Video by Cáit O´Neill. Audio by Jenni Nikinmaa
The Enchanted is a promenade play – meaning the audience is walking through the experience – with binaural audio landscapes in silent disco headphones that transport the participants on the magical island of Hy-Brasil. In the legends, Hy-Brasil used to travel from Cork to Rathlin, only seen every seventh year; it was created by a magician to imprison a powerful king who felt no remorse. There were big black rabbits on its shores, and its buildings were made from silver or gold and it was nearly impossible to reach, as it always disappeared just before you could.
The Enchanted, a play written by Jenni Nikinmaa, was originally created for the islands on the west coast, but curiously, started its journey from Birr in the middle of Ireland, premiering in 2023 as part of the Vintage Week Festival. The main theme within the play is our relationship with the landscape, and the loss and sadness that follows when the climate catastrophe cuts us off from places we used to belong to. The Enchanted concentrates on water that swallows land, oceans that take over or the overflowing rivers; and it turned out that as a magical travelling and disappearing entity, the show can exist anywhere there is a body of water present.
We have since travelled to Longford, Galway, the Aran Islands and multiple islands and rivers in West Cork, and the show will keep appearing and disappearing throughout year 2025, and into the future, as its themes are not getting any less topical.
As a walk-through play, The Enchanted invites us into movement that in itself is healthy but that also allows us to approach the sadness and knowledge of what will be lost in a way that makes space for the difficult feelings. It is a healing experience, in a context where healing is categorized as giving agency to the body – and it is an exercise in relating back to the land that has become mistreated in so many ways in our hands.
“My favourite line in the play talks about the water womb of the ocean repeated in the human biology – ‘the water womb we mimic, the picture of god in us’ – and on the whole, the play speaks to my strong belief that the well-being of the whole is the well-being of the individual. And the whole won´t be treated with respect unless we start feeling bad about losing it, I guess.” Jenni Nikinmaa, playwright.
The show has been described by the audiences as unlike anything they've experienced before, an immersive fever dream – and most of those who entered Hy-Brasil really enjoyed their visit. The aural part of the play has been narrated by Mikel Murfi, Tonya Lenhart and Jenni Nikinmaa, and during the show, the audiences meet two characters: the Magician, played by Ali Keohane/Katy Mullins, and Sarah who fell asleep in 2073 in much worse conditions than now portrayed by Jenni.
The Enchanted is available for touring anywhere near a body of water, and it hosts a maximum of 20 participants at a time. You can find more information on the play at www.jennitiera.art/theenchanted.