Thighs in Bark

“I can be cooking,
making coffee,
scrubbing wood perhaps,
and back it comes:
the crystalline, the otherwhere,
the wood”

Eavan Boland - Daphne with her Thighs in Bark

Thighs in Bark is about the Greek myth of Daphne, the goddess who was pursued by the god Apollo. As she was being chased by Apollo, Daphne begged her father, the god Peneus, to help her. Peneus then transformed Daphne into a laurel tree.

The theme of writing a work inspired by Kilmainham Gaol got me thinking about how often this myth can be seen as tragic; male predatory behaviour resulting in a woman being silenced and frozen for eternity, her body now a prison. However, the attraction to mythology is the potential for multiple interpretations. Thighs in Bark takes this myth as an opportunity to explore how trauma can entrap the body, but the root of the piece is really the capacity for the body to overcome trauma. The planetary scientist Carl Sagan said, we are “cousins of trees”, and I love that. Trees are stable, but transformative. My interpretation of the Daphne myth is one of positive transformation. The piece traces the stages of Daphne’s transformation into a tree, from the snapping of wood, the blossoming of laurel leaves, and a final stage of rootedness.