Waterford has the dubious distinction of being the gossip capital of Ireland, at least for the rest of the week. The city is hosting the eighth Myth and Theatre Festival from this evening until Sunday, and the theme of the event is gossip.
Contributors from Australia, India, the US, Britain and continental Europe will gather at the Garter Lane Arts Centre for a series of workshops, lectures, masterclasses and even tribunals dedicated to gossip.
The festival is organised by the Paris-based Pantheatre company and adopts a different theme each year. This is the first time it has come to Ireland and it has attracted extraordinary interest from abroad.
The director of the Garter Lane Centre, Ms Caroline Senior, spent most of Monday on the phone, not gossiping but giving interviews to a range of media organisations, including the BBC World Service, Radio Bremen and the Los Angeles Times.
The festival opens this evening with a lecture by the US writer and mythologist, Nor Hall, whose lecture at last year's event in New Orleans, entitled "Hermes, the God With the Keyhole Aura", inspired this year's theme. The lecture questioned what women were whispering about behind the backs of the male gods of mythology.
Other events will include a debate on gossip between the internationally acclaimed historian of psychology, Sonu Shamdasani, and Pantheatre's Enrique Pardo. Storytelling and song will also feature in the festival, and other participants include the Barabbas theatre company and lyric soprano Venice Menley.
Participation by the public in the evening-time tribunals is encouraged and anyone calling to the centre from noon each day will find something going on. And something to gossip about later.
