Arts Festival making big plans for 2015

A new show by Olwen Fouéré and an autobiographical exhibition from the renowned French-American artist and sculptor Louise Bourgeois are being co-produced by Galway International Arts Festival for next July’s event.

Olwen Fouéré will star in Samuel Beckett’s Lessness, a co-production between The Emergency Room and Galway International Arts Festival Productions, in association with Cusack Productions Limited. This is the same team that brought Fouéré’s one-woman show, riverrun, based on Joyce’s Finnegan’s Wake, to the 2013 Festival. Since then it was performed in Edinburgh, London, New York and Sydney, winning awards and critical acclaim for the Cleggan actor, who also adapted the piece.

Fouéré’s new show, Lessness, will form part of the Barbican’s International Beckett Season in London in June prior to its Galway performances.

On the visual arts front, Autobiographical Works promise to offer Galway viewers an insight into the mind of one of the most influential figures in 20th century art. This exhibition of prints from Louise Bourgeois’ will feature two portfolios of work which were created late in her career. Bourgeois’ art always had strongly autobiographical themes, as she explored her own obsessions and vulnerabilities.

On the musical front, the Festival has already announced a Big Top gig from Irish folk singer Damien Rice.

The Arts Festival also intends to hold a special, offsite, series of its First Thought talks in Connemara next April.

Meanwhile, the main play of this year’s Arts Festival, Enda Walsh’s Ballyturk, starring Cillian Murphy, Stephen Rea and Mikel Murfi, was this week named as one of the Top Ten productions of 2014 by The Guardian newspaper.

The production, by Galway International Arts Festival and Landmark Productions is listed alongside groups such as the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre of Great Britain, Peter Brook, the Royal Court, Edinburgh International Festival, the Old Vic, and the Donmar Warehouse.

Ballyturk premiered in Galway before travelling to London in September where it divided critics. However, the Guardian’s theatre critic Michael Billington is a firm fan and listed it as Number Two in his Top 10 of 2014.