Iguanadons and extraordinary insects, loopy lifeguards and "Mr Big's" unveiling of the "ninth wonder of the world" are among highlights of this year's Galway Arts Festival which celebrates its 30th birthday next month.
A European premiere by Pulitzer prize-winning US writer Cormac McCarthy, and a collaboration between musician Rufus Wainwright and the New York Stephen Petronio Dance Company are also part of the programme, which was announced last night.
More than 400 writers, artists, performers and musicians from Ireland, Australia, Belgium, Canada, Cape Verde, Cuba, England, France, Romania, Scotland, Spain, the Netherlands, Ukraine, USA and Japan have been booked by artistic director Paul Fahy for the two-week event.
While the festival enters its fourth decade, street theatre company Macnas and artists' co-operative Artscape are both 21 years old. Galway entrepreneur "Mr Big's" ninth world wonder is the theme of the manic Macnas activity on July 22nd, while other street events include two shows from Dutch company Close-Act, entitled Sau'rus and Insects.
Galway's Gombeen Theatre will also present The Butcher of Ballydowndere, while Australia's Icarus is dispatching some very buoyant-looking lifeguards to patrol Salthill promenade. Once again, North American theatre and dance is represented, with Chicago's Steppenwolf Theatre Company returning for the European premiere of Cormac McCarthy's new play The Sunset Limited.
Theatre collective the Rude Mechanicals from Austin, Texas, will present a "strip-to-stage" adaptation of David Rees's clip-art comic strip Get Your War On, billed as a "savage, hysterical, hilarious and satirical comic view of life the 21st century".
The home-grown dimension includes a world premiere of The Revenant by Patrick McCabe, and there is an emphasis on Galway work. "A vivacious blend of traditional and contemporary Irish music from international and Irish musicians" is promised. The festival runs from July 16th to 29th.