King Crimson singer and guitarist Jakko Jakszyk has announced that he has adapted his 1996 Radio Three presentation, The Road To Ballina, and will take it to this year's Edinburgh Festival Fridge for 2022. The show will run at Edinburgh's Venue 64 in Lothian Street from August 5-29.
The show, which originally aired on BBC Radio Three in 1996 explores Jakszyk's heritage and past whilst mixing it with musical themes. It details the story of Jakko, born Michael Curran, in Highgate, North London, son of the singer in one of Ireland’s biggest show bands, who, after adoption, became Jakko Jakszyk.
"The Road To Ballina (pronounced BA – LINN – AH) is a picaresque voyage of self-discovery from an orphanage in rural France, a Polish mining village, to a terraced house in Hertfordshire," says Jakszyk.
From there it leads to the dusty heat of Arkansas, having traced his mother there, he meets his far-right siblings. Was this a glimpse of what he might have become?
The Road To Ballina is directed by the Award-winning Michael Attenborough CBE (son of Oscar winning actor and film director, the late Sir Richard Attenborough) and also features animation by the Tehran-based Sam Chegini, with Technical Production by Richard Turner.
