Kilkenny Arts Festival Theatre Strand Launches

Excitement abounded yesterday with the launch of this years Kilkenny Arts Festival. And for everyone in this parish the focus was on what the theatre strand would offer up. And it’s looking pretty damn good so far.

For the second year running, the theatre programme is being curated by Tom Creed. Creed has done some sterling work with Rough Magic in the past and is currently directing Dylan Kennedy in All Over Town which is running at the Project Arts Centre as part of the Dublin LGTBQ celebrations. As a director with a strong and varied CV, this years menu of theatre in Kilkenny certainly has a lot of variety on offer. It also shows that Creed is growing more comfortable in the role with a more eclectic programme than last years, dare I say, Cork-centric line up.

In what is a major coup for the Kilkenny Arts Festival, legendary theatre director Peter Brook will be coming to Kilkenny for the first time with a staging of Shakespeare’s sonnets with his collaborators C.I.C.T/ Theatre des Bouffes du Nord. It runs in the Watergate Theatre from Thursday August 13th to Saturday August 15th. Tickets for this one will fly out so it’s advised to book them very soon.

Lucia’s Chapters is being staged by the returning Mabou Mines. An exploration of the life and death of James Joyce’s daughter, this should be a sufficiently avant garde affair, with lighting and set design by Jim Clayburgh of the Wooster Group and a score by Carter Burwell, he of Coen Brothers soundtrack fame. It will run in the Watergate Theatre from the 7th to the 11th of August. A bit of an unknown quantity on the Irish theatre scene, Galway’s Moving Still will present the masterpiece that is Samuel Beckett’s Krapps Last Tape in the Parade Tower on the 8th and 9th of August. An amazing piece of writing by Beckett, this rumination on memory, loss and self is performed by Fergus Cronin.

One of Ireland’s premier dance companies, Rex Levitates will be performing Unsung, a collaboration of traditional music and contemporary dance, in the Great Hall of Kilkenny Castle on August 15th and 16th.

To check out the full line up in all areas and make your bookings, please do go to the newly polished and relaunched Kilkenny Arts Festival website. August 7th – 16th is going to be a very exciting time round these parts.