MUSIC FROM the Philip Glass Ensemble, Blondie and the New Orleans’ Preservation Hall Jazz Band; six works from the internationally acclaimed artist Bill Viola; paintings by singer Joni Mitchell; and new drama at Druid by Irish playwright Enda Walsh, will all be on offer at this year’s Galway Arts Festival.
The line-up, launched in Dublin yesterday, includes: the European premiere of a new comedy from Chicago, Better Late by Larry Gelbart and Craig Wright, with John Mahoney (of Frasier fame) and Mike Nussbaum; a dance programme from Latin American choreography company Tania Pérez-Salas; and a reworking of the Greek classic, The Oresteia, by South African writer and director Yael Farber and the Farber Foundry. Some 400 writers, actors, artists, musicians, singers and performers are scheduled to attend the two-week festival in Galway in July.
This year, 150,000 tickets are expected to be sold to the festival’s shows, which span eight art forms including theatre, literature, visual art, music, children’s theatre, street theatre, comedy and dance.
Audience capacity has been increased by an extra 25,000, with the addition of the Festival Big Top in the heart of the city at Fisheries Field. This will provide a central venue for performances including the Australian company Circa and its European premiere of its new circus-based show called By the Light of the Stars Which are No Longer..., the Cuban diva Omara Portuondo and the Malian Tinariwen with Cape Verde singer Mayra Andrade.
As well as a new play and shorter new works by Enda Walsh in Druid productions, and three new plays from fledgling writers (Maria Elner, Stehen Jones and John McManus), other Irish work includes Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre’s Giselle, the Tobacco Factory’s Mimic by Raymond Scannell and Brian Friel’s Translations from Ouroboros Theatre. Two world premieres will be Waiting for Elvis by Eileen Gibbons and Go dTage do Ríocht from Micheál Ó Conghail.
Another new feature at the 31st festival is the annual Macnas Festival Parade, which will take place at night-time this year on Sunday, July 20th. Artistic director Paul Fahy says Galway benefited from a direct economic impact of more than €20.2 million last year.