorcha Jordan, voice; Meg Stoop, flute and voice). Folger Day’s vitality and bubbliness in an eccentric 80s look, rocking oversized sunglasses, a red polka-dotted suit and mullet contrasts with neutrally-dressed band supporting her. The play was mostly carried by the main performer, and their seemed to be a lack of energy and support from her band. 

 

The five-act play followed a cyclic structure, bouncing between Folger Day’s step-great-aunt-in-law’s life and her own, trailing into a lyrical interpretation shadowed dancer Aoibhinn O’Dea portraying her literal lyrics. The intertwined narratives of her step-great-aunt-in-law’s experience in New York City and Cal Folger Day’s own problems and realities in her pursuit of happiness in the dream-making and dream-shattering Big Apple were sometimes hard to follow and make sense of, and the addition of movement to the musical interludes were perhaps a little awkward and incoherent to the bigger picture of the play. 

 

This performance illustrates the hardships of being a working-class woman in a male-dominated world, and an ambitious, dreamy individual in a cruel, elitist city. As a platform for new work expressing stories that resonate with the community, and connecting with different forms of art, this performance is relevant to the Fringe Festival in a city full of resourceful and determined young people, often chancing their careers in exciting metropoles like London or New York.