Solas Nua, Washington, DC’s premier contemporary Irish arts organization, presents a groundbreaking theater/VR and audio-immersive double-billing featuring Murmuration’s Summertime and Brú Theatre’s Ar Ais Arís. Generously supported by Culture Ireland, the event will take place November 1 – November 17, 2024, at Eaton House (1203 K St NW, Washington, DC). In a cutting-edge fusion of live performance and technology merging into a single experience, Solas Nua invites audiences to engage in a theatrical journey that expands the boundaries of traditional storytelling. The use of headphones and VR headsets creates an experience where attendees can immerse themselves in the narratives of Summertime and Ar Ais Arís and intimately connect with the characters as their stories unfold in real time.     SOLAS NUA AND MURMURATION PRESENT SUMMERTIME Murmuration and Solas Nua present Summertime – a live performance enhanced through headphones in an intimate, storytelling experience. Written by James Elliott and directed by John King, the production explores the troubled relationship of Stash, an artist who works in a pub, and Steve, her boyfriend. Solas Nua’s previous presentation of Murmuration’s audio installation, One Moment Now, was hosted by Tony Award-winning Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company last fall. The production offers a fresh spin of a romance story between Stash, an artist who works in a pub, and Steve, her boyfriend. With Stash’s voice heard in the left headphone and Steve’s in the right, the nuances of their relationship unfold simultaneously as they tell audiences how their relationship fell apart and found itself again – in unison. One thoughtless comment knocks the pair out of sync, and the fallout causes a rift that only deepens over the course of a summer. Hear both sides of the story, intricately rendered with a dynamic sound design from Jenny O’Malley, that synthesizes in the end with deep listening of dual perspectives. Dublin’s The Arts Review gives Summertime five stars, calling it “heartfelt, genius, and beautifully executed.” Solas Nua’s Executive Director, Andrew Dolan, comments, “Murmuration and Brú are two dynamic young companies that are bursting onto the international scene, and it’s not hard to see why. They both embody the best traditions of powerful Irish storytelling but put their unique spin on how their shows are delivered, surprising and delighting audiences everywhere they go. This is the type of contemporary, cutting-edge artistry that Solas Nua loves to showcase, and we can’t wait to share these two productions with DC theatergoers.” SOLAS NUA AND BRÚ THEATRE PRESENT AR AIS ARÍS Solas Nua presents Brú Theatre’s Ar Ais Arís as a double-billing with Summertime. Making its US premiere after captivating audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, Ar Ais Arís is a VR immersive theater experience that combines Irish language, literature, and visual poetry. Directed by James Riordan, the piece draws inspiration from the writings of Máirtín Ó Cadhain, Pádraic Ó Conaire, and Nuala Ní Dhomhnail to explore the profound experience of migration. Through a series of pivotal moments — departure, return, and reckoning — the work delves into the physical and emotional landscapes of those who leave and those who come back. Hailed by The Irish Times as “Absorbing, evocative and sometimes unsettling,” Ar Ais Arís invites audiences to “lose” themselves “in this evocative, contemporary take on some of the finest writing in the Irish language.” In this work, Brú’s team of performers, creators, designers, and composers have come together to create three unique 180° films, immersing audiences in a fusion of movement, text, music, and Connemara landscape through the use of VR headsets. Solas Nua’s Artistic Director of Theatre, Rex Daugherty, shares, “Murmuration and Brú represent the next generation of incredible talent from the island of Ireland. These two companies make work that place you inside of stories, hearing the rich inner life of the characters and losing yourself in the magic of how they capture their audiences. When I first experienced Summertime, I was impressed with the level of sophistication and theatrical innovation of the piece, as well as how it still tugged at my heartstrings in all the ways great stories do. Likewise, with Ar Ais Arís, I was moved by the landscape and language of Ireland that Brú captures with sweeping poetic beauty. “John King and James Riordan are both resident directors at The Abbey Theatre, and their theatrical vision deserves an international platform. I’m very proud for Solas Nua to introduce these artists to the US.” ABOUT SOLAS NUA Solas Nua – ‘new light’ in Irish, is an international arts organization based in DC that is exclusively dedicated to contemporary Irish arts. Founded in 2005, Solas Nua acts as an ambassador and advocate for Irish arts in the U.S., promoting contemporary Irish culture, multi-disciplinary arts, and creativity. Solas Nua commissions, produces, and presents thought-provoking and groundbreaking work across genres, work that is cross-cultural – representing today’s Ireland, a contemporary, globally diverse society – and reflecting how Irish culture is shared across borders, ethnicity, and economic lines. ABOUT MURMURATION Murmuration is a Dublin-based collective of theater artists, making live, narrative sound installations in nontraditional spaces. We create rich, intricate soundscapes with the aim of fostering new ways of listening in our audiences. Our work is all about big-hearted close listening. ABOUT BRÚ THEATRE Hello agus Fáilte. We are Brú Theatre, a theater company based in Galway making work at the intersection between contemporary theater forms and the languages, literatures and landscapes of where we are from. We use virtual reality, drag, physical theater, new writing and mask merged with the traditions, superstitions and musicality in the work make, offering something new for audiences both in person and in digital spaces.