Galway play 'Trad' wins important award in Australia

A Galway Arts Festival production has won an important award in Australia.

A Galway Arts Festival production has won an important award in Australia.

Mark O'Doherty's Trad, directed by Mikel Murfi, secured the award during the festival's final week.

Adelaide hosts the world's second largest fringe every two years, to coincide with the biennial Adelaide Festival of Arts.

The success was welcomed by the festival's artistic director, Paul Fahy, who travelled down under to support the production.

READ MORE

He explained that the fringe has three awards, one for each week of the event, and Trad's review came out early this week, making it eligible for the final nomination.

Trad was produced for the 2004 Galway Arts Festival and was staged subsequently at the Dublin Theatre Festival and at the Edinburgh Fringe, where it won several plaudits, including Writers' Guild of Great Britain award.

During its Australian run, it received highly favourable reviews - being described as Waiting for Godot meets Dancing at Lughnasa.

The original cast includes actors Peter Gowen, David Pearse and Frankie McCafferty, along with musicians Tony Byrne and Andrew Morrow.

Mr Fahy paid tribute to Culture Ireland, which supported the Adelaide Fringe participation and is also sponsoring the show's run next month at the Bush Theatre in London, opening on April 4th.

Lorna Siggins

Lorna Siggins

Lorna Siggins is the former western and marine correspondent of The Irish Times