Host of events still to come at Galway Fringe Festival

This year’s Galway Fringe Festival, which has run alongside the Galway Arts Festival, has offered audiences a range of events encompassing theatre, dance, visual art and music. And it’s not over yet, with shows and exhibitions running throughout Galway City until Tuesday.

 Still to come is the much anticipated Children on the Black Skirt, by Drama Works Ireland. This evocative play explores history, childhood innocence and the power of storytelling. Three children, who discover an abandoned orphanage, become trapped in a timeless world haunted by spirits of the past, ruled by the Black Skirt, a cruel governess. The spirits will not rest until their stories are told. This is being staged at the Electric Garden in Abbeygate Street at 7.30pm until this Saturday.

Neighbours, a new play written by Mayo writer Andrea Cleary, is a fast, whiskey-fuelled two-hander about Mary and Johnny, neighbours since childhood, who are now almost strangers. They meet in a field after a night out where they remember the good old days, dream, debate and make life-changing decisions. Neighbours will be staged downstairs in the Cellar Bar, Eglinton Street, this Friday and Saturday at 6.30pm. Andrea, who is originally from Hollymount, graduated from the University of Wales in 2007 with a degree in Theatre Studies and Performing Art. She co-founded Maylin Productions with writer Rua O'Donnachu to promote new writing and produce theatre which entertains and challenges.

The Cube Theatre at NUIG is staging a range of productions for the Fringe Festival, including Sluts from NYX Theatre Company. Featuring a cast of local actors, it explores events as four girls get ready to go to a nightclub. Sluts is full of witty one-liners but it also offers an insight into the difficulties faced by young people in modern Irish society.  It runs at 8.30pm from this Thursday until Sunday.

Made to Shiver, by NUI Galway student Rory O’ Sullivan is at the same venue from this Friday, July 26 to Monday next, July 29. This work was inspired by events last summer, including the violence at the Swedish House Mafia Concert in Phoenix Park, and Katie Taylor’s success at the London Olympics. With friendships forged from pain and a family crippled by shame, the characters look back to events that warmed and changed their lives. This play was highly successful at NUIG’s Jerome Hynes Festival, where it won Best Actor and Best Sound awards.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.