2023 to 2025
The Last Céilí has grown out of several years of research, performance and artistic enquiry through Lisa Lambe’s Nightvisiting project. That earlier work, shaped through archive material, song, folklore and lived testimony, created the foundation for a deeper exploration of famine, departure, women’s voices and the rituals of leave taking.
2025 to 2026
The new work is now in active development through archival research, music exploration, text development and dramaturgical shaping. Core musical, textual and staging material is taking form, with touring practicality and technical simplicity being considered from the outset.
Autumn 2026
A creation residency in Ireland will bring the work fully into the room, focusing on the final running order, musical structure and staging language. Small audience sharings will help test pacing, clarity, intimacy and technical footprint.
From 2027
Presentation and touring conversations are continuing in parallel with development, with the work being shaped for flexible presentation across theatres, festivals, university settings, museums and heritage contexts.
A possible presentation window
Late May would offer a particularly resonant presentation window for The Last Céilí in Canada. On 31 May 1847, forty ships lay off Grosse Île carrying around 12,500 famine emigrants, one of the starkest moments in the history of Irish arrival in Canada. A late May presentation would place the work close to that shared historical moment, while also aligning with the wider season of famine remembrance.