THE 19th Galway Arts Festival gets under way next Wednesday, and the first night highlight has to be the world premiere of Macnas's The Rime Of The Ancient Mariner, at the new Black Box Performance Space on Dyke Road. For its 10th year, Macnas is planning a bold and daring interpretation of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem, and this visual voyage runs every day of the festival except Sunday, the 21st when Macnas will be busy staging its big parade on the streets of Galway.
The first major event at the Festival Big Top is Towering Inferno's challenging and thought provoking Kaddish, a musical and visual interpretation of the 20th century Jewish experience which starts on Thursday 18th for a three night run. The duo of Richard Wolfson and Andy Saunders will concoct a mix of folk, jazz, ambient and industrial sounds, while three giant screens project provocative images of a turbulent and sometimes terrifying past. Kaddish is named after the Jewish Book of the Dead, and it brings the richness of Jewish culture alive.
Garcia Lorca's The House Of Bernarda Alba is radically re-interpreted by Theater Manjana, a Swedish troupe of women clowns who tumble down the barriers between comedy and tragedy. This unusual and imaginative performance runs at the Town Hall Theatre from Thursday 18th to Saturday 20th.
The work of Catalan artist Joan Miro adds some rich colour to the festival when it goes on display at 47 Dominick Street from Thursday 18th to Tuesday 23rd. This exhibition of prints highlights Miro's well deserved reputation as one of the century's most vibrant artists.
Late on Thursday night, the musical highlight is American band Grant Lee Buffalo at the G.P.O. Club. Led by singer songwriter Grant Lee Phillips, a sort of Paul Simon for grunge heads, this Los Angeles based band has established a well seasoned reputation with albums such as Fuzzy, Mighty Joe Moon, and its most recent, Copperopolis. If anything mars the group's musical vision, it's probably a tendency towards excessive prairie gazing.
In Druid Lane Theatre on Friday at 5 p.m., author Joseph O'Connor will give his painfully funny and honest views of the Irish male in both his natural habitat and in alien lands.
