Arts Week with Judy Murphy

“There’s no compromise when you are making work for children. In fact, you almost have to work harder,” says musician and theatre-maker Thomas Johnston. And he should know, because he’s been doing just that since 2011, when he set up Ceol Connected.

Ceol Connected produces traditional music, puppetry and storytelling for children. Over the years, Monaghan piper and whistle player Thomas has worked with poets, artists and dramatists to create a diverse variety of shows for the company.

So, it made sense to join forces with circus and aerial company, Fidget Feet, whose spectacles have gained it followers at home and abroad since it was founded in 2004 by Chantal McCormack and Jym Daly.

The result is When the Moon Spun Round, a spectacle that combines aerial dance and acrobatics with traditional music – one scene involves Thomas playing uilleann pipes while sailing across the stage on a trapeze.

It premiered in 2023 and will visit the city’s Black Box Theatre next week for several performances as part of a national tour.

“Chantal and I met in January 2020 in Philadelphia, at a showcase on producing work for young people. We knew of each other’s work and said ‘we need to make something together’,” says Thomas.

The resulting show was inspired by the children’s book, When the Moon Spun Round, published by O’Brien Press. Edited by Noreen Doody and illustrated by Shona Shirley Mcdonald, it features folklore and poetry by WB Yeats.

“That was our touchstone,” says Thomas of how they created the show, which got a five-star review from the Irish Times amid praise for it being ‘joyous . . . magical. . . visually spellbinding’ .

The creative process began with the performers, directors and technical crew sitting down with the book and discussing what inspired them about it.

“It was about embracing our sense of creativity and imagination, and embracing our inner kid,” says Thomas, recalling how they chatted about what might live on the other side of the moon.

Pictured: When the Moon Spun Round was created and is performed by the companies Fidget Feet and Ceol Connected.