International line-up for Baboró children’s festival

Flying suitcases, dancing feet, vanishing queens, curious giants and magical music will feature in this year’s Baboró International Arts Festival for Children, which runs from October 17-23.

The festival will present performances from Ireland, Holland, Sweden, Belgium, Austria, Denmark and the UK. Alongside shows for children and families, there will be seminars, discussions and events for teachers, parents and those involved with children’s arts.

Highlights include The Queen Has Vanished, a tender story from one of Europe’s most exciting theatre companies, Belgium’s Kopergietery. For ages six and older, it features live music and illustration to highlight the power of hope when all seems lost.

Baboró’s Executive Artistic Director, Aislinn Ó hEocha is happy that the Festival’s programme includes work that “is moving and dealing with difficult topics as part of the function of the arts is to help children and adults explore difficult topics by approaching them in a sensitive and safe way”.

Shows such as the Queen Has Vanished and Dream City (ages 8+) from De Dansers in Holland do just that.  Dream City, a high-energy live music and dance show, is a thought-provoking ode to children in war zones, where the ability to dream is essential to survival.

Music features strongly in this year’s programme.

“Children of all ages really respond to music and there is a lot of cross-genre work being made for children, with a lot of live music. It’s really nice to be able to combine different genres in one show,” says Aislinn.

Those combining different genres include Graffiti Classics (ages 4+ Family), a musical comedy cabaret from the UK which aims to make classical music wickedly funny.

Whoosh! (ages 1-4) from Holland’s Alle Hoeken van de Kammermuziek is a heartwarming introduction to the power of live music, where it’s the only spoken language.

I Pack My Bag (ages 2 – 6), a playful show from Austria’s Theater Nuu is full of humour, dance and song as it explores fantasy, imagination and childhood games.

The Secret Life of Suitcases (ages 4+ Family), from Scotland’s Ailie Cohen is an immersive puppet show packed with wit where Larry’s world gets turned upside down thanks to a fantastic, flying suitcase.

Aston’s Stones (ages 3 – 6) from Sweden’s Teater Pero is a reminder of the joy that the simplest things can bring to people’s lives, and about how easy it is to love.

Closer to home, Galway’s Branar present a new bilingual, interactive show for children aged six months to two years. Set in a soft, tactile environment, The Shape of Things is told through puppetry, object theatre, music and sound.

Alice Underground from Youth Ballet West is a modern interpretation of the Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass with acrobatics and high-energy dance.

Ireland’s Theatre Lovett return Baboró with their musical fable, A Feast of Bones, serving up songs, fun, and fright.

Monkeyshine are back with Voyage, an electrifying new play inspired by Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver’s Travels. This physical, visual, and visceral piece has music and songs, specially composed by musical trio, The Evertides.

Children and adults can get creative with Baboró’s Creative Lab at NUIG. This follows the success of last year’s Happy Heart Zone and sees artists Deirdre Rogers and Órla Kelly return to help people use their imagination. Using unusual materials, which have been salvaged from Recreate’s ‘Warehouse of Wonders’, Deirdre and Orla will host a place where people invent and build.

Those who want to explore robotics and engineering in a fun, interactive way can do so with Robotic Adventures from Colmac Robotics, where children can be creative while learning about science, technology, engineering, maths and computer programming.

Baboró exhibitions will include a group show, curated by Maeve Mulrennan of Galway Arts Centre, where Alan Clarke, Louise Manifold, Pawel Kleszewski and Kasia Zimnoch present Becoming: The Adventures of Growing Up.

The Town Hall Theatre will host Juniper, from illustrator Shona Shirley Macdonald, a story of how Juniper and her friends try to make sense of unusual events. One of Shona Shirley’s gorgeous works illustrates the cover of this year’s Baboró programme.

The literature programme is dedicated to the late Teenagh Cunningham, who was Baboró General Manager until her death in August 2015. It will see Galway’s Patricia Forde reading from her award-winning children’s book The Wordsmith. Gemma Breathnach will read from Luán agus an Mórphianó, and Máire Zepf and Tarsila Kruse will facilitate an interactive bilingual workshop based on Ná Gabh ar Scoil.

Films will include Amhrán na Mara / Song of the Sea and The Long Way North.

Talks for grown-ups will feature one of Ireland’s most lauded artists, Laureate na nÓg, PJ Lynch, and Aoibheann McNamara, mother and restaurant owner. She will talk about nurturing a child’s love of food through travel and adventure.

There will be storytelling from PigNut productions and Charlie Byrne’s Bookshop, and immersive theatre with Moonfish Theatre.

Baboró’s Relaxed Performances return, for children who might not otherwise be able to attend shows – Whoosh!, I Pack my Bag and The Secret Life of Suitcases will have Relaxed Performances.

And directors from children’s festivals all over the world will attend, seeing work from Irish companies such as Coscéim, whose dance show, The Wolf and Peter premiered at Baboró 2016 and is embarking on a UK tour this winter after programmers from there loved it in Galway.

Full details of this year’s festival are on the website,