{"id":14384,"date":"2017-06-13T16:42:15","date_gmt":"2017-06-13T15:42:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/?p=14384"},"modified":"2017-06-13T16:45:43","modified_gmt":"2017-06-13T15:45:43","slug":"national-theatre-stars-explore-syrian-conflict-at-seamus-heaney-homeplace","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2017\/06\/national-theatre-stars-explore-syrian-conflict-at-seamus-heaney-homeplace\/","title":{"rendered":"National Theatre stars explore Syrian conflict at Seamus Heaney HomePlace"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>Award-winning Irish actress\u00a0<strong>Olwen Fou\u00e9r\u00e9<\/strong>\u00a0and Syrian opera singer\u00a0<strong>Lubana Al Quntar<\/strong>\u00a0are to collaborate on a unique project exploring the Syrian conflict through Heaney\u2019s collection\u00a0<em>The Spirit Level,\u00a0<\/em>at Seamus Heaney HomePlace on\u00a0<strong>Saturday 24 June<\/strong>.<\/h1>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"alignright wp-image-14390\" src=\"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/06\/PicMonkey-Collage-9-1024x275.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"134\" \/>Currently starring together in\u00a0<em>Salom\u00e9\u00a0<\/em>at the National Theatre in London, Olwen and Lubana will take part in the latest in a series of events at HomePlace called\u00a0<strong><em>Performance Reflections<\/em><\/strong>, which invites a leading artist to respond \u2013 in whatever way they choose \u2013 to one of Seamus Heaney\u2019s poetry collections.<\/p>\n<p>The evening will be built around Olwen\u2019s performance of the epic Heaney poem\u00a0<em>Mycenae Lookout,\u00a0<\/em>in addition to musical contributions from Lubana.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking from the rehearsal room, Olwen said:<\/p>\n<p><em>\u201cThe Spirit Level explores issues of conflict and post-conflict society and Syria is one of the most potent areas of conflict in our world at the moment.\u00a0 I am thrilled that Lubana, as one of that country\u2019s most prominent artists, is able to collaborate on the event with me, to bring a fresh perspective on the conflict through her native music and Heaney\u2019s words.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Trained at the Royal College of Music in London, Lubana Al Quntar was the Head of the Opera Department at the High Institute of Music in Damascus, where she taught opera and Arabic singing techniques.\u00a0 Known as \u201cSyria\u2019s First Opera Singer\u201d, she\u00a0was forced to flee the country as a refugee in 2012 and now lives in the U.S., where she has performed in numerous venues, including the Kennedy Center.<\/p>\n<p>Olwen Fou\u00e9r\u00e9 is an actor, director and creative artist\u00a0who has worked with the Abbey Theatre, Gate Theatre, the Royal National Theatre in the UK and with numerous companies in France, Australia and the USA. She has performed her recent creation, the\u00a0internationally acclaimed &#8220;riverrun&#8221; (an adaptation of the voice of the river in James Joyce&#8217;s \u201cFinnegan\u2019s Wake\u201d), across the globe and has starred on film with Sean Penn in \u201cThis Must Be the Place\u201d and in \u201cThe Survivalist\u201d by director Stephen Fingleton.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Tickets for \u201cPerformance Reflections on\u00a0<em>The Spirit Level<\/em>\u201d are \u00a310 and are available to book online now at\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.seamusheaneyhome.com\/\">www.seamusheaneyhome.com<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Award-winning Irish actress\u00a0Olwen Fou\u00e9r\u00e9\u00a0and Syrian opera singer\u00a0Lubana Al Quntar\u00a0are to collaborate on a unique project exploring the Syrian conflict through Heaney\u2019s collection\u00a0The Spirit Level,\u00a0at Seamus Heaney HomePlace on\u00a0Saturday 24 June. Currently starring together in\u00a0Salom\u00e9\u00a0at the National Theatre in London, Olwen and Lubana will take part in the latest in a series of events at HomePlace &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/2017\/06\/national-theatre-stars-explore-syrian-conflict-at-seamus-heaney-homeplace\/\">Continued<\/a><!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on wp_trim_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14384"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14384"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14384\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14391,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14384\/revisions\/14391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatsonni.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}