Diversity and quality in a packed Clifden Arts Festival programme
Readings from novelists Colum McCann, Sinéad Moriarty and Mike McCormack, from poets Michael Longley, Moya Cannon and Thomas McCarthy, theatre from Phelim Drew and Pat Kinevane, and exhibitions from artists including Margaret Irwin West and John Coll are among the highlights of this year’s Clifden Arts Festival which will run from September 18-29.
Shows for children include Marty Moncrieff, the Teddy Bear Thief from Galway’s Beluga Theatre Company. The play, set in ‘a world where Toy Story meets Fr Ted’, premiered at the Galway Theatre Festival in May.
Theatre shows for adults will include the one-man musical play Before from the wonderful Pat Kinevane and Fishamble Theatre Company, fresh from its success in Edinburgh. This drama about a father and daughter is as powerful as people have come to expect from the creator of Silent and Forgotten. According to The Scotsman, it packs “a considerable punch”. Before is at Clifden Town Hall on September 25 at 7pm.
Phelim Drew will present Joxer Daly Esq. at the same venue the previous day at 6.30pm. The playful scrounger from Sean O’Casey’s classic, Juno and The Paycock, takes centre stage in Eddie Naughton’s new play.
The Sphere of Light – Secrets of the Boleyn Women will be presented on September 27 at noon in the Station House Theatre. Actors will perform this work by Ann Henning Jocelyn which explores a new angle on the story of the Boleyn family and King Henry VIII of England.
There will be talks from historian David McCullough of RTÉ’s Prime Time and from Martina Fitzgerald, formerly Political Correspondent with the national broadcaster.
RTÉ’s Northern Editor Tommie Gorman will interview former MP and SDLP Deputy Leader Seamus Mallon, who played a key role in the Northern Ireland Peace Process and whose memoir A Shared Home Place was published recently.
Poets John Kelly and Gerry Smyth will read during the Festival, as will Mary O’Malley who joins forces with Galway City born novelist Conor Bowman for their event on Monday, September 23.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.
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