Today the sun has hidden itself and the temperature is cold and wintery.... I had booked two shows to see, so after a leisurely morning I set off to find the Black Box Theatre for the first show, 'Grown-ups' by Belgium theatre collective, Compagnie Barbarie/BRONKS.
Googlemaps tells me its a 20 minute walk so I set off briskly, always trying to beat the clock. The route took me through a local park where a windy path through trees suddenly ended with no sign of the way forward at which point panic about being late set in, so I decided to retrace my steps. Eventually I made it to the theatre, feeling a tad warm but on time.
'Grown-ups' for ages 5+ is performed by 4 women and is a madcap DIY romp which reimagines what grown-ups do when the children aren't there. It describes itself as 'an absurd tragic horror comedy about the ups and downs of being a grown-up'. A mix of clowning and physical theatre with multiple props you might find in B&Q... tape, ladders, buckets, cables, hammers and other tools. The show centred around the 4 performers attempting to fix water leaking from the ceiling which gradually went from 1 leak to 3.
The audience were captivated from the outset as props came bouncing out of the wings whilst performers walked purposefully across the stage holding other props (ladders/buckets etc). All the way through children in the audience were extremely vocal, describing what was going on, giggling and shouting instructions and comments at the performers. I loved this show, it had a good slice of anarchy, bonkers humour, jeopardy audience interaction and was thoroughly entertaining.
The second show of the day was The Barceló Brothers, whom I'd had a taste of at the festival launch the day before. I attended a second show that had been added to the programme at the last minute due to the first show selling out, these guys are popular! It was a packed audience of all ages, from babies and toddlers to grandparents. They describe themselves as 'a dynamic groovy five piece band led by two young Irish brothers with Mediterranean blood' mixing Modern R&B, Soul, Regaae, Ska, Hip-hop, pop, rock, Cumbia and Rumba. The young Irish brothers (age 15 and 18) play accordian/vocals and drums and are backed by 3 other musicians including their dad on guitar, a saxaphonist and a bass player. This was a confident and assured performance with the band keen to get the party started, instructing the children to make sure the grown-ups danced. I loved the energy and their bluesy, funky acoustic and rootsy sound and marvelled at the young talented perfomers. The show which was a mixture of original material and covers, ended with a couple of Manu Chau songs, needless to say, I came out feeling uplifted and smiling after a good old dance.
Another wonderful day in Galway...
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