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Ali Wright

A journey through music, youth culture and loss is coming to Ballymun

A new work opens tonight in the Axis theatre.

JESSIE IS MOURNING the loss of her father, who died by suicide. Oppressed by her life in Leeds, a chance encounter with a singer songwriter brings Jessie to London, where she hopes to reconnect with her estranged mother. 

Jessie’s trip brings her through gigs, parties, city streets and warehouses, all to the tune of a reverberating soundtrack that follows her all the way.

An exploration of youth culture, psychosis and loss, Electrolyte – which opens tonight in the Axis Theatre Ballymun – tells Jessie’s story is through a live onstage band with a narrative script delivered in spoken word style.

The work – which was first staged last year and has won numerous awards – is a piece of gig theatre: a mashup of live music and storytelling playing out on stage. 

Director of Axis Ballymun Mark O’Brien saw Electrolyte performed last year performed at the Edinburgh Fringe and said it “utterly blew him away”. 

O’Brien told TheJournal.ie that the play – with its focus on mental health awareness, new voices and experimental form – fitted in with the ethos and mission statement of the Axis.

Six multi-instrumentalists make up the cast, and the production is directed by the Olivier award-winning Donnacadh O’Briain with music composed by Maimuna Memon.

“It really sits in the middle between performance and gig,” O’Brien said. 

It really aligned with out strand of developing new work from new voices in a new form and from an urban perspective to tell a very universal story in the work.

The work has won numerous awards including the Mental Health Fringe Award, the Stepladder Award, The LET Award. 

Creative Space 

Inclusion, diversity, supporting positive mental health and introducing new voices to theatre are at the centre of Axis Ballymun’s mission statement. 

Writing about Electrolyte this week, O’Brien said that the relationship between creativity, the arts and mental health “has also been at the heart of our work in axis for many years”.

“Participation in one’s own creativity, whether that’s as a professional artist, a child, or an adult taking their first steps onto the stage or into a workshop, can have profound effects on the individual,” he said. 

This what Axis Ballymun is all about; creating a space where people can congregate, examine, be entertained, be moved, discuss, share and try out new ideas in a safe environment.

Following on from other initiatives, Axis began the Creative Space programme in 2014 – a project “exploring young men, creativity and mental health”. 

This project has taken many forms since then, including day-long creative takeovers of the Axis building to engaging seminars and peer-led workshops. O’Brien said that it was within this context that Electrolyte was being brought to the Axis. 

“To say it struck a chord would be to underestimate its profound impact on me. It spoke to our projects, to the idea of a ‘creative space’, to the drive for inclusion, to the drive to deliver top quality work that can be transformative,” he said. 

This show is at the heart of programme this season and speaks to so much of our work in Axis, particularly as we celebrate new voices and new work both on and off our stage at a local, national and international level.

Electrolyte will open night and runs until Saturday. Tickets are available here 

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    Mute Daffers
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 12:55 PM

    Wow. To be the 7th least failed state in the world is mindblowing… simply for the thought that most are in a worse position than us!

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    Mute Alex simon
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 1:35 PM

    We are better than canada! And the usa not bad

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    Mute Treasa Lynch
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 1:21 PM

    Am I reading that right? Only three other EU members are less failed states than Ireland is?

    God that must really irritate the crew who consider us a complete banana republic.

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    Mute Kevin O Sullivan
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 1:03 PM

    i thought everything in the nordic countries was top banna. seeings they are always held up as the ones to be like

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    Mute Claire O'Dwyer
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 1:09 PM

    That article doesn’t make a whole pile of sense..

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    Mute fizi_water
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 2:57 PM

    This ranking is not about quality of life, etc. like some comments suggest you read that. It’s about peace and military risks in particular countries.

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    Mute Ryan Murphy
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 6:11 PM

    I suppose it’s “our” fault that seven of the ten worst countries are in Africa.

    Haiti was a cesspit ever before the tragedy there, sadly, and now they’ve turned to raping one another.

    Iraq and Afghanistan are a whole other story!

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    Mute fitszpatrick
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    Jun 24th 2011, 12:10 AM

    Hail the baldy Nazis dem dam nigras don’t have a clue

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    Mute Ryan Murphy
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    Jun 24th 2011, 1:23 AM

    You’re some gowl.

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    Mute David Higgins
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 6:05 PM

    I hope we can move up near Switzerland at some stage. Tighter borders, lower-taxes, and they have their own currency!!!

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    Mute Dave Finn
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 11:10 PM

    Lower taxes? Really? Any mid Europe states i’ve lived in were thieves when it came to tax! (admittedly i’ve not lived in Switzerland, but it is one of my favourite places!)

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    Mute Shaafici Cali
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 1:40 PM

    really this is propaganda somalia is not leading top list there is bit exageration we aware of that somalia is devastated country and failure state indicating humanitarian crises and human rights abuses ,killing ,abducting, hijacking raping but there is still hope to survive this condition we are not hopeless our people still struggling to control there live style and to restore the country peace and stability so that we are not top list becouse this means no hope

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    Mute fizi_water
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 3:03 PM

    Sorry, but what is actually your point, I struggle to understand? Thanks.

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    Mute wayupnorth
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    Jun 23rd 2011, 4:11 PM

    I think the point was that “there is hope”.

    And yes, if other countries stopped interfering, there probably would be. For example:
    “The United States has quietly poured weapons and military advisers into Ethiopia, whose recent invasion of Somalia opened a new front in the Bush administration’s war on terrorism …” etc etc. 1/8/2007

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