[Source: Ottawa StoryTellers press release]
National Arts Centre, 4th Stage
March 15, 7:30 p.m.
$20 NAC box office or ticketmaster.ca
The Shortest Road Home, Stories from Ireland with Mike Burns
With the stories he heard as a child and has polished over decades of telling, Mike Burns will bring you to the places that still haunt him. It is a land of fogs and rugged cliffs, farming and fishing, evenings warmed by whiskey and turf and stories. You will know the glimmer of the embers in the hearth, and the old stories that have lived in the place names and in the minds and hearts of the people of the wild western coast of Ireland – the next parish to America, as it is sometimes called. These are stories of love, lust, and lies; bright blue spears and little folk; magic and mayhem; wise men and cruel kings; havoc and hunting; laughter and tears.
Mike Burns has been telling stories for over 40 years now and says he “has the feeling I may yet come good at it.” He got a lazy start, not having to leave the fireplace in his father’s house to hear stories and “seanchas”. He is a Gaelic speaker and has a repertoire of several hundred traditional stories from the lore of Iveragh (South Kerry). He gives concerts regularly at festivals across Canada and abroad. He has created a book-CD of stories (in French) and a CD of stories in English as well as being included in anthologies of Canadian storytellers in both French and English. He is a co-founder of Regroupement Du Conte au Québec (RCQ) and has been awarded the Girouette Cuivrée prize for services as a storyteller.
For more information or to arrange an interview, contact:
Caitlyn Paxson, Managing Artistic Director, Ottawa StoryTellers
MAD@ottawastorytellers.ca or info@ottawastorytellers.ca (tel: 613.322.8336)
www.ottawastorytellers.ca
