A MULTI media spectacular on the European Jewish experience, a Swiss mime and puppet show, and an all woman troupe of Swedish clowns performing Lorca's House of Bernarda Alba are but a part of this summer's Galway Arts Festival.
The festival, which runs from July 17th to the 28th, started 19 years ago and has built up a reputation for being the largest and most exciting of its kind in Ireland. Programme details were announced yesterday in the River Club in Temple Bar, Dublin.
The launch included the announcement of a new director of the festival, Mr Ted Turton, a graphics and set designer and a former member of Footsbarn Theatre Company who has been involved in the Galway Arts Festival since its inception.
Ms Trish Forde explained that, following her resignation as festival director last year, the 1996 programme was designed on a "democratic" basis by the festival committee.
This year's programme was also "a celebration that, for the first time, we will have two new venues for the festival, the Town Hall Theatre and the Black Box, which is opening for the festival." Ms Forde is now working as a writer/ producer of children's television programmes and continuing her work as a children's novelist.
Both she and Mr Turton were particularly happy to have Mummenschanz, the Swiss mime and puppetry company, on this year's programme, as well as Kaddish, the multimedia show by a British company, Towering Inferno. This group mixes live music, sound effects and three cinema screens to explore the 20th century European Jewish experience.
Another coup was the stage version of Irvine Welsh's cult novel, Trainspotting, booked before the phenomenal success of the film. Other events include music from The Divine Comedy and Arlo Guthrie; readings by P.D. James and Bill Bryson; visual art by Kathe Kollwitz and Joan Miro; as well as the annual film fleadh, children's festival and Macnas parade.