Name: Distillation
Start: 2026-09-25T20:00:00+10:00
End: 2026-09-25T21:00:00+10:00
Location: Vaucluse House

Show details

About this event

A multi-sensory performance that transports you to the Irish bog landscape through scent.

Luke Casserly recently collaborated with renowned perfumer Joan Woods to create a unique essence of the Midlands bog - the place where he grew up - as the starting point for an olfactory encounter exploring our relationship to place. Created in direct response to the closure of Ireland’s peat harvesting industry, Distillation is dedicated to the future of our broken landscapes - in the hope that by listening to them, we might be able to better understand them.

Presented in partnership with Museums of History NSW and Sydney Fringe.

Show details

22 - 25 Sep | 1 hour
Venue: Vaucluse House

Performance notes

Australian Premiere
Content warnings: Other

Venue details & accessibility

Vaucluse House

Wentworth Road, Vaucluse 2030 (Gadigal Country)
Telephone: 02 8239 2211

Accessibility

Approach:
For visitors with limited mobility: Access to the performance site is available from the carpark (where there are 2 accessible parking spaces) however, please note there is a steep main pathway and uneven gravelled surfaces. We advise that visitors with limited mobility, using walkers or wheelchairs can be dropped off using alternate driveway access from Olola Avenue. For further information, please contact the Museums of History Bookings team on 8239 2211.

Reviews

★★★★ “This ode to our landscape will give you a new perspective on Ireland’s bogs. All of the senses are engaged: not just sight and hearing but also touch, smell and even taste” The Irish Times

★★★★ ““This inventive, deceptively simple performance lightly holds a balance between an ecological meditation and an inquiry into cultural memory. A paean to peat that’s a feast for the senses.” The Guardian

★★★★ “An imaginative attempt to anthropomorphise an environment, and to tell a story through smell: an olfactory essay.” The Stage