Better Late made it's way to Galway last month and it was thrilling to be asked by Artistic Director Paul Fahey of the Galway Arts Festival to be the closing theatrical production of the festival, one of 75 events scheduled for the annual celebration of the arts in Galway, Ireland.

Since Paul had seen Better Late with John Mahoney during its sell-out run at Northlight and knew that it had tremendous audience appeal, he asked us to pack it up and bring it to the festival for 7 performances the last two weeks of July and we were thrilled to make Northlight's first international journey.

We arrived on Thursday July 18th and began rehearsal on Saturday revving up the play with only one day's tech to play on Monday night. The cast (which in Galway included John Kishline replacing Mike Nussbaum) worked like demons to refresh the piece and it paid off delightfully with sold out houses and terrific audience response.

It was interesting to me to see the difference between our audience in Skokie and the ones in Ireland. The Galway audiences were more reverential, seemed to listen to the play more closely and though the audience reactions were just as boisterous in all the same places, they discovered some new delightful reactions that the Skokie audience never found amusing.

The play also felt a little more grounded in Galway and I attribute that to the Irish penchant for finding the dark clouds in every silver lining, to ring off an old Oscar Wilde phrase. I say this with all due respect and, being Irish myself, understanding the breed in a profoundly personal way.

The festival had some terrific performance pieces and it was a delight to run from event to event once our play was up and running. Wonderful dance pieces, interesting art installations, and music, music, music, of every stripe and for every taste.

Friday, Candy and I spent the day at the world renown Druid Theatre of Galway seeing the latest plays by the gifted and ground breaking Irish Playwright Enda Walsh. His two one act plays and his remarkable full length New Electric Ballroom were exciting, stylistically provocative and decidedly Irish in language, tone and dark humor.

Each night the artists were invited to the rowing club on the river across from the tent, a sort of private pub where they could meet and talk about each others work and their own artistic aspirations. Such a thrill, and we were so happy and proud to be a part of the joyous celebration.

A beautiful blue tent presided over the festival, providing a blue beacon on the river Corribe and when it was finally extinguished on Saturday night before the close of the festival on the 27th, it was somehow sad. Being an artist in a festival that lasts only two weeks is exhilarating and all too brief. For a short time you are a part of a family that forms up and bonds quickly then goes its separate ways.

On the Sunday night at the mid point of the festival, the performance group Macnas from Galway staged their annual parade which is weird and wonderful and unlike anything I have seen before, even in New Orleans!

A trip to Ireland could not be complete without a tour of the countryside and we went to visit Clifden and the Sky Road for a glimpse at what is called Ireland's Terrible Beauty.

My congratulations to our cast and crew and Tim Evans our Executive Director for their hard work and for making it all a magical experience.

More Anon,

Beej