Galway Arts Festival line-up includes four world premieres

Four world premieres, including a major new play Arlington [a love story] by Enda Walsh; an array of Olivier and Tony Award-winning playwrights and directors  including Ivo van Hove, Lee Hall, Jim Culleton and Garry Hynes; musicians ranging from Elvis Costello  to The Gloaming;  a major new commissioned exhibition from artist  Hughie O’Donoghue; and a  Street Art Programme featuring Francisco de Pájaro’s Art is Trash, are among the highlights of the 39th Galway International Arts Festival. It takes place from July 11-24.

Artists and companies from Australia, Belgium, Canada, France, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands Scotland, Spain and the USA join forces with artists from Ireland for this year’s event, which has a strong focus on home-produced work.

“More and more, we are involved in producing new work and are delighted that we will have so many premieres this summer,” said the Festival’s Chief Executive John Crumlish.

Irish highlights include the world premiere of Arlington [a love story] written and directed by Enda Walsh, starring Charlie Murphy, Hugh O’Conor and  Oona Doherty. Reuniting  the creative team behind Ballyturk and Misterman, it’s a co-production from Landmark Productions and the Arts Festival.

Invitation to a Journey is inspired by the life and work of Wexford woman Eileen Gray, a pioneer of modernist design.  This is a Festival co-production with CoisCéim Dance Theatre, Crash Ensemble and Fishamble.
Death at Intervals by Kellie Hughes stars Olwen Fouéré and Raymond Scannell. There’s also  a new short text Kitchen by Enda Walsh, presented in a gallery setting and featuring the voice of Eileen Walsh.
Meanwhile, Druid presents Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, directed by Garry Hynes.

International theatre and dance highlights include the Irish premieres of Song From Far Away directed by the acclaimed Ivo van Hove, who recently directed David Bowie’s musical Lazarus in New York, for which Enda Walsh wrote the book. The  theatre hit of the 2015  Edinburgh Festivals,Our Ladies of Perpetual Succour by  Lee Hall, a National Theatre of Scotland and Live Theatre production is also coming, as is  Australian circus and acrobatic company Gravity & Other Myths with A Simple Space.

The  Street Art &Spectacle Programme features gigantic Insects  from Spain’s Sarruga; a daring trapeze show, The Scent of Sawdust byLes P’Tits Bras from France, and contemporary street and urban artistFrancisco de Pájaro whose  pop-up sculpture and installation Art Is Trash offers a new perspective on junk.

Live at the Absolut Big Top(co-produced with the Róisín Dubh) features concerts from Elvis Costello and The Imposters with special guests The Undertones; Britpop icons Suede,; the Gloaming; Villagers with special guest Mick Flannery; and some of Ireland’s biggest-selling music acts of recent times – Bell X1and Imelda May with special guest Damien Dempsey.

Other music highlights include Dan Deacon, The Souljazz Orchestra, Brian Deady, God Is An Astronaut, Pleasure Beach, Mary Coughlan, amongst others at the Róisín Dubh; We Banjo 3 and Tommy Emmanuel in Seapoint Ballroom; Donal Dineen’s the Pipes, The Pipes at St. Nicholas’ Church; Stomptown Brass, Hothouse Flowers, Sharon Shannon Band, The Henry Girls, Mundy, Sean Smyth and Traditional Music Showcases at Monroe’s Live; with DJ sets at Electric.
GIAF’s First Thought Talks have been expanded, with discussions focusing on identity. A range of talks will explore the  theme of identity across a wide platform, including talks on political, personal, cultural and digital identity.

Speakers include activists, constitutional lawyer, artists, politicians, academics, entrepreneurs, journalists, composers and poets, including The Guardian’s theatre critic Michael Billington; transgender actor Rebecca Root; top US model Cameron Russell; performer and activistRory O’Neill; artists John Gerrard and Varvara Shavrova; scientist Professor AbhayPandit; and author David Berreby, among others.

Festival 2016 sees the return of the Festival Gallery at the former Connacht Tribune Print Works, home to a major new exhibition and Festival commission, One Hundred Years And Four Quarters, by acclaimed Irish artist Hughie O’Donoghue. This forms part of the official Ireland 2016 Centenary Programme. The Festival will also host exhibitions by Irish artists including Spectres of Modernity by Ruth McHugh; Making Ireland Modern by architects Gary A. Boyd and John McLaughlin; Foreign Bodies by Elisabetta di Sopra, Giancarlo Marcali and Border Crossings presented by Galway International Arts Festival, Galway Arts Centre and SASA Gallery Australia.