eX’s Catríona O’Leary performing in the ensemble’s 2009 production Shipwrecked.

Dublin-based early music ensemble eX will perform their staged and costumed show ‘Possessed’, under the artistic direction of Eric Fraad and Caitríona O’Leary, across four counties in June. The show will open in Newbridge on 7 June, before playing on successive days in Wexford, Tuam and Dublin. 

Possessed, originally commissioned by the Galway Early Music Festival in 2010, will be presented in four segments each exploring different types of possession, from religious ecstacy to demonic possession to voodoo to tarantism. eX will perform a selection of folias as entr’actes.

Possessed will feature music by composers Hildegard von Bingen, Guillaume Dufay, Martín y Coll, alongside improvisations based on 16th, 17th & 18th century Spanish, Italian and New World music. A range of international soloists will appear, including O’Leary, Clara Sanabras and Steven Player.

A recording of Possessed will be released in October 2012 through Heresy Records.

More details are here.