The Rambler is built from a rich blend of performance languages, drawing from Ireland’s cultural heritage while pushing into contemporary forms of expression. At its core, the project brings together six performers working with mentors in Irish Dance, Aerial Silk, and Dramaturgy, alongside live Irish traditional musicians whose presence shapes not just the sound but the rhythm, atmosphere, and pulse of the piece. This meeting of forms ensures that the show remains a living, breathing dialogue between movement, music, and story.

The work is framed around an exploration of what it means to be Irish — both then and now. That question is not answered in words alone, but through the body, through rhythm, and through the act of performance itself. It asks how our inherited traditions, such as sean-nós and set dancing, still resonate today, and how they transform when placed alongside circus and aerial disciplines that carry their own histories of spectacle and risk. The tension between these forms allows the piece to sit at the crossroads of past and present, tradition and experiment.

Clowning is a central influence, not just as a performance style but as a way of seeing the world. The clown embodies both joy and sorrow, presence and fragility — a figure who must continue to perform, no matter the cost. Within this piece, the clown becomes a mirror for the artist’s role in society: caught between the grandeur of public expectation and the solitude of private creation. The contrast between scale and intimacy becomes a recurring theme — from the roar of the crowd to the stillness of an artist rehearsing alone in a quiet room.

The visual world of the piece is informed by Jack B. Yeats’ circus paintings, which capture the strangeness, colour, and human drama of performance. Just as Yeats found beauty and complexity in the fleeting lives of performers, The Rambler seeks to honour both the spectacle and the vulnerability of those who step into the light of the stage.

Live Irish ballads and storytelling traditions further shape the performance, reminding us that song is more than entertainment — it can be a call for peace, a way to hold memory, and an act of resistance. At the heart of the show lies a poignant historical question: can art truly bring people together, even when divisions run deep? And if so, what is the cost to the performer who takes on that task?

By blending physical theatre, clowning, circus, Irish dance, and live music, The Rambler creates a space where old and new forms collide. In this meeting ground, the performers ask not only how we inherit our cultural past, but how we can use art to shape the present — and perhaps to imagine a different kind of future.