Record numbers of NI talent set to perform in Edinburgh
nutes ago
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES
A record number of acts from Northern Ireland are set to perform at this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe.
Seventeen actors, comedians, artists and playwrights will take to the stage throughout August.
"This time it feels like we're more of a collective," said Kat Woods, a playwright from Enniskillen.
The Fringe celebrates its 75th anniversary this year and has returned to pre-pandemic levels, having been a limited sized event in 2021.
The festival's chief executive, Shona McCarthy from County Down, spoke of a "growing acceptance" of the Northern Ireland accent, while The Guardian dubbed it "the Derry Girls effect".
Ms Woods first took her work to Edinburgh in 2014 and described the festival's exposure as being "incredible".
Having struggled financially in the past, this year she received additional funding from Arts Council Northern Ireland and describes her upcoming play as her "most ambitious" piece to date.
Set in post-conflict Fermanagh, Birds of Passage in the Half Light explores Northern Ireland's connection to the church in 2022.
"It's a cathartic piece for people who have ever felt conflict in their lives, from a religious perspective. We are not great with language in Northern Ireland, but our self-deprecating sense of humour is how we remain positive," she said.
"We deal with it in comedy, that's a universal concept, it helps with dark subject matter."
'Proud of our differences'
Rosemary Jenkinson's latest work, Billy Boy, is based off interviews with loyalist bonfire builders in east Belfast.
"Bonfires might be more contentious in Belfast because of our divided society, but bonfires and fire rituals take place as expressions of culture all over the world," she told BBC News NI.
"It's so wrong for Northern Irish people to think they are culturally inferior or that they continually need to explain and justify their culture. It's time for us to be proud of both our differences and similarities with the rest of the world."
The playwright said that many have experienced "cultural starvation" since the pandemic, with this year's festival providing a "strong sense of celebration and relief".
"The most badly hit sector in the whole of the arts during lockdown was theatre, as Northern Irish theatres were closed for a year and five months.
"I also think because of the Lisa McGee and Anna Burns effect, everyone working in Northern Irish theatre feels this year that there is a particular appetite for our humour, so it's really important for us to ride that wave at this current moment.
"I believe the future for Northern Irish work is limitless. However, it's high time that the immense talent from here was properly recognised, supported and exported by Stormont."