Macnas have announced their Halloween spectacle, An Treun: The Summoning of the Lost, a spectacular, shape-shifting parade inspired by a long-lost tale by Dracula author Bram Stoker and the haunting call of the practically vanished Corncrake on Sunday, October 26 at 5.30pm.
Macnas have also announced their new co-artistic directors of ANU Productions, Louise Lowe as parade director and Owen Boss as lead designer for this year’s parade.
Johnny O’Reilly, Macnas’ CEO, said, “These two incredible creative powerhouses and visionaries are currently conjuring up pure magic with the wonderful Macnas team in our workshop in Athenry. This year’s parade is going to be one of our most exciting yet!”
Discovered last year in the archives of the National Library of Ireland, Stoker’s forgotten story, Gibbet Hill, flickers with folklore, magic and mischief. At its heart, its sonic essence is something small, strange and precious, the Corncrake, once the summertime soundtrack of Ireland, now a ghost in our fields.
Lowe explained, “For me, this is a work about holding on and letting go. It’s a reminder that culture and climate are not separate things; they’re intertwined, pulsing through each other like blood and birdsong.
“Grounded in Macnas’ worldbuilding ethos, we’re generating a world for An Treun to return to, not as a nostalgic echo, but as a force. As a protest. As hope.”
Reclaiming folklore as resistance and biodiversity as myth, this wild incantation with blazing beats and dreamlike visuals, conjures a creature said to once hold up the sky with its two spindly legs.
For more information, visit www.macnas.com
