Dance show to launch Arts festival with a bang
Date Published: {J}
A show that people will be talking about for years to come is how Galway Arts Festival Director Paul Fahy describes Political Mother from Israel’s Hofesh Shechter Company, one of the highlights of this year’s two-week feast for the senses.
This dance piece opens with a soldier committing hari-kari and comes with a noise warning – “decibel levels may exceed 100db”. Anything over 85db is regarded as dangerous, so the audience will be provided with ear muffs.
Political Mother, which is performed by 10 dancers, is a series of shocking, amusing and touching events that challenge our perceptions of what is normal.
The work is accompanied by Shechter’s own cinematic score featuring a live band who perform at different levels on the stage.Shechter’s company have firmly established themselves as a leading force in international dance, with this show receiving rave reviews in the UK when it opened last week. The Observer described it “as a fine, excoriating work, fuelled by real anger” and The Telegraph gave it five stars.
From the UK, Bristol Old Vic and Shakespeare at the Tobacco Factory present Chekov’s Uncle Vanya. Set in a crumbling Russian estate, run by Vanya and his niece Sonya, the arrival of Vanya’s brother-in-law and his beautiful second wife throws their lives into disarray.
Druid’s Festival production is Enda Walsh’s Penelope based on Ulysses, which has a unique setting, at the bottom of a swimming pool.
New York Theatre Workshop, which was lauded for its production of The Exonerated about six people who were sent to death row for crimes they did not commit presents Aftermath. It is based on what happened to the Iraqi civilians who fled to Jordan in the wake of the Iraq War.
The resulting highly acclaimed play has been described by Associated Press as ‘A drama of the highest order’.
Crossing the genres between drama and music is the National Theatre of Scotland with Long Gone Lonesome, a celebration of the life of fisherman, crofter and musical hero, Thomas Fraser (1927-1998), which will travel to Inishbofin and Headford as well as being staged in the city.
For more, read this week's Galway City Tribune.