10 events to see at Galway International Arts festival
Dragon - The Forgotten World will have a 30ft mechanical creature on the streets for Galway International Arts Festival. Picture: Adrian Rosati
Michael Keegan-Dolan, the creative force behind Teaċ Daṁsa, takes to the stage himself for the first time in more than two decades in this acclaimed show, a big hit with audiences at last year’s Dublin Theatre Festival. A blend of theatre and dance, it traces the choreographer’s own story while exploring a veritable panoply of themes, from nationality and identity to sexuality and shame. Joining Keegan-Dolan for this fascinating journey is his long-time partner and collaborator Rachel Poirier. Cork audiences will get a chance to see it in September as part of the Sounds from a Safe Harbour festival, which, in 2019, also showcased Loch na hEala, Keegan Dolan’s astounding reimagining of Swan Lake.
Another work from an acclaimed director and choreographer, this time Cork native Luke Murphy. He gives a thoroughly modern spin on live performance in this hybrid of experimental theatre, contemporary dance and sci-fi thriller. Conceived during lockdown, the set-up is reminiscent of Samuel Beckett and Enda Walsh, but for the streaming generation, as two characters, X and Y, are trapped in a room together. Presented in four separate 45-minute performances, audiences can take an a-la-carte approach, watching them in one go or on consecutive days.
An array of South African talent brings Nobel prizewinner JM Coetzee’s novel to life in this haunting stage adaptation, a collaboration with the Tony Award-winning Handspring Puppet Company, who created the spectacular puppets in Warhorse. It tells the story of Michael K, who undertakes an arduous journey through war-ravaged South Africa in order to bring his dying mother home.
Australian circus company, Gravity and Other Myths, fuses acrobatics and choral performance to exhilarating effect in this much-anticipated production. An indication of its scale and ambition is the fact that it will take place in the new Festival Theatre, at the Kingfisher at the University of Galway, the biggest indoor temporary venue the festival has ever created. In defiance of the distance that came between us during Covid, a 30-strong all-female choir and 30 acrobats celebrate connection on a visceral level in a pulsating unification of movement and sound.
Arguably more appreciated now than in their musical prime in the 1990s, the reunited US indie band might be tapping into the nostalgia circuit but they showed they still have a lot to offer at their rapturously received gig at Vicar Street last November. Prolific frontman Stephen Malkmus is still the engine of the band, which produced a run of influential albums, most notably Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain in 1994 and Wowee Zowee in 1995. Providing equally accomplished support are Pillow Queens. Other music acts playing in Galway include the Saw Doctors, and Fat Freddys Drop.
Fervently loved and admired as a founding member of The Go-Betweens, Forster has also produced an impressive solo repertoire which continues to showcase his gifts as a songwriter par excellence. His most recent album, The Candle and the Flame, is a mediation on ageing and mortality, underpinned by his wife Karin Bãumler’s diagnosis of ovarian cancer in 2021. Ultimately, though, it is a life-affirming celebration of love.
![David Mach The Oligarch’s Nightmare [Maquette] Photo: Steve Russell Studio](/cms_media/module_img/7319/3659857_3_articleinline_David_20Mach_20_20-_20The_20Oligarch_27s_20Nightmare_20_5bMaquette_5d_20photo_20Steve_20Russell_20Studio.jpg "David Mach The Oligarch’s Nightmare [Maquette] Photo: Steve Russell Studio")
The Scottish artist is always a huge draw at the festival, his previous works Golgotha (2012) and Rock ‘n’ Roll (2018) attracting record-breaking audiences. Inspired by his childhood as the son of a miner in Fife, he is known for his large-scale public work fashioned from materials including clothes hangers, tyres and newspapers. The Oligarch’s Nightmare, specially-commissioned for the festival, is a site-specific installation, which, as illustrated by a preview maquette, will feature a bashed-up Range Rover.
The Galway photographer was awarded a prestigious International BarTur Photo prize for his lockdown-inspired project Homebound With My Parents, in which his mother and father posed in various gloriously luminous and kitsch tableaux. His work takes on a more narrative tone in this multi-disciplinary showcase curated by Tom McLean, including immersive installations and collaborations with motion graphic artist Dara Greaney.
With podcasts fuelling an increasing appetite for intelligent but entertaining chat, the festival has a fascinating array of talks slated, including this contribution from US professor James Shapiro, who earlier this year won the Bailie Gifford prize for his biography 1599: A Year in the Life of William Shakespeare. Here, he will discuss his forthcoming book on the US Federal Theatre Project which in the 1930s attempted to provide affordable theatre for all classes and races, before falling foul of the House Un- American Committee for its supposed Communist influences. Shapiro will be interviewed by Chris Morash, Seamus Heaney Professor of Irish Writing at Trinity College.
Prepare to be blown away — not literally — as French street art pioneers Planète Vapeur bring their giant 30ft mechanical smoking dragon to the streets of Galway, travelling from Eyre Square to the Spanish Arch via Shop Street, O’Brien’s Bridge and Dominick St Lower. More open-air fun awaits with the Silent Disco Walking Tours which were one of the festival’s most popular attractions last year. Put on your noise-cancelling headphones and join Australian Guru Dudus, Madame Cha Cha and 49 fellow dancers for your own personal bop through the city to a mixtape soundtrack of 70s, 80s and 90s hits.
- Galway International Arts Festival runs July 17-30. For more information and booking see giaf.ie
