The city’s other festival, Galway Loves Theatre, sees itself as a complementary event to the main event, showcasing overlooked local talent
PIG CATAPULTING, cockroaches in chocolate, Sarah Palin's Alaska . . . oh, and dogging (don't ask). Who needs social networking to share one's bizarre interests, when one can join the "circle of trust" on Electric Bridget's nightly Chat Show?Be warned – make sure to fill in the questionnaire they give you, and leave the handbag at home.
The comic duo behind Electric Bridget, Eileen Gibbons and Helen Gregg, take every prisoner possible during their fiendishly funny new sketch show, which begins with a reminder to the audience to "leave your mobile phone switched on".
The show, which finishes tomorrow night, is one of five running daily at Nun’s Island Theatre for the Galway Loves Theatre event, during the arts festival fortnight.
Billed as a “season of new and classic drama”, it has no Arts Council grant and no marketing budget, relying instead on a website, flyers, posters and batik “billboards” draped over O’Brien’s Bridge.
Its coordinator, Páraic Breathnach of the Galway Arts Centre, was one of the key movers behind Project 06 five years ago, which caused no little tension with the established festival. “Fringe” is not a word Breathnach used then, or uses now, explaining that as a theatre director, he has a duty to use his venue and to ensure local artists have work.
Only one of two Galway Youth Theatre submissions to this year's arts festival was accepted, which effectively meant that the city-owned Nun's Island venue was booked for only one performance a day, he explained. Hence the decision to plan a complementary event, which would stage the second GYT play, Brian Friel's Lovers, along with Mephisto Theatre Company's riveting Grenadesby Tara McKevitt.
Also booked were Vagabond Theatre's production of Conor Montague's Who Needs Enemies,Gocart Mozart's version of Woody Allen's Writer's Blockand the indefatigable and ever-popular Electric Bridget.
"We sold out all the late-night shows last week, and in general, we had 60 to 70 per cent ticket sales a show," says Breathnach. He was determined to keep ticket prices affordable, at €12 and €14. The artists rose to the occasion, relying on minimal sets, and sharing resources – with Helen Gregg also playing the spurned Barbara in Writer's Blockand director Brendan Murray doubling up as a walking, talking programme for his audience.
The event even had its own free show – “G Loves T”, a theatrical online game running until Saturday, where participants sign up to be a Montague or Capulet and engage in “part treasure hunt, part code-breaking, part puzzle-solving activities”. Some clues can be solved online, others only physically in the city.
Galway city arts officer James Harrold believes that the complementary festival is a great idea. "If you think of it, the biggest arts festival show, Misterman, started off with a fringe company called Corcadorca linking up with a then-unknown writer, Enda Walsh, and a young law student, Cillian Murphy," he says.
“Big shows come from small beginnings, and emerging theatre is the lifeblood of the arts in Ireland.” Encore.
galwaylovestheatre.com
