You have written a backstory and The Fallen emerges from there?
The Fallen begins with a man who wakes up in a void. He doesn’t know he is buried under the first fairy tree. His last memories, which are left over from his last moments on Earth, are those of a table, a chair and a noose, which are all visible to him, but he doesn’t know where he is. He has actually been killed, but the story is that he thinks he is being punished for something he did, but he cannot remember what it is that he is being punished for.
Eventually he remembers that he is a fairy, that he has wings and that he can fly, and that the King captured him and hung him, and that is the manifestation of the idea that if there ever were these types of mythical creatures, this is what would have happened to them. And rather than the Sidhe (Shee) disappearing, they have just forgotten about their history. Once I had written the short story, I knew then that this would be a solo show.
I bought a suit at a charity shop at the back of Castle Court and I created the first solo, the first three minutes, of what is now the show “The Fallen”. I asked the other cohort of people from Incubate to have a look and they thought it worked really well and I built up the show from there.
How does the show get into the Belfast International Festival?
A lot of things happened at once.
I shared that new show as part of the showcase festival of the Incubate work at The MAC. I performed the work in the Dance Studio with a light show and it was put forward as a finished show.
I had already been selected as part a project in Egypt, and Richard Wakely (Director of the Belfast International Festival 2025) also picked me to be an “Artist in Residence” at the Belfast International Festival.
The show was put on as part of a double bill with the Palestinian choreographer, Salma Ataya, although the shows actually had no links but they were billed in the Festival as if they were linked.
What happens now?
I want to slow down a little because I made one show last year (2024) and two shows this year (2025) and now I am trying to package those shows and organise to tour them. I am hoping to get “The Fallen” into various Festivals and Fringe festivals.
The Cairo show, “Tá Brón Orm”, hopefully will go to Palestine next year, and my goal for the next two years is to R and D a new idea, to tour the shows I have, I would like to see “The Fallen” go to Dublin, or Cork, as part of festivals down there, and then I want to write a new show for 2027.
To see more of Michael McEvoy’s work on to the links below
