Macnas on fire ahead of epic Gilgamesh

Lifestyle – Macnas Theatre Company is embarking on its most ambitious project yet, a retelling of world’s oldest epic, a timeless tale of humanity, love, revenge and the quest for immortality. It will run for the rest of the year in different venues and across various platforms. Artistic Director Noeline Kavanagh tells JUDY MURPHY about its evolution and about the importance of surprise to the company’s work.

Rain is bucketing down on the roof of the Macnas workshop in the city’s Fisheries Field as the company’s Artistic Director Noeline Kavanagh sips her first espresso of the day – not that this animated, energised woman needs it.

Covid-19, meanwhile, is pitching the world into unprecedented territory as Galway’s groundbreaking theatre company prepares for the launch of Gilgamesh, its epic production for Galway 2020. There are reasons for concern, but Noeline who was planning this project long before Galway submitted any bid book to become European Capital of Culture isn’t fazed.

“I have plan B,” she says firmly, “and plan C, D and E if they’re needed.”

Capable and creative, Noeline has already fought the good fight to get Gilgamesh up and running – like many other Galway companies which dealt with the 2020 European Capital of Culture organisation, Macnas faced problems over 2020’s financial commitments to the project and delays in getting contracts signed.

So, being at the stage where Macnas can focus on the massive workload is wonderful and she’s grateful to be there.

“The European Capital of Culture gave us the opportunity to think beyond the obvious and beyond our hall door,” she explains. “It offered us a panoramic view that could only exist in our imagination until then; to have a vision of this scale that we could get funding for. It was radical.”

Macnas never has any problem with ideas, she says. “It’s getting the support to implement, develop and sustain the company has always been the challenge.”

Macnas grew out of Galway Arts Festival in the mid-1980s, hitting the streets with parades the likes of which had never been created by an Irish company before.

“Macnas has always been about surprise and with Gilgamesh, that’s what we are aiming to do,” says Noeline, whose links with the company stretch back to her youth when she was a volunteer.

Now, because of Galway 2020 funding, the company is in a new phase, which involves working with visiting artists on an ongoing basis, while ensuring its own core creative staff are also involved.

Visiting artists include playwright Marina Carr (The Mai, By the Bog of Cats) who is writing the script for an outdoor show that will be performed in June and an indoor one, scheduled for November.

The event will also have a prologue and an epilogue – with the prologue starting in unexpected places around Galway City in April.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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