Abstract
The final part of the cycle was set in the present in a Monto of online sex, trafficking, asylum and migration, conforming to Edward W. Soja’s concept of a globalized inner city. While spectators encountered local residents who looked to the future with no regrets for the past, and sought solace in a fortune teller’s business of hope for the future, the migrants we later encountered were reminiscent of Michel de Certeau’s ‘invisible practitioners’ of the city, rendered further invisible by their illegal or trafficked status. And as the cycle ended with glimpsed recordings of previous productions and the performance beginning again, our journey through the 100-year history of The Monto demonstrated viscerally how history is forever present and its future destined to be recycled.
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Notes
- 1.
The Rising began on 24 April 1916, Easter Monday, and lasted a little short of six days before the rebels, who had taken key positions around Dublin, and many other county towns, surrendered to British forces. The rebels were composed of members of the nationalist militia, the Irish Volunteers (established in direct response to anti Home Rule unionists), the socialist Irish Citizen Army that had been set up to protect the workers during the 1913 Lockout, and the women’s militia Cumman na mBan. Although there was no popular support for what the rebels had done, since many nationalists as well as unionists had signed up to fight with the British army in the First World War, the summary execution without trial of the Rising’s leaders led to a swift and widespread change in public opinion.
- 2.
Peter Crawley, ‘Monto is Back: The Sex Trade and the Business of Hope’, The Irish Times, 24 September 2014. http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/stage/monto-is-back-the-sex-trade-and-the-business-of-hope-1.1938979 (Accessed 8.1.15.)
- 3.
Ibid.
- 4.
Henri Lefebvre, The Urban Revolution. 1970. Translated by Robert Bononno. Minneapolis and London: University of Minnesota Press, 2003, pp. 18–19. (Lefebvre 2003)
- 5.
Edward W. Soja, Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory. London & Brooklyn, NY: Verso, 1989, p. 240. (Soja 1989)
- 6.
Terry Fagan made a short video including interviews with the two builders who removed the statue, and the repair man: The Strange Story of the Monto Statue, North Inner City Heritage Project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liayQq7MgXM (Accessed 9.1.16.) The story is further detailed by Michael Pierse, ‘The Miracle of Monto? A Chequered History, from Prostitution to Pilgrimages’, An Phoblacht, 5 September 2002, http://www.anphoblacht.com/contents/9168 (Accessed 9.1.16.)
- 7.
Chris McCormack ‘ANU Productions, “Vardo”: Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect €200’. MusingsinIntermissions, 27.9.14. http://musingsinintermissions.blogspot.ie/2014/09/anu-productions-vardo-do-not-pass-go-do.html. (Accessed 6.1.16.)
- 8.
Personal interview with Kunle Animashaun, 29 April 2015.
- 9.
Augusto Boal, The Rainbow of Desire: The Boal Method of Theatre and Therapy. Abingdon & New York: Routledge, 1995, pp. 112–113. (Boal 1995)
- 10.
Michel de Certeau, The Practice of Everyday Life. Translated by Steven Rendall. Berkeley, Los Angeles & London: University of California Press, 1998, p. 94. (de Certeau 1998)
Bibliography
Boal, Augusto. The Rainbow of Desire: The Boal Method of Theatre and Therapy. Abingdon & New York: Routledge, 1995.
de Certeau, Michel. The Practice of Everyday Life. Translated by Steven Rendall. Berkeley, Los Angeles & London: University of California Press, 1998.
Lefebvre, Henri. The Urban Revolution. 1970. Translated by Robert Bononno. Minneapolis & London: University of Minnesota Press, 2003.
Soja, Edward W. Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory. London & Brooklyn, NY: Verso, 1989.
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Singleton, B. (2016). Vardo. In: ANU Productions. Palgrave Pivot, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95133-8_5
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