De-coding Corcadorca is by now a commonplace Cork occupation, but signs and portents can rarely have been so mixed as at last week’s typically crowded launch event for the company’s forthcoming Relocation project.
Who could even hear the soft-toned Cillian Murphy over the crunching of bruschetta? And what did John Kennedy, director of Cork 2005, mean when he said that in considering the programme he had a sense of having already been in Elizabeth Fort, and even "in the courthouse, which is where I'm probably going next"?
Despite his claim to having a zen-like calm, the interpretation had to be a reference to the funding and marketing criticisms assailing his organisation in the previous few days - some emanating from his host Pat O'Leary of the Pizza Republic venue for this launch.
O'Leary himself, proprietor with his wife Eilis of the popular Fenns Quay restaurant opposite the courthouse, must have wondered at the programme description of the Grid Iron offering as "a dark and luscious production inspired by Cork's food culture".
Corcadorca's Pat Kiernan always knows what he's doing, and there is no longer any mystery about the theatrical centrepiece for the Capital of Culture year, with companies from France, Scotland and Poland joining in a season of site-specific plays, closing off streets - an arctic Grand Parade for Victor Frankenstein from June 3rd-5th - and buildings, from medieval Elizabeth Fort from May 20th-25th for What Bloodied Man is That?, to the courthouse for The Merchant of Venice from June 14th and a city centre hotel for Grid Iron's The Devil's Larder for July.
