Sun 12/5 @ 5:30PM
Tomáseen Foley is an Irish writer and storyteller who, 26 years ago, put together a program called A Celtic Christmas that recreates a Christmas Eve in a small rural town in southwestern Ireland in the 1950s. Undoubtedly it glosses over the privations endured there but who needs that during the holidays? In his version it’s all music and singing and dancing and sharing stories about Christmases past around the fire.
He relates on his website the magic he found in his childhood Christmases, which fueled this show: “It was as if, at Christmastime, an errant (perhaps tipsy!) angel left the door to Heaven slightly ajar, and the heavenly light shone down on us mere mortals for the duration of the Christmas season. And the neighbors, drawn together irresistibly by that light, would gather around the fire at each others’ homes, and, it seemed to me as a child, would almost raise the rafter of the house the wild joy of their jigs, reels and hornpipes, and the dancers knocked sparks of the flagstone floors. There would silences, too, when someone sang one of the old Christmas songs, and then the night might roar again with raucous laughter when the storytellers hit their stride.”
He’s bringing his multi-talented ensemble to the Medina Performing Arts Center for one performance that’s suitable for the whole family. (Bet on your non-Irish daughters wanting to take Irish dance lessons afterwards!) Tickets are $24-$32. Go here to get them.