Simon Stephens Joins Sounds From A Safe Harbour Festival
The event runs 11–14 September.
By: Stephi Wild Sep. 05, 2025
Celebrating its landmark 10th anniversary edition this year, Sounds from a Safe Harbour (SFSH) will return to Cork City from 11–14 September 2025, bringing with it a bold and immersive programme of music, visual art, language, ritual, and conversation.
Curated by Festival Director Mary Hickson, alongside actor Cillian Murphy, Bryce Dessner (The National), writer Max Porter, and folklorist Billy MagFhloinn, SFSH continues to push the boundaries of what a contemporary arts festival can be, blending the epic and the intimate, the poetic and the political.
In addition to a stellar music line-up featuring Beth Orton, Ben Howard, Rhiannon Giddens, Jon Hopkins, Efterklang, Lisa Hannigan, Villagers, DakhaBrakha, and many more, this year's programme expands into new theatrical territory with a very special guest: acclaimed playwright Simon Stephens.
Simon Stephens is one of the UK's most prolific and celebrated playwrights. For more than 25 years Stephens' work has been widely translated and produced throughout the world. He has won many Awards including Olivier and Tony Awards for new plays. His radical adaptation of Uncle Vanya, Vanya, starring Andrew Scott ran in London's West End and at the Lucille Lortel, New York between Autumn 23 and Spring 25 and was screened to phenomenal success on NT Live and NT Home. His adaptation of Jose Saramago's Blindness was made into a light and sound installation that was produced internationally during the Covid 19 pandemic. His most famous play is his adaptation of Mark Haddon's best-selling novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. He has had thirty-five original plays produced professionally.
Stephen's joins the Sounds from a Safe Harbour festival bill with two works in development:
- YOUR VOICE – a SFSH co-production with the Abbey Theatre - work-in-progress showing at 6.30pm, Friday 12 Sept at Firkin Crane | Free
Your Voice is a unique collaboration between playwright Simon Stephens, choreographer Imogen Knight, and drum and bass DJ Lincoln Barrett whose stage name is High Contrast.
Your Voice is an extraordinary musical and poetic exploration of the entire life of one woman in the space of an hour using elements of dance, sculpture, music, and language featuring dancers from MTU and actor Donal Finn. Your Voice is read by celebrated Irish actor Jessie Buckley (pre-recorded).
- LiY - work-in-progress showing at midday, Saturday 13 Sept at Cork Arts Theatre. Tickets €15: https://corkartstheatre.com/event/liy/
Stephens appears at this year's festival as part of LiY, a musical and performance-based collaboration between Christian Lapointe (music), Laurence Dauphinais (vocal/singing melody) and Stephens (lyrics) himself.
LiY defines itself as epistolary music - a rigorous and poetic fusion of music composition, lyrics, and live performance. Drawing influences from Portishead, Austra, The Knife, PJ Harvey, Spiritualized, and Björk, the project spans genres from trip-hop to electroclash, blurring boundaries between storytelling and sonic experimentation.
- CTC WORKSHOP, 3pm on Wednesday 10th Sept, Cork Theatre Collective
Stephens will present a workshop in Cork Theatre Collective (CTC) on Wednesday at 3pm for members of the collective. Subject will be: Dramatic Action - a practical exercise led exploration of the ideas that have underpinned Simon's writing for the last twenty-five years. The workshop is free however registration is required: (https://www.eventbrite.com/e/simon-stephens-writers-workshop-tickets-1660970681019?aff=oddtdtcreator)
Speaking ahead of his visit, Stephens shares “Ten years ago Enda Walsh told me I need to go to Cork. He said it was the best city in the world. I believed him. I can't believe it took me ten years to get there. I am very very happy to be heading there for the Sounds from a Safe Harbour Festival. In a time when the artistic world seems dominated by the tyranny of ‘property' it is oxygen to find a space committed to the process. A space of genuine creativity. A space that allows us to imagine and to wonder and to play and to explore. I have a feeling Enda was right.”
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