Six synchronised swimming pigs, four apocalyptic horsemen on stilts, an ark full of jungle animals and an Irish playwright's "head" made of flowers and old wine barrels are among the stars of this year's Galway Arts Festival which opened in the city last night.
Billed as a "fortnight of cultural frenzy", the festival promises gravity-defying, high-voltage and mind-bending performances of theatre, music, art and dance from today until July 27th.
Over 400 writers, artists, actors and musicians from Australia, Canada, England, France, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Jamaica, Scotland, Spain, Romania and north America are taking part.
Chicago's Steppenwolf returns to Galway, while the festival's commitment to ambitious projects involving many arts forms is represented by Acrobat from Australia and the Junebug Symphony - a fusion of theatre, dance, circus and music created by James Thierree. The Pittsburgh Irish and Classical Theatre present George Bernard Shaw's Major Barbara in the Druid Theatre.
There's a strong Irish input, with three "world premieres" including The Mysteries, a re-creation of the Biblical medieval plays by Galway's Macnas and Coventry's Belgrade Theatre. Playwright, Tom Murphy, who opened the festival in the Galway Bay Hotel, has written a new work, The Drunkard, which is being staged by b*spoke theatre company. Charlie O'Neill's And Hurl is a hurling yarn about a different Ireland with a multi-cultural cast in the Black Box Theatre.
As with last year, there is no Macnas street parade, but Galwegians can't complain. Australia's Stalker Theatre Company will present Four Riders, a show on stilts involving the four horsemen of the Apocalypse from the Book of Revelations at the Spanish Parade on Saturday and Sunday at 1pm and 4pm.
There's also a feast of outdoor visual art, including a larger-than-life head and shoulders of playwright Tom Murphy by French artist, Bernard Pras and his assistant, Vincent Berdiff, made of recycled materials at the Spanish Arch; and Anne Ferrer of Toulouse has installed six resin pigs in the shape of a floating flower on the Eglinton Canal behind Galway's cathedral.
The musical line-up includes The Waterboys, Linton Kwesi Johnson, the Dennis Bovell Dub Band, Boz Scaggs, Arty McGlynn, Ron Sexsmith, the Proclaimers, Willy Russell, piper Carlos Nunez, and Mairead Ní Mhaonaigh with Dermot Byrne. There's comedy from the likes of Deirdre O'Kane, Tommy Tiernan and Barry Murphy, while John Calder, who published some of the 20th century's leading writers, including Samuel Beckett and Marguerite Duras, will talk of his recently published memoirs. Art exhibitions take place through the streets and in venues like the Galway Arts Centre and the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology, and there's a limited children's programme which includes a Harry Potter quiz hosted by Pauline McLynn.
Speaking at last night's opening, the new mayor, Councillor Terry O'Flaherty, praised the festival for its constant innovation and its importance to Galway city and beyond. Festival director Rose Parkinson also extended her board's gratitude to its sponsors, friends, guests and long-time supporters. Several "fringe" and "beyond the fringe" events will complement the programme.
