Murmuration is a Dublin-based collective of theatre artists, making live, narrative sound installations in nontraditional spaces. We create rich, intricate soundscapes with the aim of fostering new ways of listening in our audiences. Our work is all about big-hearted close listening.

Through our work we seek to reposition audiences in relation to their surroundings, creating vivid imaginary worlds. We have performed in bars, shopfronts, glass-walled galleries and public squares, without physically augmenting any of those spaces; aiming to find the extraordinary in ordinary and unlikely locations. We believe this approach to be particularly urgent now, when cultural spaces seem to be shrinking and becoming less accessible. We remain resolutely optimistic about Dublin, and are committed to finding performative potential in its existing spaces, through the transformative power of sound and live performance.

Murmuration formed in 2018 to present Summertime at Dublin Fringe Festival where it was nominated for a Judges Choice Award, before being shown at Drogheda Arts Festival and at the Abbey Young Curators’ Festival the following year. In 2020 our second production, Will I See You There, premiered at the Gallery of Photography in Temple Bar as part of Dublin Fringe Festival, and we presented a work-in-progress sharing of a third production, so close i noticed my breath on the glass at Corcadorca’s SHOW Festival. In 2021, we were commissioned to make our third show You’re Still Here at Dublin Castle, co-presented by Dublin Fringe and the Abbey Theatre. Bewley’s Café Theatre commissioned One Moment Now in 2022, while we were inaugural artists in residence. It subsequently toured to Washington DC, Toronto and Philadelphia in 2023, in partnership with Solas Nua, with support from Culture Ireland.

In 2024, we created a new production of Summertime for Solas Nua, which ran in rep with Brú Theatre’s Ar Ais Arís at Eaton DC with a blended team of US and Ireland-based artists. Jenny O’Malley won a Helen Hayes Award for her composition and sound design on the show.