An intimate, darkly comic essay-performance that reflects on the meanings and functions of fire in life and art. Moving between childhood experiments with homemade fireworks, family and national history and the author’s novel Deep Burn, Brendan Mac Evilly traces a lifelong fascination with flame. At its centre sits an elusive story about the burning of an inherited uniform—a moment that hovers between memory and invention—asking why we are drawn to fire and what can it transform?

Combining live reading, projected media, sound and ceramics, the piece considers fire as a force of attraction, creation, remembrance and release. 

Written and performed: Brendan Mac Evilly

Director and media design: David McGovern

Music: Irene Buckley

Recorded Readings: Aisling Flynn