The Whistling Girl

The Whistling Girl

Wednesday, 20 March 2019, 7.30pm

The acclaimed Irish duo of singer/actress Honor Heffernan ( Louis Stewart, Neil Jordan’s “Angel”), and composer/keyboard player Trevor Knight (Auto Da Fe), present their Cabaret/Speakeasy-style show, “The Whistling Girl”, creating a spellbinding alternative musical extravaganza of song and spoken word based on the lyrics of American wit and feminist icon Dorothy Parker. The original and unique music composed by Trevor transforms the poems of Parker into songs, using her witty, droll and sometimes heart-rending lyrics.
Each of the songs create individual tableaux or dream moments from Parker’s psyche, conjuring up images from her tempestuous life of outrageous celebrity, as a founding member of the notorious Algonquin set in New York, and as a civil rights activist in America and Spain during the Spanish Civil War.

With a lineup of highly renowned Irish musicians, the atmosphere for a spellbinding evening of music with a theatrical element is brought to life with a live band of Garvan Gallagher bass, Tom Jamieson drums, Ed Deane electric guitar and Bill Blackmore trumpet.
To date, they have performed sell-out shows at the Irish Arts Centre in New York in November 2017, completed two successful tours of Ireland, including an Arts Council funded tour in Sept/October 2017, plus shows at The Belgrade Irish Festival, Serbia, Cathedral Quarter Festival Belfast and the Cork Jazz Festival.

The release of the album “The Whistling Girl” is the culmination
of two and a half years work between vocalist Honor Heffernan and Trevor Knight, who composed the music on the album using the words of the famous American wit, writer and human rights campaigner Dorothy Parker and is available on Bandcamp at https://trevorknight.bandcamp.com/album/the-whistling-girl ( Album Preview and download) and Tower Records.

REVIEWS

“Sometimes a role comes along that allows a performer to weave all the strands of their artistry into one darkly thrilling tapestry; Honor Heffernan has found such a role in The Whistling Girl; a daring production that uses music, song and elements of theatre to celebrate the life of the legendary wit and writer, Dorothy Parker”
Billy O’Hanluain Writer, contributor to Arts Show RTE, Arena RTE, the View RTE

“….as fresh and original a collection of songs as you’ll hear this year…. New York critics raved when the show debuted there last month…” **** Irish Times (Review of CD)

“I thoroughly enjoyed this evening with Dorothy Parker (the excellent Honor Heffernan) and her musicians’ “Vicious Circle” of band members. You will too.”
Theater Pizazze New York

“…this show was massive and completely blew me away…I loved every minute…Heffernan was simply amazing…this was the highlight of this year’s Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival.” Michael Barbour (Gigging NI)

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Published by Damian Evans on 2 March 2019

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