Our favourite Irish band have let us have a sneak peek at their recent LANKUM PRESENTS – A NATIONAL DISGRACE – LIVE AT THE ABBEY performance by releasing this gem. Beautifully animated by Marry Waterson on hand-painted 16 mm Cine film.
The full performance took place mid August,.. the story below..
“You have disgraced yourselves again!” – W.B. Yeats
In 1926, a furious Yeats took to the stage of the Abbey theatre, in an attempt to quell the riot that had erupted during the premiere of Sean O’Casey’s The Plough and the Stars. The audience, offended by O’Casey’s themes of prostitution and use of blasphemy and profanities, objected, thus marking an evening that was publicly deemed A National Disgrace.
On Saturday 15th of August, almost a century later, LANKUM, along with a number of special guests from the contemporary world of Irish music and comedy, took to the same stage and delivered an evening like no other. Broadcast live online to exclusive ticket holders, the group hosted a very special one-off, immersive, surrealist experience.
As they announced at the time, “Come with us on a night out in Dublin city. An adventure that begins with your taxi drive to Dublin’s historic Abbey Theatre. You will be welcomed inside by our specially chosen usher and directed to your seat, thus beginning your gradual descent into a warped, dreamworld of musical performance, theatre, winding passages, doorways, drones and existential uncertainty…
LANKUM will be performing two unique sets, comprising music from all three of their albums. For the first time in a live setting, they will be joined by all of the guest musicians who performed on their latest album The Livelong Day. The two sets will form continuous pieces of music devised by the band and producer John Spud Murphy, containing a number of never before performed songs alongside their more popular works, linked with completely new arrangements of drones and soundscapes, and interwoven with specifically selected audio samples from the world of Irish history and folklore.
As well as LANKUM’s performance, the evening will be interspersed with appearances from a number of artists from all corners of the country’s current cultural landscape, combining to make this one of the most memorable nights out you are likely to experience in Dublin town.
A National Disgrace will revisit the power of live productions to provoke visceral and emotional responses, and explore the possibilities presented by the unfamiliar new world of virtual performance in which we find ourselves.”
