Bradán's new show at Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin, as part of Scene + Heard Festival.

15th + 16th February, 2025.​

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​A redemption gig for a disgraced band that went viral 5 years ago for electrocuting all the fish in a river with their amps. Now they're in their apology tour era.

But not only is everything in the gig going wrong, there's also a dastardly plan afoot... the gig *might* be a ruse to sell the audience's souls to the Toad Man who lives in the river, in exchange for fame and fortune. From Axis Green Arts Award winners 2022.

 

Kate Bauer and I co-composed the music for the show, writing 4 original songs together and some additional spooky soundscape sections. I played uilleann pipes, cello, and sang; and Kate Bauer played synthesiser, bass guitar, and sang. We also sent the pipes through some cavernous reverb/delays at one point to achieve the voice of the Toad Man, which was super fun!

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Presented as a work-in-progress in Scene + Heard Festival, co-written by James Ireland and Kate Bauer. Produced by Orla Devlin and Bradán.​

Image by Simon Geaney.

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A production as Gaeilge agus Béarla

Samuel Beckett Theatre, Dublin, February 2025, as part of the Trinity College Capstone Projects.

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 I composed some music using Irish traditional & folk instruments for highlight moments of the show and the pre-show/post-show front of house space.

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As the script is a relationship story as much as it is a broader story about political authoritarianism and censorship, I wanted to create music that felt down-to-earth and warm, with smaller moments in the tracks allowing for grander flights of emotion.

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The production itself was a very interesting one, with director Kate Feehily using the themes of language censorship in the original text as a jumping-off point to examine the treatment of the Irish language in Ireland. Scenes pre-language censorship in the script were performed in free-flowing Irish, and post-language censorship scenes were spoken in stilted and halting English.

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Image by Connie Angela McGowan

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Blasted, by Sarah Kane, directed by Glenn Murray

Samuel Beckett Theatre, Dublin, December 2024.

As part of Trinity College Capstone Projects.

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 I sound designed the show, building a low-level realist soundscape of street noise outside the hotel window that bleeds into the sounds of war across the first two acts. I also composed an expressionistic rendition for the mortar strike that hits the stage. It was a delight to fold my design around the highlight moment that the director and assistant director put together of a live piano and 20 person Ukrainian choir for the climax of the piece.

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The Ocean Shifts Under Our Feet by James Ireland

The Glitch, London, June 2024.

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For two weeks every summer, the river runs dry. Strange things happen in that time. A ghost rises out of the Thames. A woman falls in love. A North Atlantic right whale searches for its next body for reincarnation.

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I composed ghostly trad-influenced fiddle and tin whistle music to score the production, as well as playing the part of the sexy ghost.

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Short play produced by Patch Plays in their ecological/animal rights-focused scratch night. Directed by Anastasia Bunce.

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First produced by Sunday's Child and Belltable Limerick, in their scratch night as part of Future Limerick Climate Arts Festival, May 2024. 

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Space Deli: The Musical, by Pay Attention! Collective

Smock Alley Main Space, Dublin, March 2024.

As part of Scene + Heard Festival 2024.

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Space Deli - a musical set in a deli. In space.

I performed electric guitar (lead) as part of the three-person live new wave/rock band. I collaboratively co-composed the songs with the cast and crew under the musical directorship of Mitch Hamilton.

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Just one Law, directed by Sonia Bishop

Smock Alley Theatre, Main Space, Dublin, Feb 2024.

As part of Scene + Heard Festival 2024.

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I performed a live improvised score for the show each night, using electric guitar and effects pedals - reacting to and interpreting the journey that the performers took us on each night, and the hilarity and madness that unfolded onstage.​​​​

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A comedic show about the artist finding pictures of her feet uploaded to a fetish website, and about women's control over their own images online spaces.

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- Smock Alley Boy's School, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, 2023.

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I composed two original tracks with writer-performer Gráinne Blumenthal for the play - one conventional show tune-style musical number, and one much more thoughtful and interior moment of repose.

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In addition to these, I recorded a number of vocal soundscapes with Gráinne that I edited together to form fun and lighthearted background sound for a number of scenes - a soundscape of New York City, a train running down the tracks, and a nightclub in Greece. These were super fun and added even more personality to a play that was already full of laughs. I also voice acted for the play.

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Praise for sound design:

"Singing show tunes to the hilt of absurdity, [...] Blumenthal is made for the stage."

- The Irish Times ★★★★

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Image by Simon Lazewski

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A climate-focused piece set in a town in Wales set to be decommissioned.

 

- Pleasance, London, 2023

 

My design for the show was rooted in audio of natural soundscapes, with a focus on ever-present water to constantly remind us of the threat of the rising sea in the play. I used audio from mountain streams, rivers, rain, and ocean waves to achieve this. In key moments I created heightened, distorted versions of the audio using reverb, distortion, and filter sweeps to further drive this home.

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In addition to this, I composed some short musical interludes for transitions and the buildup to the climactic scene of the play. These were predominantly quite sparsely composed piano pieces, but I did use other instruments and some light effects to begin to fill out the sound as the tension in the play increased.

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Award-winning ecological gig theatre about industrial fishing and climate collapse.

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- Pleasance Courtyard, as part of Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2022

- VOILA! Festival of European Theatre, London, 2022

- VAULT Festival, London, 2023.

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The cast and crew collaboratively composed a number of original trad/folk songs and live soundscapes for the show. I composed electronic soundscapes for the climax of the show, as well as being the sound tech for the live sound for the performances.

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Image by Paul John Roberts​

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A physical theatre/dance piece

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I composed an ominous Irish folk-influenced score for this physical theatre/dance piece. The score centred on violin, harmonium, and vocals. I had a lot of fun being able to create a more expressive score because of the amount of dance in the piece relative to spoken word.

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Two other compositions for later scenes in the production centred each on

- layers of cello, bodhran, and vocals slipping in and out of the traditional reel 'The Old Bush', creating a huge, deep, pulsing, breathing wall of sound.

- a delicate violin melody, duetting with the vocals of the main performer humming a high D drone note.

This was a beautifully fragile way to end the show.

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18 + 19 Feb, 6:30pm, as part of Scene + Heard Festival, at Smock Alley Theatre Dublin, 2025.​​

Image by Lee Robinson.

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A clowning show about how to have sex. Clown sex.​

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All aboard the train to Sexy Town! Two hopefuls embark on a journey of sexual discovery… but they need your help to get off.

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I ran a voiceover recording session with the two performers, and made some silly sound effects and voiceover sections for the production.

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28 Feb + March 1, 8pm, as part of Scene + Heard Festival, in Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin.

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Our Brothers in Cloth by Ronan Colfer

The Cockpit Theatre, London, August 2024.

As part of Camden Fringe Festival.

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I scored the piece with original compositions on violin and viola, taking influence from Irish traditional music, and from more expressionist compositions for rougher angstier moments of the production.

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The Hills of Love by Áine Ryan

Clonmel Junction Arts Festival, July 2024.

A co- production between The Source Arts Centre and Clonmel Junction Arts Festival.

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Three women. Three love stories. A play about intergenerational women dating in rural Ireland navigating the complexities of love, lust and longing. From forgotten sweet spots to the excitement of mature dating, this witty and apt story delves into the lives of three lonely women seeking connection in a remote townland.

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I built a sound design around popular female-fronted rock ballads and folk songs (Joan Jett, Mary Coughlan, Pat Benatar, Lisa O'Neill, and more), giving the audience recognisable tunes with women front and centre for transition music and the pre-/post-show. 

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Clyde Inside, by Rock Bottom Saloon

Smock Alley Theatre, Main Space, Dublin, Feb 2024.

As part of Scene + Heard Festival 2024.

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In this dark theatrical comedy, a gay couple try to save their relationship through unorthodox means: a DIY porn shoot.

I composed and sound designed the show. I focused on synthesiser and dreamwave vibes, scoring some alternate reality dreamscapes, and emotional but hollow direct-address monologues.

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Produced by Rock Bottom Saloon, directed by Ois O'Donoghue.​​

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A Christmas Carol like you've never seen it before: an experience that will have you questioning the meaning of Christmas.

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- Theatre Deli, London, December 2023.

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I composed two original songs for this play. One was a cheesy singalong Christmas tune for the end of the play, with a solo verse for each main character, and a big singalong chorus that we got the audience involved in. Led by guitar, with lots of vocal harmonies by the cast, trombone composed & performed by Elinor Peregrin, and sleigh bells.

 

The second song was a horrifying interruption to the Cratchits' Christmas dinner by a goose that doesn't want to be eaten - very different in tone to the other tune! The main objectives here were to give the performer as much character fun to work with, and as unhinged and comedic a song for the audience to enjoy as possible, whilst still hitting the core beats of animal rights and vegetarian/veganism inherent in the idea.

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An ethereal show about the magpie in Irish mythology with live trad music.

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- The Space Theatre, London, 2023.

 

I composed and played live music for the show, and built upon an electronic playback soundscape that had been composed by designer Richard Durning for an earlier work-in-progress version of the project.

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Instruments included fiddle, harmonium, low whistle, loop pedal, and acoustic guitar. For the playback compositions I used samples of acoustic and trad instruments, predominantly cello, uilleann pipes, and processed woodwinds from Spitfire Labs.

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Praise for live music:

"Accompanied by live music across a wide array of instruments [...] each note fleshing out an atmosphere that is far more intimate than a normal stage performance, as if the audience is crouching over the same campfires that have kept these stories alive for millennia.

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The haunting music always played expertly by Ireland ensures that each scene's emotion is conveyed regardless of what's being said."

- London Pub Theatres - ★★★★1/2

 

"Deftly blends folklore with riveting live music [...] invites us into a multi-sensory dreamscape"

- Fringebiscuit - ★★★★

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"Lovingly told with a luscious musical underscore, Three Things That Are Never Seen is a still and magical piece"

- Everything Theatre

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Image by Mark Iondolo

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A short play where a looming breakup slowly dissolves two videogame-obsessed characters' universes.

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- Token, Dublin, as part of Plays Full of SHITE, 2023.

 

For this show, we had 10 hours to create a play in a day from Aoife Meagher's script. I live-scored the piece with a post-rock style electric guitar with heavy reverb and delay. I also used MIDI controlled pads that I heavily processed with distortions and downsampling to echo the characters' retro videogame world, and drive the inevitable sense of aching hollow cataclysm as the play builds.

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A bedroom demo of the composition is recorded below, which was played live underneath the soaringly beautiful dialogue of the characters' universes falling apart.

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An award-winning live cooking performance for our future.

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- The New Theatre, Dublin, as part of Dublin Fringe Festival 2022

- FeastFest, London, 2023.

 

The design for this show included composing a song to play live at the climax of the piece, and gathering recorded audio from the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland to form a soundscape underneath the main body of the show.

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Praise for sound design:

"Ireland beautifully rounds this bite-sized, 30-minute piece with a blessing over the Vegan Salmon of Knowledge before we indulge. Their dulcet melodies are a rich complement to the food, grounding, memorialising, and lending a sense of hope that humankind might find a way through environmental catastrophe after all."

- Fringebiscuit - ★★★★

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