A Luke Casserly, Solas Nua and Abbey Theatre Production
Commissioned by Solas Nua

A performative journey that takes you to the Irish bog landscape through scent.

Distillation is a response to the recent cessation of the peat harvesting industry in Ireland. Over the past year, Luke Casserly has collaborated with renowned perfume maker Joan Woods to create a unique distillation of the Midlands bog—the place where he grew up—as the starting point for an olfactory encounter that looks at our human relationship to place. Dedicated to the future of our broken landscapes—in the hope that by listening to them, we might be able to better understand them.

Part interactive lecture, part performance, Distillation features original text, video, sound design, and sculpture.  The audience are seated around a large custom-made table and are gently invited to hold organic materials and smell parts of the landscape as part of the experience. The perfume featured as part of the project was designed by Joan Woods, who collected and distilled botanicals from the Irish Midlands as part of the creative process. Each audience member is gifted a small sample of the custom-made perfume as part of the performance.

Run time is 50 mins, without intermission. Please note that latecomers cannot be admitted once the performance has started. Seats are limited to 25.