Solas Nua, Washington, DC’s premier contemporary Irish arts organization, brings One Moment Now, a cutting-edge production, to Washington, DC. This site-specific audio-play invites the audience into a completely unique and immersive experience. One Moment Now was originally created by Murmuration, an Irish collective of theater artists, to be performed in Ireland’s famous Coffee house, Bewley’s Cafe. Its development was part of the Bewley’s Café Theatre artist-in-residence program, supported by Bewley’s Café Theatre and Bewley’s Café, Grafton Street.
One Moment Now is a brand new table-top audio-play commissioned by Bewley’s Café Theatre now making its North American premiere with Solas Nua. Through headphones, you’ll hear a story – about memory, about grandsons and grandmothers, about coffee shops and hospital visits – and be invited to participate as it plays out on the table in front of you.
“Some people find it hard to sit in a café. Alone. With just their thoughts. Don’t worry, we’re going to keep you company this next while.”
Solas Nua’s Artistic Director Rex Daugherty shares, “I’ve been watching Murmuration for a few years now and have admired their singular approach to theater-making. They create intimate, private experiences that occur in public spaces, and it has been capturing the imagination of audiences, as well as forging new grounds for where theater takes place. There’s a special magic when immersed in this setting, and I’m eager to share it with DC audiences.”
This piece exemplifes Solas Nua’s highly inventive and experienced work in nontraditional spaces, and validates Washington City Paper’s description of Solas Nua as “Washington’s finest purveyor of site-specific theater.”
Solas Nua is thrilled to be back at Eaton DC, which previously hosted their critically acclaimed, sold-out run of The Smuggler. Starring Rex Daugherty in this solo performance, the show was picked by The New York Times as one of the best productions of 2019. Eaton DC was named by Time magazine as one of the top 100 Places to Visit on Earth. Audiences can enjoy a large range of food, drinks, and other entertainment throughout the hotel. The cocktail bar, Allegory, is regularly picked as one of the best bars in DC.
One Moment Now is hosted inside Eaton’s resident coffee shop, Baker’s Daughter, which is a boutique café from 101 Hospitality, the team behind Gravitas and Michele’s. With three locations in Washington, DC. the all-day café offers breakfast, coffee, baked goods, and prepared foods.
Chef Matt Baker owns and operates Gravitas, a New American fine dining establishment in Washington DC’s Ivy City neighborhood, Baker’s Daughter, a café and market with multiple locations in the Nation’s Capital, and Michele’s, a modern American restaurant reflecting the global favors of his culinary upbringing in Houston and New Orleans. Gravitas received one star in the 2020 and 2021 Washington, DC, MICHELIN Guides. In 2015, Zagat named Baker in its “Top 30 under 30” list. Prior to opening Gravitas, Baker cooked in Singapore as the opening executive chef of Krish, and in Washington, DC, under chef Robert Wiedmaier at Brasserie Beck, as chef de cuisine at Occidental Grill & Seafood, and as opening executive chef of City Perch in Bethesda.
Murmuration’s One Moment Now in Washington, DC, is supported by Culture Ireland and will be part of a larger North American tour for the production. Future dates and locations will be announced at a later time.
One Moment Now plays through September 1, 2023, at Baker’s Daughter, 1201 K St NW, Washington, DC; tickets are free and must be reserved in advance online.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
John King – Director & Performer
John is a director and theater-maker based in Dublin. With Murmuration, he has made the headphone shows One Moment Now (Dublin and Washington, DC), You’re Still Here (Dublin Fringe commission, co-presented by the Abbey Theatre), Will I See You There (Dublin Fringe), and Summertime (Dublin Fringe, Drogheda Arts Festival, Abbey Young Curators’ Festival). Other directing work includes The Cyclone Kid (Bewley’s) and The Overcoat (Omnibus Theatre). Assistant directing work includes thisispopbaby’s 2022 tour of Conversations After Sex (New York and Irish National Tour) and Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda (Irish National Opera), both directed by Tom Creed, as well as a season as Artistic Apprentice at Studio Theatre, assisting on productions of If I Forget, Kings and Queen of Basel. John is an Associate Artist at Solas Nua. He is an alumnus of the Donmar Warehouse’s Future Forms initiative and the Royal Court Writer’s Group, London. He holds an MA with Distinction in Text and Performance from RADA and Birkbeck, and a BA (Hons) in English from the University of Cambridge. www.johnking.ie
Helen Roche – performer
Dubliner Helen Roche trained at the Brendan Smith Theatre Academy and has worked in most Irish theaters over the years and has toured parts of the UK. Screen credits include Detainment (Oscar-nominated short), Fair City, The Northman, Moonhaven and My Sailor My Love. Also, soon-to-be-seen The Woman in the Wall (BBC), Obituary (RTE/Hulu) and Harry Wild Series 2 (RTE). Helen is delighted to be a part of One Moment Now and hopes everyone enjoys it.
Bairbre Ní Chaoimh – performer
Bairbre is an award-winning actor, director, and writer. She has worked extensively on stage, film, TV, and radio and toured nationally and internationally with all the major Irish theater companies. She was an Associate Artist at The Abbey Theatre and received an Irish Times Theatre Award while artistic director of Calypso. Apart from working in designated theaters she enjoys working collaboratively in site-specific locations to create provocative new work.
Austin Casey
Austin Casey is 7. He lives in Rathmines and attends St Mary’s College Junior School. He enjoys drama with Betty Ann Norton and other activities such as piano, tennis, cricket, and most sports. He was delighted to be involved with this piece.
Tilly Taylor – Producer
Tilly Taylor is an Independent Producer working across theater, dance, live performance, and festivals. Her work playfully traverses form and genre, by centering cross-disciplinary collaboration. In August 2023 she will take up the role of Producer for Dead Centre while continuing to work with a portfolio of Independent Artists across Ireland and the UK. Recent credits include Producer for Dublin Dance Festival (2021 – 22); Glimmer (Live Collision International Festival, 2022); Heat Sink (Dublin Theatre Festival, 2021); You’re Still Here (Dublin Fringe Festival 2021); Happy Days with Landmark Productions (Olympia Theatre, 2021). Prior to this she worked as Assistant Producer at Headlong, the UK’s leading touring company, and produced shows across the UK’s leading stages and theaters. Other companies she has worked with include Dublin Dance Festival, Landmark Productions, TED Conferences, New York Live Arts, Live Collision, Amanda Coogan, Dublin Theatre of the Deaf, Sugarglass Theatre, Create Ireland, and Trans Live Art Salon.
Jenny O’Malley – Sound Concept
Jennifer is a composer and sound designer based in Dublin who is a classically trained multi-instrumentalist and vocalist. She primarily composes electronic and orchestral music, often blending the two using her cello (among other acoustic instruments) and synthesizers while her sound design explores moving from organic to non-diegetic sound worlds. Some of her theater credits as a composer & sound designer include Summertime (Dublin Fringe, 2018), Iphigenia In Splott (Smock Alley Theatre, 2018), We Can’t Have Monkeys In The House (Peacock Theatre, 2019), Sauce (Bewley’s Cafe Theatre, 2019 & 2021), Restoration (Project Arts Centre, 2020), Venus In Fur (Project Arts Centre, 2020), SHIT (Project Arts Centre, 2020), Will I See You There (Dublin Fringe, 2020), Before You Say Anything (Dublin Fringe, 2020), Ar Ais Arís (Brightening Air, 2021), Goodnight Egg (Civic Theatre, 2021), Where Sat the Lovers (Dublin Fringe, 2021), Masterclass (Dublin Fringe, 2021), You’re Still Here (Dublin Fringe, 2021), Absent The Wrong (Dublin Fringe, 2022), Good Sex (Dublin Theatre Festival, 2022), and Haunted/If These Wigs Could Talk (Peacock Theatre, 2022). www.jenny.ie
ABOUT SOLAS NUA
Solas Nua – “new light” in Irish, acts as an ambassador and advocate for Irish arts in the U.S., promoting contemporary, multi-disciplinary Irish arts and culture. By offering new opportunities for artists based in both Ireland and the U.S., Solas Nua provides access and inclusion for artists and audiences to connect and participate on both sides of the Atlantic. They present, produce, and commission thought-provoking and ground-breaking work across the arts, and are recognized for making a substantive, unique contribution to the artistic and cultural richness of the city of Washington, DC, and beyond. Solas Nua presents work that is cross-cultural, representing today’s Ireland – a globally diverse society. Their programming reflects a conviction that Irish arts travel across borders, cultures, and socio-economic lines. Solas Nua is the recipient of the DC Mayor’s Arts Award for Innovation in the Arts, has received multiple Helen Hayes Awards and nominations, and has garnered international acclaim with features in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Irish Times, RTE National Broadcast, on the cover of American Theatre Magazine.
ABOUT MURMURATION
Murmuration is a Dublin-based collective of theater artists, making live, narrative sound installations in nontraditional spaces. They create rich, intricate soundscapes with the aim of fostering new ways of listening in our audiences. Their work is all about big-hearted close listening. Through their work they seek to reposition audiences in relation to their surroundings, creating vivid imaginary worlds. They have performed in bars, shopfronts, glass-walled galleries, and public squares, without physically augmenting any of those spaces; aiming to find the extraordinary in ordinary and unlikely locations. They believe this approach to be particularly urgent now when cultural spaces seem to be shrinking and becoming less accessible. They remain resolutely optimistic about Dublin and are committed to finding performative potential in its existing spaces, through the transformative power of sound and live performance.
Murmuration formed in 2018 to present Summertime at Dublin Fringe Festival where it was nominated for a Judges Choice Award, before being shown at Drogheda Arts Festival and at the Abbey Young Curators’ Festival the following year. In 2020 their second production, Will I See You There, premiered at the Gallery of Photography in Temple Bar as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival, and in 2021 they were commissioned to make their third show You’re Still Here at Dublin Castle, co-presented by Dublin Fringe and the Abbey Theatre, Ireland’s national theater. They have presented work-in-progress sharings of two other pieces: One Moment Now (2022), presented while inaugural Artists-in-Residence at Bewleys Café, and so close i noticed my breath on the glass (2020), presented as part of Corcadorca’s SHOW Festival.
