It wasn't billed as a Big Event, and so it had to take its chances on the fringe, but one production during the first week of Galway's annual arts feast deserved more than peripheral attention.
Corner Stone Theatre Company's character study of three women - one of them with autism, one going blind - challenged the senses in a way that art should, but often fails to, do.
Named Haiku after the Japanese three-line poem of 17 syllables, the play, written by Catherine Snodgrass and directed by Chiyomi Yamashita, focuses on a mother and her relationship with two daughters, one autistic and one so-called "normal".
The struggle which all three share in communication takes place against the backdrop of the mother's failing health. The autistic daughter, played by Lara Campbell, displays a talent for writing which her sibling, played by Andrea Kelly, initially doubts.
Their mother, played by Corner Stone's artistic director, Denise MacNamara, who is caught between the two, is forced to call on the "successful" but emotionally estranged child for help.
Campbell's interpretation of the condition and the situation is a most powerful piece of theatre, and for parents who must deal with autism, it can only give them hope. The play finished its short run at the weekend, and was staged in NUI Galway's new arts venue.
The Bank of Ireland Theatre, named after its £700,000 sponsor, is due to be opened by the Minister for Arts, Heritage, the Gaeltacht and the Islands, Ms de Valera, today. Significantly, it is the Minister's only function in Galway during the two-week festival, and is not part of the programme as such.
The 110-seat playhouse is in a refurbished Victorian warehouse at the heart of the campus, beside Aras na Mac Leinn, the students' glorious bar and centre on the bank of the Corrib.
The building will become a home for all drama activities at NUI Galway, a college associated with the talents of Siobhan McKenna, Mick Lally, Marie Mullen and Garry Hynes, and will complement the introduction of a graduate programme in drama and theatre studies in September.
The programme's director, Mr Adrian Frazier, comes from Union College, New York, and NUI Galway knows it was lucky to get him. He recently published a biography of George Moore, and is also author of Behind The Scenes: Yeats, Horniman And The Struggle For The Abbey Theatre.
His graduate programme will include a travel allowance and theatre passes for students, to allow them to view and review performances far and wide, beginning with the Dublin Theatre Festival in October.
The university's arts officer, Ms Emily Cullen, says the theatre will be a cultural resource, not just for the college but also for the west of Ireland. She has already had inquiries and bookings from performance companies and recently organised a series of lunchtime events in the theatre.
Just in time to whet arts festival appetites, the second edition of Galway's Good Food Guide has just been published. Thirty of the city's and county's eating houses are profiled in the booklet, complemented by a website, ranging from The Moorings in Oranmore to McDonagh's Seafood House in Quay Street.
Produced by Atlantic Enterprises, the publication was marked by the Minister of State for Science, Technology and Commerce, Mr Noel Treacy, who said he could "personally testify" to standards of perfection at several of the venues.
For "obvious reasons", he would not reveal his personal favourite, which would have to be in east Galway in any case. Galway's Good Food Guide 2000-2001 is available in tourist offices, shops, hotels and restaurants, and the website address is www.GalwayFood.com
Scoil Acla, Achill island's summer school in Co Mayo, has become a successful cultural event throughout the county. This year it offers traditional music courses, concerts, creative writing workshops, set dancing, visual art classes, poetry readings and seminars.
Among the lectures will be one by Prof Seamus Caulfield on the culture of Mayo from earliest times, on Tuesday, August 1st, in the Wavecrest Hotel, Dooagh, and Liam Mac Con Iomaire will talk about Raftaeri an File, at Ted Lavelle's, Cashel, on August 2nd.
A seminar on the Irish language on the island, entitled Gaeilg Acla, will be given by Tomas Mac Seain, Sean O Ghallchobhair and Adrian Mac Giollabhain on the night of the official opening, Monday, July 31st, in Ted Lavelle's. Poets Paul Durcan and John F. Deane will also participate, and the creative writing workshops are being run by Mac Dara Woods.
For more details and workshop bookings, contact Scoil Acla at (098) 47306 or e-mail: info@scoilacla.com