This article is from page 12 of the 2011-05-31 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 12 JPG
INFLATION is a word no-one wants to hear anymore but, for one Clare man, it’s a word that is music to his ears. At the weekend, Boris Hunka from Killaloe held the first concert ever to be put on in Ireland in an inflatable theatre.
Ireland’s first fully inflatable arts venue – the Pop-up Playhouse – was launched in Killaloe with performances by Juliet Turner and John Spillane as well as Size 2 Shoes, who were joined by soul six-piece Hunka Burning Love, fresh from their performance at the Europa League Final and the Killaloe Ballina Gospel Choir.
Musician and teacher Boris started looking into how a venue could be provided for the town without quite knowing what he was looking for, he told The Clare People .
“We (the music school) put on a lot of our own performances and that was the initial impetus. There really was no venue in Killaloe where you could stage a big performance. I started looking into how we could have one and it was one of those things on the net when you find what you’re looking for before you even know what it is you’re looking for,” said Boris.
Boris came across a company in China who specialised in making inflatable structures and he started cor- responding with them to see if they could provide something that would meet the requirements of a theatre.
“We were going back and forth for a long time but, eventually, they came up with a plan for what we wanted and it went from there,” he said.
The Playhouse takes the concept of the Spiegeltent – a mobile, stylish, portable venue – into the 21st century.
It takes the best part of a day to prepare the floor and lay it out flat on the ground but, once that is done, it takes just one hour to inflate and it can accommodate up to 500 people if all three sections are used.
“It’s also a structure which only requires financing when it’s actually being used. When it’s being stored on the back of a truck, it’s not using electricity or costing rates,” said Boris.
Leader funding helped pay for the structure, which cost less than € 60,000, as it will be used to provide rural communities with performances of music and theatre.
It is 15m wide, 27m long, 5m high, constructed out of .65mm fireproof PVC with an internal wall dimension of 1m – and can be assembled on any flat surface.
“On the outside, the structure looks part sci-fi, part inverted bouncy castle whilst on the inside it is an otherworldly feel with wooden flooring, velvet curtains, sound system, stage lights, vintage jukebox, inflatable sofas and an illuminated bar. The structure is also equipped with a fullsize cinema screen and a silent disco set-up,” said Boris.
Boris plans for the theatre to be inflated and running in Killaloe for the whole month of July while it will be also be visiting Lahinch, Kilkee and other venues over the summer.
The structure can also be used in smaller modules of one or two sections.
“I know this is the only one of its kind in Ireland and the Chinese manufacturers admitted they had never made one on this scale before. But now we have a theatre that can bring performances to small communities anywhere.”