Coole Park Visitors’ Centre will play host to drama, music, and heritage events this week as part of the Coole Park Winter Programme. All events in the programme are free due to funding received from Galway County Council and the Heritage Council.
The Dog and String Theatre Company will perform Seeing and Dreaming at Coole today (Thursday ) from 8pm to 9pm. Seeing and Dreaming is a new piece of visual theatre that tells the intricate stories of two characters, Dorothy and Michael. Dorothy is 80 and lives alone in a Victorian house in Birmingham. She has one eye, no teeth, and a soft spot for Starsky & Hutch. Michael is 88. Gnarled and bed ridden, he dreams of dancing and wild horses. Dorothy’s story is told through the memories of her eight-year-old granddaughter who spent many weekends alone with her. This is a portrait of older age told through the eyes of a child. Michael’s story focuses on the last year of his life, spent in hospital. This portrait explores his changing states of mind, slipping through dream, reality, and memory, and a man preparing to die. The show is suitable for adults and children from age 10, including family audiences.
The Reading & Understanding the Coole Landscape course continues at Coole Park Visitor Centre on Monday evenings. The course offers a detailed study into the landscape of Coole and its environs. Marie Boran of the Special Collections Room, James Hardiman Library, National University of Ireland, will speak on Estates and Landscape in East Galway, 1800-1900, next Monday from 8pm to 10pm.
Next week’s arts event is an evening of traditional music with Charlie Harris and Friends on Thursday November 11 from 8pm to 9pm.
