Loitering Theatre /

Heston's Folly

Loitering Theatre : Caroline Campbell, Nina McGowan in collaboration with John Buckley. Protagonist: Margaretta D'Arcy. Original Composition: Philip Stewart. Photography: Lanka Perren. Dir. /Editor: Caroline Campbell. Model: John Buckley. Additional Editing: Eavan Aiken. Special thanks: Gavin Kelly.

Tulca 2016 The Headless City. Curated by Daniel Jewesbury.
Galway, Ireland. 5 - 20 November 2016

Heston's Folly is based on the final iconic scene in Planet of the Apes (1968) when the protagonist (and the viewer) comes to the realisation that they have been living in the United States all the time.

All our cities are nodes now. Mere switching addresses for the movement of capital to lightspeed. But the network architecture hides a cloaked hierarchy. We live in Empire’s feeder cities; our bodies moving in thrall to the packet data thirst of London and New York. Blind to our serfdom, we trace digital paths through the city; our clicking and swiping ever-feeding the foreign machines.

Galway AD 3978. The space craft hurtles through time to crash. You disembark, to find a landscape ruled by silverbacks with monkey-mind. Humanity is a legend far left behind. Feature-length, you battle long and hard through sci-fi odyssey. Then, in your final scene - on a beach at the perimeter, you chance upon an Ozymandian ruin. Fall to your knees. In awe at the great reveal. This city too is built on Empire; and Empire, like its grand monuments, can always fall.





Margaretta D’Arcy (born 1934) is an Irish actress, writer, playwright, and peace-activist. Margaretta is a member of honorary Irish arts body Aosdana and is known for addressing Irish nationalism, civil liberties and women’s rights in her work. In 2014, she was imprisoned after she refused to sign a bond saying that she wouldn't trespass on non-public parts of Shannon Airport in Ireland. Her arrest was a consequence of trespassing on airport property during protests over United States military stopovers at Shannon Airport.