WAKE

“Riverdance for Club Queens.” ★★★★★ Experience WAKE, the electrifying Irish variety phenomenon that remixes traditions in a high-octane, heart-thumping celebration of life and connection. In WAKE, customs collide with club anthems, creating a euphoric soundtrack for a night filled with aerial artistry, Irish tap, cabaret, slam poetry, pole-dancing and more. Best known as an ancient funeral rite, the Irish wake is actually a celebration of transformation, of moving from one realm to another. Ushering in fabulous change—caterpillar to butterfly— the WAKE is a timeless reminder to live fully. Acclaimed Irish theatre company THISISPOPBABY invites you to witness an anthemic spectacle with the spirit of epic traditional music session and the ecstatic energy of a stadium concert. After acclaimed, sell-out runs in Dublin, London, Manchester and Sydney, this theatrical phenomenon is going global. Expect joy, connection, release…and, of course, glitter. Emerson Cutler Majestic Theatre 219 Tremont St, Boston, MA 02116 WAKE contains strong language and partial nudity. Open Captioned Performance Fri, Feb 12 8:00 pm Note: This show is currently available as part of an ArtsEmerson season package, group sales, or individual tickets. Season Packages still provide the best ticket prices! THISISPOPBABY has been igniting stages around the world for two decades with an exhilarating mix of theatre, night club, festival and activism. The company has thrived at the cutting edge of contemporary live performance in Ireland, pioneering large-scale shows such as WAKE, RIOT and Alice In Funderland, incendiary multidisciplinary festivals Where We Live and Queer Notions, iconic underground performance like WERK and Salty, and via award-winning contemporary new writing. THISISPOPBABY is the long-term theatre collaborator of the“Queen of Ireland” Panti Bliss, with seven shows, multiple world tours, and a Soho Live streaming special in the repertoire to date. THISISPOPBABY’s shows have played to audiences of over 500,000 and counting, collaborating with an innumerable number of artists to light up the city and speak to the world through the lens of what it means to be Irish. Originally created with support from The Arts Council of Ireland, Irish Arts Center New York, Dublin Fringe Festival, Dublin City Council and Cork Opera House. Tour dates generously supported by Culture Ireland. Adam Matthews is a singer/songwriter and theatre performer from Dublin. On Dublin’s music scene he was front man with indie outfit The Late Fragments and is lead singer of musical duo PHOENO. Adam has played at music festivals and venues all over Ireland including the Abbey Theatre, Melbourne Festival and Electric Picnic Music and Arts Festival. He previously worked with THISISPOPBABY on I’m Your Man for the Dublin Theatre Festival & toured with their hit show RIOT. Alma is an award winning composer, sound designer and musician.She works with dance, theatre, film, music, circus and live art, always blurring the lines between music and sound design. She is a company artist with THISISPOPBABY, and created the music for their smash hit shows RIOT and WAKE. Favourite projects for stage include The Casement Project (Fearghus Ó Conchúir), Very Old Man With Enormous Wings (Dan Colley), riverrun (Olwen Fouéré – Irish Times Theatre Award winner Best Sound Design), and The Elephantom (National Theatre UK and West End). Alma has composed for numerous short films including Naked Lights (Jeda De Brí), The Island (Two Sparks), The Painted Man (Dan Colley), I Am Roger Casement (Dearbhla Walsh and Fearghus Ó Conchúir). She is an accomplished session musician, working with many of Ireland’s major acts including Lisa Hannigan, Bell X 1, The Coronas, Villagers and Moncrieff. She releases solo music as electro-folk act Lux Alma. www.luxalmamusic.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QI_S3hAjOgo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E11HP2OHl9I Cristian Emmanuel Dirocie, a Dominican-born dancer based in Dublin, has worked extensively with CoisCéim Dance Theatre, including on the live/VR production Francis Footwork and the BAI-funded film Breaking Brothers (Dublin International Film Festival, 2024). He performed in WAKE (2024–2025), produced by THISISPOPBABY and choreographed by Philip Connaughton, opening shows in Dublin, London, and Manchester. Cristian has also collaborated with choreographers John Scott (Vicinity of the Sun, Dancer from the Dance), Monica Muñoz (Up Close, Flip, Rolling), and Selma Daniel (Paper Plane, Outwall), touring Ireland extensively and leading school workshops. He worked with Junk Ensemble for Little Amal’s visit to Dublin. With a background in street dance, Cristian has won several international competitions and mentors youth dance groups nationwide. As an associate artist with Human Collective, his performance at the 2018 Dublin Fringe Festival was praised for its “flowing, electrical intensity.” In 2024, he received an Agility Award to begin de