The moment Finn McCool was born he already had a host of enemies, eager to snuff the spark of life from his eyes. Yet who could kill a boy, especially if he was a poet? 

 

Welcome to a world where poetry has the power to bring madness, death, wisdom or all three at once. Of all who dared to learn the magical art of poetry there is none more famed than the divine Irish hero, Finn McCool. Yet all power comes with a price.    

 

Illumination Tales pierces through the misty veil of the past and shines a new light upon the boyhood deeds of Finn McCool and his inspired appendage, the thumb of knowledge.  The sources for these tales are found surviving in a scant few precious lines of text, housed in rare and extremely treasured manuscripts, some dating as far back as the 6th century.

 

These fragments only offer a tantalizing glimmer of what the 'whole' must have contained. A fleeting bit of dialogue here, an obscure topographical reference there and then a hopeful passage cut off mid-sentence.  In my own rendering of these stories, I have endeavored to find that missing 'whole' and breathe new life into the storytelling traditions of Finn.​​​

​

Live harp, original song, shadow puppet film animation, marionettes, and bardic storytelling weave into a singular theatrical event, ancient in source, vivid in telling. A true multi-generational experience for all ages.