THEATRE IS a major part of this year’s Galway Fringe Festival, with more than 30 productions from some of Ireland’s finest theatre practitioners.
Angels Of The Odd: Red: A night of peculiar theatre and strange cabaret is the intriguing title of a show from Angels of the Odd Productions in The Electric Garden tomorrow and Saturday.
Angels Of The Odd sees award winning playwright and director Philip Doherty team up with cabaret oddity and former Alternative Miss Ireland, Smilin’ Kanker, and neo-burlesque artist Lucy Rhinehart for an irreverent, dark, and bawdy show.
Using movement, multimedia, and the spoken word, Angels Of The Odd explores fairytales, cults, communism, plagues, sin, and priests reciting heavy metal poetry.
Dhá Laimh Theatre presents This Happened In The City Jail, a contemporary take on Hansel and Gretel, at the Galway Courthouse on July 19 and 20 at 7pm.
Mixing fantasy, comedy, and documentary playwrighting, the show was written and directed by Laura Mulcahy, who drew on her experiences as a drama facilitator in Mountjoy Prison’s Dochas Centre.
The Bentley, Eyre Square, will host a variety of theatre shows.
The Great Couch Rebellion by Philip Doherty, winner of 2013 PJ O’Connor Award, and staged by Gonzo Theatre Company, runs there from July 16 - 20 at 7pm.
Adam (Kevin McGahern ) has lost his job and ability to interact with the outside world. He spends his days consumed by the media as Ireland’s current political disorder rips through the relationship with his long suffering Greek girlfriend Eve (Margarita Grillis ).
However, she convinces him they can be the catalyst to a New World Order and the pair rise from their couch and lead Ireland in a rebellion. Conspiracy theories, biblical mythology and historical analogies are rife in this political black comedy.
The play has won critical acclaim. The Sunday Independent praised its “first rate performances”, while the Irish Independent said “political theatre does not get more raw and fierce than this”.
Also in The Bentley, Black Couch Productions will present Me and Stabby McGee (July 23 – 28, 1pm ); Twisted Peasant will stage Making Lemonade (July 23 – 27, 3.30pm ); while Reality Shows, fresh from two sell out runs in Dublin, takes a look at the world of reality TV, featuring a host of colourful characters.
The Townhouse Bar will also host a number of productions.
Galway theatre company ThereisBear! will stage Ballykilldowna by award winning poet, Shaun Leonard in the Townhouse Bar, from July 16 to 20 at 3.30pm. The play is a tragi-comedy about three friends in a GAA-obsessed community ripped apart by death and loss. It is directed by Darragh O’Brien and features Peter Shine, Muireann Ní Raghallaigh, and Joe Power.
Martin Sharry’s one-man show Martin Sharry Tells It Like It Is, where the author/actor explores the potential for truth and storytelling through stand-up comedy on July 24 and 25 at 6pm.
Fregoli Theatre’s staging of Maria Tivnan’s Let Me Be, a tender exploration of childhood and sisterhood (July 18 and 19, 1pm ); Genevieve Taricco and Mycah Leigh Artis’ Serotonin Syndrome (July 18 to 23, 6pm ).
Peter Duffy presents Patrick Kavanagh’s The Great Hunger (July 26 – 28 at 1pm ). Set in rural Monaghan, the play concerns the life and struggles of anti-hero and small farmer Patrick McGuire.
For tickets and more information on all shows see www.galwayfringe.ie and follow the festival on Facebook or Twitter.
