Arts Week with Judy Murphy

Footsbarn Travelling Theatre can take some of the credit for creating the arts scene we take for granted in Galway today. It’s more than 40 years since the colourful company first rocked into the city, staging their magical production of King Arthur in a tent by the River Corrib and, unwittingly, helping to shape what would become the Arts Festival and, later, Macnas,

They’re back in town this Friday and Saturday night, with their latest production, an adaptation of James Stephens’ fantastical, philosophical and funny novel, The Crock of Gold, which was first published in 1912.

Footsbarn co-founder, Paddy Hayter, who’s directed The Crock of Gold with company member, Vincent Gracieux, is delighted to be returning to Galway. And Paddy who takes on multiple roles in the drama is on a high after the rapturous reception it received in West Kerry, “in a tent on the side of a hill”.

The tent was the 400-seater Footsbarn venue, and the hill was in the townland of Baile na bPoc, near the home of accordion player Brendan Begley, who performs in and narrates this music-filled spectacle.

The production also features award-winning singer-songwriter Glen Hansard of the Frames, who has been a friend of Footsbarn for years. He toured with the troupe on their most recent Irish visit, in 2018.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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