I’m late. Although I still think I’m early. The GPS has calculated a route that unexpectedly takes me to the top of Whiterock Road. The road narrows to a lane. The gradient forces my light car into first gear and it complains as it climbs up, around the tight bend and then heads back down towards town. The track is now Ballygomartin Road and widening. The GPS is sure I’ve reached my destination, a remote field with not even cell signal to try another app. I drive on, further down, and the Belfast 2024 branding indicates that I’ve arrived at the Black Mountain Shared Space.
The audience for ROOTSperhaps fittingly given the overall narrative of the piece, we were divided into three groups, tribes if you will, each wearing a different colour and hearing different voices in our heads through wireless headphones playing the soundscape of Isaac Gibson and the word pictures of poet Maria McManus.
“And in the beginning there was the mountain… sleeping beneath its ice.”
After the opening segment that anchors the piece in its respective location, each tribe sets off in a different direction. For me, there was a phase of meditation, reflecting on the bounty of nature and deepening our connection with the land and shrubs in a community garden that was created and will continue beyond these performances. There was a phase of collaboration, planting, and realizing that there can be healing when two people are together, with laughter and mutual support. Finally, in my version of the performance, there was a phase of conflict, a couple falling out of harmony, going from holding together to pushing apart, one carrying the other who seemed limp and bruised, stumbling through their pain before one lifted the other to new heights.
The three tribes and the five dancers come together again for the final sequence. It was a time of communal experience and expression. The performers demonstrate a sense of togetherness by leading each other, jumping up, sitting down, trusting and belonging together in unison.
As the hour progresses, the audience is not just a spectator. We are involved in the planting process and encouraged to see, feel and smell what is growing in the beds. We move around the space and pass under wooden arches, doorways to new places, portals to new ways of living. To one side, children play in the street, throwing balls and zooming around on scooters. Our headphones may have blocked out the noise, but their presence anchors the place in its environment, connecting the communities on the Springfield Road and the Ballygomartin Road.
The bark mulch is soft to stand on. Una Hickey’s beautiful slate grey/green/beige costumes harmonize with the tones of the landscape and garden. Clara Kerr, Ed Mitchell, Rosie Mullin, Harry Wilson and Sarah Flavelle bring each section of the work to life with their fluid movements, wordlessly leading their wandering audience through each room and through the unfolding story.
Artistic director and choreographer Eileen McClory (OTR/Off The Rails Dance Theatre Company) has created a thoughtful, site-specific outdoor performance that combines dance, poetry, storytelling and active participation. It is a triumph and well worth discovering.
ROOTS asks what brings us to the places where we live, work and meet each other. It asks what we eat to survive. It asks what we plant as “love letters” or gifts for the future. The new Black Mountain Shared Space building will house sports, meetings, community projects, performances and a garden. How ROOTSis intended to connect people, places and plants.
Although this is a site-specific work, placed high up overlooking part of Belfast, many of the themes can be taken to a universal level. ROOTS has been in the planning for many months, but its portrait of people living side by side but not always in harmony is not only a metaphor for the situation in this part of Belfast, but also reflects the city’s shattered constitution as it responds to anti-immigration marches, racism, violent attacks and forceful shows of force to meet these challenges to the city’s rich diversity and sense of welcome.
ROOTS is part of Belfast City Council’s Belfast 2024 programme. Performances run until Sunday 18 August at 3pm and 7pm (there are no performances on Monday 12 and Tuesday 13 August). Tickets are available from the Belfast International Arts Festival. Dress appropriately as the show will go on whatever the weather!
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