The acclaimed singer and flautist Rioghnach Connolly is to appear in She Moved Through The Fair: The Legend Of Margaret Barry at Kings Place, London on Saturday, March 16.
From Armagh, Northern Ireland, Rioghnach is well-known for her work with the Afro-Celt Sound System, The Breath, Honeyfeet and Band Of Burns, joins the great Irish singer Mary McPartlan, BBC Award winner Lisa Knapp and multi-instrumentalist Gerry Diver – who has recently been appearing with Damon Albarn and Paul Simenon in The Good, The Bad & The Queen – providing the music for Colin Irwin’s play about the extraordinary life of Margaret Barry, self-styled ‘queen of the gypsies’.
A lifelong fan of Barry, Rioghnach is excited to join the cast, which also features actors Gillian Horgan and Luke MacLeod in a variety of roles, alongside Colin Irwin, who narrates the story. I saw the show at the Sidmouth Folk Festival and was deeply moved by Margaret’s story which has been brought to life by Colin Irwin’s painstaking research. The show is rich in recollections that Colin has collected through research and interviews with family and friends, it’s both humorous and deeply moving and is one of the best biopic stage plays I’ve seen to date, it was like she’s was there on stage.
Born in 1917, Barry left home at 16 with nothing but a bicycle and a banjo tied to her back to sing on the streets of Ireland. What happened next is folk music legend. Discovered singing on a street corner by Alan Lomax the outrageous Barry sailed to England to appear on a David Attenborough TV show and became the toast of the London Irish pubs and folk clubs.
She went on to have many colourful adventures in America, involving film stars, boxers and even a president; and along the way insulted Frank Sinatra, hung out with, Bob Dylan and Johnny Cash, attended Elvis Presley’s wedding and drank Brendan Behan under the table.
Premiered to a standing ovation at Celtic Connections festival in Glasgow last year, this marks the first appearance of the show in the city where she made such a revered name for herself
Here is a video of Mary McPartlan, Lisa Knapp and Gerry Diver rehearsing one of the songs in the show – Loving Hannah.
Tickets and more details here https://www.kingsplace.co.uk/whats-on/folk/she-moved-through-the-fair-legend-of-margaret-barry/