Professor Mel Mercier leads the Irish Gamelan Orchestra in the Opening Night performance of Samuel Beckett’s How It Is (Part 2) at the Coronet Theatre in London

Professor Mel Mercier leads the Irish Gamelan Orchestra (IGO) in the Opening Night performance of Samuel Beckett’s How It Is (Part 2) at the Coronet Theatre in London tonight. Produced by Gare St Lazare Ireland, How It Is (Part 2) was premiered in Cork in 2019, and filmed and screened along with Parts 1 and 3 at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2021. The production also features actors Stephen Dillane and Conor Lovett. In How It Is (Part 2), the IGO performs music composed by Professor Mercier with the Irish Gamelan Orchestra on the instruments of the Embassy of the Republic of Indonesia (London) gamelan, Gita Nuswantara. Professor Mercier established the Irish Gamelan Orchestra in 2013, with the aim of developing a collaborative approach to the composition and performance of new music for gamelan. Irish World Academy Arts Practice PhD student Kelly Boyle and tutor and Arts Practice PhD student Kevin McNally are Assistant Directors of the ensemble. In addition to creating music for theatre, the 14-member ensemble performs a repertoire of original music, which is co-created with a host of musicians, actors, poets and dancers, including Fiona Shaw, Martin Hayes, Brooklyn Rider, Joseph O’ Connor, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Julie Feeney, Colin Dunne, and members of the Irish Chamber Orchestra, Diane Daly and Malachy Robinson.