There’s a saying in Ireland; You have to be invited to a wedding, but anyone can show up to a wake.

An Irish wake is the ultimate all night party. A gorgeous liminal space and time filled with music, story, dance, hijinx, and shared catharsis.

This was the opening impulse for our spectacle entertainment, WAKE. We wanted to make a show that platformed the very best of the extraordinary talent on the island of Ireland, as well as showcasing Irish culture through a high-octane contemporary lens. And so, we built a show around the skills of our family of performers with the Irish wake as the show’s narrative spine.

The wake is widely known as an ancient all-night Irish funeral rite, but more than that, it’s a magical act of transformation that lifts the veil between this world and the next, facilitating magnificent change. Theatre does that too – it holds space for shared experience and allows for collective catharsis. And so this epic show was born.

Brimming with glitter, beats and banging tunes, and described by critics as ‘Riverdance for club queens’, this is a new era for Irish culture as the world knows it. WAKE takes tradition and flips it on its head in a show that is both a celebration and an outpouring. It has become a public ritual that brings communities from all walks of life together to experience joy, grief and release.

WAKE is spectacle theatre. The kind of event that defies categorisation and exceeds expectation. It’s a cultural mash up; a heady cocktail of trad instruments, live band, Irish tap, fierce spoken word, outrageous cabaret, jaw dropping aerial and big production numbers. It’s foot stomping, heart pounding, hands-in-the-air fun. We’ve poured our passion into making it, and the performers leave everything on that stage each night.

WAKE is also an invitation to come together. In these times of division and isolation, it’s a reminder of the power of theatre, of live events. To be in big rooms with fellow citizens, friends, loved ones. To enjoy a night out together, to share joy, to have blazing craic with a theatre full of like-minded folk. To laugh, breathe, roar, cry, together. That’s the Irish wake – demanding we get together, live.

Jennifer Jennings and Phillip McMahon, Co-Directors of THISISPOPBABY and WAKE