Revolver OFFSET

Revolver was presented as a one-off live event in the Light House Cinema as part of Darklight’s ten year anniversary in October 2009.

“Niall Sweeney’s Revolver was genius
… inspiring, unusual, thoughtful and fun”


— The Irish Times’ cultural highlights 2009

Embarking from a Dublin of a near-distant memory— with its burgeoning cultures of clubbing, digital media, and DIY — graphic artist and visionary Niall Sweeney took people on a loop-the-loop round the world that was viewed through glasses tinted with his particular bent.

Condensing two decades into a two hour performance, Sweeney presented an evening of story cycles and graphic travelogues in words, pictures and music. From suspending giant babies, basking sharks, drag queens and himself over a variety of dancefloors, scandalising the front pages of the papers, and honing the blades of cutting-edge queer culture to celebrating inner-city communities as different kinds of animal, made tiny staircases in and out of books, attending dinner parties with spacemen, and time-travelling with pop artists…

Stories of incident in confabulations of the high- and low-brow past/present/future, with some transgression, Sean-nós and a few grams of synesthesia. Sweeney was joined on the night by some heroines and muses…and even chanced a little puppetry.

It was an evening of story cycles and graphic travelogues in words, pictures and music created by Niall Sweeney. From suspending giant babies, basking sharks, drag queens and himself over a variety of dancefloors, scandalising the front pages of the papers, and honing the blades of cutting-edge queer culture to celebrating inner city communities as different kinds of animal, made tiny staircases in and out of books, to attending dinner parties with spacemen, and time-travelling with pop artists.

Created & Performed by: Niall Sweeney
Produced by: Jennifer Jennings
Performed by: Tony Flynn, Tony Walsh, Panti, Shirley Temple Bar, Jennifer Jennings & Phillip McMahon
Stage Manager: Colm Keane
Production Photography: Fiona Morgan