Bram Stoker Festival: Warmbloods audio tour

Nighttime photo of the exterior of the Merrion Square entrance to the National Gallery of Ireland with the windows illuminated and an outdoor sculpture silhouetted against the sky.
Image © National Gallery of Ireland. Photographer: Jack Caffrey, The Pimlico Project, 2018.

A darkly comedic tour from two lady-like members of Dublin’s vampire community, Anne and Winifred, who’ll escort you around their favourite corner of the National Gallery of Ireland.

Your guides regret that they cannot be with you in person, but promise to whisper in your ear and lead you astray in visions of exposed flesh, murder, darkened rooms, storms and a cruel-to-be-kind dissection of your ‘warmblood’ mortal nonsense and obsession with immortality.

They also have opinions on bridge, needlework and long-term best friendship.

Warmbloods is a special Bram Stoker Festival edition of an ongoing series of comedy tours in the Gallery.

Warmbloods is written and performed by Underthings (Debbie Cheevers and Denny MacDermott) an improv/sketch duo from Dublin. They specialise in dark, domestic comedy and hard stares. 

Warmbloods was made for the Bram Stoker Festival (30 October to 2 November 2020).

Suitable for ages 12+

You can download a transcript of this tour here.

Please note that to listen to the embedded version of the tour below, you will need to accept the cookies.

If you'd prefer to listen to it on Soundcloud, you can do that here, or you can listen on Apple podcasts here.

 

Scroll down to see the works in our collection mentioned on the tour.

Featured in the tour:

An oil painting of a female figure reclining on grass. Her arm is stretched behind her head, and she is half-covered by silken fabric. Under her, a sheaf of arrows. Richard Rothwell (1800-1868), Calisto, c.1840.

 

A marble sculpture of a female figure, wrapping a shawl tightly around herself against the cold John Henry Foley (1818-1874), Winter, or the Houseless Wanderer, c.1858

 

Two figures kneel by a coffin, and another stands nearby. On the coffin, there are several skulls lined up. Daniel Macdonald, Figures by a Coffin - a Scene from 'The Collegians', 1840

 

Harry Clarke (1889-1931), 'The Mother of Sorrows', 1926. © National Gallery of Ireland. Harry Clarke (1889-1931), 'The Mother of Sorrows', 1926. © National Gallery of Ireland.

 

Dramatic oil painting of an apocalyptic landscape with lightening striking and lava flowing Francis Danby (1793-1861), The Opening of the Sixth Seal, 1828. Photo © National Gallery of Ireland

 

Adam and Eve stand together. On the ground, a snake, and a discarded half-eaten apple. James Barry (1741-1806), The Temptation of Adam, 1767-1770.

 

Cupid and Psyche stand in the Nuptial Bower Hugh Douglas Hamilton (1740-1808), Cupid and Psyche in the Nuptial Bower, 1792-1793.

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