★★★☆☆
The London-born dancer and choreographer Oona Doherty grew up in Belfast from the age of ten and still considers the city home. Two years ago she made a stunning Edinburgh Fringe debut with Hope Hunt & the Ascension Into Lazarus, an award-winning solo that drew deeply upon her feelings for the people, streets and culture of Belfast.
This year Doherty is back in Edinburgh at the International Festival, presenting a larger-scaled performance that incorporates at least one segment from that remarkable solo. Belfast and its citizens are once again her source of inspiration. Marked by an understated intelligence, Doherty’s pertinent, carefully assembled production is a stark bundle of contradictions; sensitive yet edgy, subtle yet monumental, powerful in its intentions, but also emotionally muted