Picture four bald men living in a hermetically sealed shop window for a fortnight - cooking, eating, washing, sleeping without leaving their "stage". Picture then the scene outside Galway City Library next month, when the Urban Dream Capsule takes to its latest set.
It is being billed as the highlight of this year's festival programme, and it is free. The creator, Neil Thomas, has some idea of what to expect from Galway audiences. The Melbourne-based artist captured the public imagination last year when he performed Blue Boys in the Moons/Brown Thomas shop window.
First produced at the 1996 Melbourne International Arts Festival, the "24-hour non-stop incubation" drew an estimated 250,000 people. Since then, it has been performed all over the world, from Wellington in New Zealand to Montreal, Canada, to London.
It has been compared to an "interactive silent movie", where the necessities of everyday life are blended into performances to create a "seamless and surreal world". So dinner becomes a dance, a shower turns into comedy-drama and cooking becomes slapstick interactive gymnastics. The window glass precludes speech communication, so the performers can be reached by website, e-mail, phone and fax.
Details of this year's programme, including a strong percussion element to the Macnas parade directed by Judith Higgins on the theme "Colours", have just been released in Galway. They are due to be presented in Dublin today, at a time when the festival has secured some significant new sponsorship - but no significant increase in its Arts Council grant.
Galway's Merchant Road princes, Thomas MacDonagh and Sons, have become a major sponsor. The company is providing space at its Merchant Road premises for the box office and press office this year. National Irish Bank, Compaq and Guinness are the other major sponsors, while top of the tree as a "corporate partner" is Nortel Networks.
A major employer, based in Galway's Mervue Industrial Estate, Nortel had to lay off 50 of its staff several months ago, following the economic downturn in the US. Notwithstanding, it "held its nerve". Its support, the level of which has not been disclosed, is in both cash and kind, according to festival manager Fergal McGrath.
The Galway Arts Festival takes place from July 17th to 29th, and the website is www.galwayartsfestival.ie
Out a little to the north-west, the Old Tuam Society is preparing for its fourth annual summer school this coming weekend, entitled A Vision of Connacht in the 15th Century.
Medical learning and practice, the activities of the Franciscans, the tower houses of Co Galway, trade and economy and the literary tradition are the subjects of lectures by an expert gathering of academics and historians.
The event takes place from June 15th17th at the Hermitage, Dublin Road, Tuam. Further details from Ms Bridget Tynan at (093) 24522.
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Readers who wish to contact Lorna Siggins can leave messages by phoning 01670 7711, extension 6299
