The world premiere of a new play by Enda Walsh and starring Cillian Murphy; two Shakespeare plays by the great Propeller Theatre Company; and concerts from The Vaselines, De La Soul, and The Callino Quartet are among the highlights of this year’s Galway Arts Festival.
The 34th Galway Arts Festival runs from Monday July 11 to Sunday 24 and features a wealth of theatre, music, comedy, visual art, dance, and literary events from artists from Africa, America, Asia, Australia, Europe, and of course Ireland and Galway.
Theatre
A highlight of this year’s programme is the world premiere of Enda Walsh’s new version of the play Misterman and which will star the great Cillian Murphy.
This production reunites the two men for the first time since their collaboration on Walsh’s Disco Pigs in 1996. Featuring a newly commissioned score by Donnacha Dennehy, Misterman is a co-production between Landmark Productions and Galway Arts Festival.
Propeller Theatre Company’s productions of A Midsummer’s Night Dream and The Merchant Of Venice in the 2009 arts festival were among the most popular and best received performances that year. As such Galway audiences will be thrilled to learn that the company, under the direction of Edward Hall, is coming back this year with another two plays by The Bard - Richard III and The Comedy of Errors.
A blisteringly funny new play Love, Love, Love, by Olivier Award-winning playwright Mike Bartlett, in a production by Paines Plough/Drum Theatre, will makes its Irish debut at the festival.
Also making a festival debut is Australia’s ThisSideUp and it will be performing its thrilling and breathtaking display of acrobatic and circus skill in the show Controlled Falling Project.
Irish theatre and performance at the festival includes Fishamble Theatre’s new production Silent, a touching story of a homeless man written and performed by Pat Kinevane; Request Programme, a site-specific play for an audience of just 20, featuring Eileen Walsh in a Corcadorca production directed by Pat Kiernan; and a unique Festival performance - The Devil’s Spine Band - a multi-disciplinary performance and installation under the direction of Trevor Knight, in a stunning visual setting by Alice Maher, and featuring performer Olwen Fouéré.
New theatre work from Galway includes An Taibhdhearc’s West of Ireland version of Dario Fo’s Italian classic Accidental Death of an Anarchist and new work from Galway Youth Theatre.
Street theatre and events are always an essential part of the Galway Arts Festival and this year the city streets will play host to the world premiere of This Fierce Beauty from Macnas, directed by Noeline Kavanagh; Les Philibulistes’ Arcane from France, and Dinosaur Petting Zoo from Australia’s Erth.
The Big Top
Hip-hop, Afro-Cuban, indie-rock, and punk-pop/new wave are the order of the day at this year’s Festival Bip Top gigs as De La Soul and Hypnotic Brass Ensemble; AfroCubism featuring Toumani Diabaté and Eliades Ochoa; Bell X1, and Blondie take to the stage. Support at these shows will involve Duke Special, and Galway acts The Kanyu Tree, Daithí Ó Dronaí, The Bahh Band, and Keywest.
Music
The Vaselines are Francis McKee and Eugene Kelly. Their output is small (two albums, one in 1986, the second in 2010 ), but this Scottish duo was a massive influence on Nirvana and crucial to the development of indie music and they play the Róisín Dubh at this year’s festival.
The Róisín will also host James Vincent McMorrow, Gemma Hayes, Brassroots, Fionn Regan, Richmond Fontaine, and ASIWYFA.
Other festival concerts include Session Americana, a who’s-who of the Boston roots scene; De Danann; ‘Reels, Jigs & Jazz’ with Brendan Larrissey and Pat Collins; The National Chamber Choir of Ireland; Kaleidoscope; Iarla Ó Lionáird, The Walls, Jack L, lunchtime gigs in Kelly’s and Monroe’s Live; The Callino Quartet in St. Mary’s Cathedral in Tuam; and Iris DeMent in Campbell’s Tavern.
Comedy
There will be plenty to laugh at the festival with a comedy line-up that includes leading Irish comics David O’Doherty, Abandoman, and Jarlath Regan; 8 Out Of 10 Cats team captain Sean Lock, as part of Whose Line is it Anyway?; emerging London-Irish funnywoman Roisin Conaty; and the strangely named but very exciting The London Snorkelling Team. Gerry Mallon will also be bringing his every popular Laughter Loft back to the festival as well.
Literature and talks
Leading Irish writers Roddy Doyle, Colm Tóibín and Room author Emma Donoghue will be reading at this year’s festival, as will Richmond Fontaine singer-songwriter and novelist Willy Vlautin. A panel discussion, entitled The Mood Of A New Frontier, which will examine the impact and value of the arts nationally and internationally, will also be taking place.
Returning this year is ‘Backstage at the Festival’, a series of post-show and gallery conversations creating an informal platform for audiences to hear artists discuss the process of creating their work.
Visual art
The major exhibition at this year’s arts festival will be the museum-scale exhibition The Road, by one of Ireland’s leading international visual artists Hughie O’Donoghue. The exhibition will be part of the ABSOLUT Visual Arts Programme in the new, specially commissioned ABSOLUT Festival Gallery.
There will also be an exhibition of new work by Aideen Barry, specially created for the Festival; the We Are Playing At Being Explorers show, featuring work by Stephen Brandes, Andrew Dodds, and Sonia Shiel; Tango de Soledad, a 3D dance installation from Scotland’s Billy Cowie; In Search of the Truth (The Truth Booth ), a part installation and live art project from San Francisco’s Created by Cause Collective; and Fictional Portraits where Paul Maye will investigate identity through a live project/exhibition.
Other exhibitions include Charles Lamb’s Lamb in Connemara at the Galway City Museum; Galway’s Engage Studios at the Niland Gallery; the Lorg Print Studios Gold at University College Hospital; Jay Murphy’s Hydro at the Norman Villa Gallery; and a major exhibition celebrating the human form, Nude: Blatant Exhibitionism? at The Kenny Gallery.
There will also be two exhibitions in association with the Crafts Council of Ireland to mark the Year of Craft 2011. Material Poetry and Modern Languages will both examine and highlight diversity and new ideas in design.
New ventures
The Galway Arts Festival also announced a new partnership with NUI Galway in support of the festival’s Volunteer Programme, and selected, a new development strand for emerging artists and producers. Full details of this new partnership, which will see both organisations working together, will be announced in mid-June.
For more information see www.galwayartsfestival.com
