Wide Eyes festival set to enthral young audiences
Arts Week with Judy Murphy
Babies and children up to six years of age are in for a treat next week when Galway hosts a one-off arts festival, showcasing 15 new works from theatre companies across Europe – all aimed at younger audiences. The diverse array of shows running in venues throughout the City from February 1-4, is the culmination of a European project entitled Small Size, which sees theatre groups and children’s arts festivals from 15 European countries including Ireland.
Galway’s Baboró Children’s Festival, which is Ireland’s Small Size representative, will host the festival, known as Wide Eyes, and will also premiere a show for the occasion.
This is a new departure for Baboró as it’s the festival’s first time producing work – Uoo, Mee, Weee has been created with Galway company Branar Téatar do Pháistí and will be staged next Thursday, February 1.
Baboró has been involved with Small Size since 2009 – the initiative was originally set up in 2005 to ensure that Europe’s youngest citizens were given fair access to performing arts and it fits into a broader international organisation.
The current Small Size scheme began in 2014, explains Baboró’s Executive Artistic Director, Aislinn Ó hEocha, as she prepares to welcome colleagues from across Europe to Galway for its culmination.
Each of the 15 participating groups was asked to create a new work for early-years audiences, pushing their own creative boundaries in the process. Participants from Italy, Romania, Denmark, Finland, the UK, Sweden, France, Poland, Belgium, Romania, Austria, Germany, Spain and Slovenia, as well as from Ireland, have done just that, she says, and will showcase their work at Wide Eyes.
Among the shows is Tuntu (Touch), from Finnish dance company Auraco, which was created for visually impaired children and their carers. “Really going out of their comfort zone”, according to Aislinn, Auraco created a sensory production in which the company and audience use steps, airwaves, breath, touch and rustling clothes to explore what dance and sounds feel like.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.