Arts Notes

Shortcut to Hallelujah is a hilarious drama written by Ballinrobe native Mick Donnellan and performed by Truman Town Theatre.
The play, set during the run-up to the All-Ireland Football final, has plenty of laughs but packs a lot of hard-hitting punches as the story unfolds in a small Mayo town.
Mayo are playing Kerry and the clientele of Quinn’s Bar, Ballinrobe is certain the Sam McGuire is coming West at last. There’s only one problem. Rumours begin to surface of a curse on the team. The last time Mayo won they celebrated so loudly that they upset a tinker’s funeral and it was decreed that they would never win again until everyone on the team was dead.
It’s now over 50 years later, and only one player remains alive. Meanwhile, young Chris McGuire is in a bitter dispute with local landgrabber Black Tom Tully. The argument dates back to an incident with McGuire’s father some years before. A land deal went wrong when Tully was accused of refusing to buy his round of brandy and the two men became sworn enemies ever after. Chris has inherited the quarrel and is adamant that Tom Tully won’t get a “blade of grass”. Eimear, played by the beautiful Kate McCarthy, is the tragic fiancée of Chris. Despite her best efforts, she can’t reconcile herself to a life in Ballinrobe, but her attempts to leave always prove more difficult than she imagined.
This is the fourth production from Truman Town Theatre and it takes to the main stage of the Town Hall Theatre in Galway on Tuesday, June 26 for five nights.
Mick Donnellan says the company received a lot of support from the late Mike Diskin at the Town Hall and everyone is eager to make it a success.
Mick began writing in 2004 and was involved with last year’s winning entry to RTÉ’s Storyland ‘Lucky Run’, which was largely filmed in Tuam.
The boost to his confidence led to his first play Sunday Morning Coming Down being performed in the Town Hall Studio and in Cong, before it returned to Galway, to the Town Hall’s main stage. The play also toured to Ballinrobe, Cork, Clare and Dublin.
During this time, Donnellan wrote Shortcut to Hallelujah, which was first performed in Galway last year and received a great reaction from critics and the audience.
The play crescendoes as the day of the big match arrives and nobody can say for certain what’s going to happen. Will Christy Hession survive? Should the bookies take the curse into account when considering what odds to give, and will Tom Tully succeed in wrestling the bitter land from Chris McGuire by force if his legal conniving fails?
The Irish Theatre Magazine said the play had “sufficient laughter to bring tears”, so it will be a welcome pick-up in the current doom and gloom.
Des Bishop back in Galway
DES Bishop brings his new show, Des Bishop Likes to Bang, to the Town Hall Theatre, Galway for two nights on Friday and Saturday, June 15 and 16.
Des Bishop is back, he likes to bang the drums, and he’s not afraid to show it. Combining his love of hip-hop, strong jokes, audience participation and a new-found passion for drumming, Des has fun with wordplay in his brand new stand-up show. Enjoy Des learning how to play the drums, talk about going grey, emigration and negative equity.
“It’s going to be a bit silly, a bit musical, a bit improvised,” says Des. “The title comes from being given an electronic drum kit as a gift recently. I started messing around with it and ended up behind a set on stage. It went really well, so I‘ve put together a comedy show with a bit of rhythm in it.”
Bishop’s famously warm, honest presenting style and restless imagination will be in evidence again, most recently seen in the worldwide success of his previous live show, My Dad Was Nearly James Bond. He has since released a book of the same name inspired by his experiences and RTE aired a TV documentary on the subject.
Tickets priced €25 are available from www.tht.ie or phone 091-569777.

Composer wanted!
THE Galway Music Residency, as part of its year-long tenth birthday celebrations, is seeking a composer (Irish or Irish-based) to write a piece of music in celebration of a decade of music in Galway. The piece will be written for the current Galway Ensemble in Residence, ConTempo Quartet.
This call also comes with a Composer in Residence posting, the first of its kind in the ten-year history of the residency.
As part of its on-going programme, The Galway Music Residency regularly hosts guest artists in Galway. Guests play an active role in the overall programme during their period in Galway and the Composer in Residence will do so with regular visits to the city, leading workshops and working closely with ConTempo towards the final work which will be premiered as part of the Residency’s first ever Music Festival in February 2013.
For a copy of the Call for Submission document please call Delia on 091586706 or email info@thegalwaymusicresidency.ie.