The Bealtaine Festival Presents KIN as Part of 2012 Bealtaine Festival

Donna Rutherford's acclaimed production KIN comes to Ireland as part of the Bealtaine Festival for a five date nationwide tour after receiving outstanding reviews during a tour of UK venues last year with the first stop-off of the tour at Roscommon Arts Centre on Thursday 3rd May. 

 KINexplores the fear, sorrow, anger, guilt and frustration – but also the love, trust and laughter to be found as middle-aged children negotiate the changes in their relationships with parents. In moving close-ups, performers reveal to camera concerns of their own ageing while dealing with their parent's increasingly glacial pace of life. 

As the passage of time speeds up, the future and its inevitable deteriorations get closer.  Just as you become slower at everything you do, take longer to do the simplest things, you find yourself hurtling downhill with no brakes. Performers Tim Ingram (Reckless Sleepers), Richard Gregory (Quarantine), Cathy Naden and Claire Marshall (Forced Entertainment), along with actor Alison Peebles are linked during a live performance by Donna Rutherford.

The Bealtaine Festival has roots in 27 counties with 592 organisers hosting over 3000 events. Last year over 120,000 people took part in all kinds of arts activities from Dawn Chorus's of singing choirs on beaches to theatre and film tours in arts centres nationwide. As the country's largest collaborative Arts Festival, Bealtaine is locally owned by communities but retains an enviable reputation as the world's first national celebration of creativity in older age. Scotland and Australia are laying the foundations for their own similar festivals and we expect this year's Irish festival to even bigger and better! In this the European year of Active Ageing and Solidarity between Generations KIN is particularly pertinent in the debate about 'What kind of old do you want to be'?

6 minute video clip of KIN performance can be seen at: http://www.vimeo.com/22284221