Arts Week with Judy Murphy

Highlights of this year’s Galway Theatre Festival which will run from May 3-11 will include a production of Countless Cathleens by Ériu Dance Company. It’s a dance-theatre comedy, set in a cosmic dressing room where principal female dancers from across time coexist, and it features original music by Beoga.

Ní Liomsa An Teach Alainn Seo by Kilkenny-based Cult Collective is an invocation of Ireland’s storytelling tradition, accompanied by harp music, while Party Scene from Dublin company THISISPOPBABY journeys into the underbelly of queer culture and the complexities of desire, intimacy, isolation and addiction.

Gammy from Galway-based House Of Pluto is a rural portrait of lost potential, inexpression and female rage, while Just A Minute, Conor Murray’s one-man comedy comes West following its sold-out run at the Dublin Fringe Festival.

Other shows this year include Curious Pigeons from Dublin’s Baubo Theatre, in which a flock of unruly pigeons explore the streets before relaying an important message about finding your flock.

Esther Almazán’s Yaqui & Béal explores the similarities between Native Americans and Irish people, while technology is embraced in A Post Office at the Hawthorn by Jenni Nikinmaa, which can be accessed via smart devices.

Meanwhile, The Good Crank from Sight not Sound Theatre documents the life of Kitty Clogg who lives alone and is certain that she’s immortal.

GAA meets contemporary dance in Ham Sandwiches and Discipline, created by choreographer Nóra Ní Anluain Fay, while the one-man show, Indigestion, from Leitrim actor and writer Seamus O’Rourke, will also be staged at this year’s event.

The debut play from Galway’s Martin ‘Beanz’ Ward, The Dead House, will wrap the 2024 Festival. It comes to Galway after a successful run at Dublin Theatre Festival.

Pictured: Conor Murray’s one-man-show, Just a Minute, comes to Galway after its success at the 2023 Dublin Fringe Festival.