12 highlights of Galway Arts Festival: Music, theatre, and a whole lot of fun
(From eft, clockwise) Patti Smith, one of Sean Henry's sculptures and Silent Disco walking tours will be at he Galway International Arts Festival.
Music has always been one of the Galway festival's biggest draws, and this year’s Heineken Big Top programme remains strong. Patti Smith tops the bill, bringing the intensity that’s made her one of rock’s most revered performers. The Flaming Lips, on the road for over 40 years, remain an essential live alternative rock act — and, let’s face it, among the most fun too, especially if they bring the full toolkit of visuals, confetti and whatever else they want to throw our way. Smaller stages welcome Badly Drawn Boy, David Kitt, the Dublin group Glasshouse and their Sigur Ros show, Sexy Tadhg, Bricknasty, and many more. And rest assured: The Saw Doctors will be playing the Big Top.
After impressing last year with their Sabotage show, the contemporary circus company return to Galway with a mix of music, aerial feats and cinematic imagery. Directed by Firenza Guidi, expect a show that’s entertaining and boisterous, and all underpinned by a message of hope.
Druid, now 51 years on the go and still a crucial force in Irish theatre, return to that master of Victorian melodrama, Dion Boucicault, with under the direction of Garry Hynes. There was plenty of farcical energy in the company’s back in 2013, and the hope here is that Hynes keeps things similarly nimble. Druid’s ensemble work rarely disappoints; its regulars are among the greats of the contemporary Irish stage, after all: Marie Mullen, Rory Nolan, Marty Rea, and so on. To those, we can add another great, Eileen Walsh, among others, this time. Live music accompaniment by Conor Linehan seems a clever idea too.
It’s always quite a sight around the streets to see groups of up to 50 people throwing shapes en masse to sounds that only they can hear. Lila la’Diva and Madame Cha Cha lead this year’s headphoned tours from Eyre Square to the Spanish Arch, all soundtracked by a selection of bangers from previous decades. A fun option for those who actually want to participate in the festival.
Colm Toibin’s novella is perhaps more admired than beloved among his works, but its dramatic potential has already been proven, with Fiona Shaw’s intense incarnation of the grieving mother of Christ lauded in London (if not quite in New York). Now Irish National Opera takes it on, with music by Tarik O’Regan and a libretto by the author. Audiences who caught the brilliant and ingenious from INO at last year’s festival will need little encouragement to check this out. Rachel Hewer directs.
Enda Walsh and festival artistic director Paul Fahy have created something of an institution over more than a decade with their Rooms series of immersive installations. This year’s edition takes us into the dressing room of an underage GAA team, where a coach’s life is about to be upended. Voiced by the brilliant John Olahan.
More immersion here, as a shipping container is transformed into the cabin of a commercial airliner. Darkness grips the captive audience as headphones guide them towards two potential outcomes. As well as prolonged darkness, audiences can brace themselves for a turbulent time, with sudden movements and loud sound effects. What’s not to like? Apart maybe from getting into something like a plane when you don’t actually have to.
Anyone who saw Miet Warlop’s astonishing at the Dublin Theatre Festival in 2023 will know that you can’t go wrong with a few treadmills and some sweaty actors. You can sign up again for that formula in Galway, thanks to Pony Cam’s Burnout Paradise. Five performers, four of them running on treadmills, driven by a relentless countdown. A comic endurance feat that serves as a very obvious, but wholly welcome, metaphor for modern life and its unceasing, frivolous, and unrewarding demands.
The British sculptor’s monumental human figures are already a presence in Galway — his having taken up residence by the River Corrib. For the festival, new commissions join existing works at multiple locations. Henry himself will be in conversation with Paul Fahy at the Festival Gallery on July 15, in a free event.
An intriguing prospect from theatre makers Rodrigo Pardo and James Riordan sees audiences traverse the streets of Galway towards Spanish Arch. Scenes inspired by the life and work of Padraic Ó Conaire unfold around them, blending dance, music and text.
This much-travelled Australian piece has left (mostly) rave reviews in its wake. Now it’s the turn of Irish audiences to assess choreographer Stephanie Lake's , whose scale and ambition give the work its name. Lake brings 50 dancers to the stage in a display of synchronicity, crowd energy, and precision.
The festival’s First Thought series is a miniature festival of words and ideas in itself. Former New York Times theatre critic Ben Brantley joins Paul Fahy for a conversation about criticism, a profession whose authority has been challenged ever since everyone became their own publisher. Elsewhere, journalist Elaine Burke and Adrian Weckler discuss the dizzying possibilities and threats of AI. Colm Toibin talks singing with Iarla O Lionaird, Andrew O’Hagan explores ideas of friendship with psychiatrist Brendan Kelly, while Cork poet Theo Dorgan discusses his novel with fellow poet Martina Evans. Journalism, war, migration, the pope, housing, theatre, and more are among other topics to get your head around.
- Galway International Arts Festival runs from July 13-26.
