9 Days, 1 City, Limitless Theatre! From climate chaos cabarets to unfiltered comedy, the 2025 edition of Galway Theatre Festival lets you experience the stories that demand to be told. Find out more here...
Galway Theatre Festival is back, running across Galway venues from May 2nd to May 10th, bringing you a programme packed with theatre that challenges, excites, and moves you. Expect everything from climate change drag cabarets to politically provocative drama, physical comedy, and spoken word with a surrealist twist.
The festival programme will officially launch on Monday 31st March in Jekyll at Hyde Bar from 6pm. The launch night is in partnership with Performing Arts Forum (PAF) Connects, a brand-new initiative offering discounted theatre tickets paired with exclusive networking events.
To kick off the festival, audiences will be treated at the Town Hall Theatre to a performance of Sunday Child Theatre’s Chicken, Winner of Best Performer at Dublin Fringe 2024, the Lustrum Award at Edinburgh Fringe 2023, and the Filipa Braganca Award at Edinburgh Fringe 2023. Chicken follows the story of Don Murphy, who is a proud Irish man, a hopeless ketamine addict, and one of his generation’s greatest actors. He also happens to be a chicken! Across one fateful night, the feathered Oscar-winner shares his star-studded story with an intimate audience - from getting his big break, to his first bird on bird sexual experience, to navigating life in the celebrity spotlight. Along the way, Don will be confronted with some harsh truths about himself, chicken kind and humankind.
Galway Theatre Festival Highlights – What’s Going On?
MALAPROP – HOTHOUSE: A play with songs, climate chaos, and a ship’s captain pulling the strings. Time-traveling between 1969, the present, and 100 years into the future, this show is a sharp, funny, and deeply human exploration of love, legacy, and the absurdity of it all. Expect drag cabarets about bees, banging tunes, and laughing in the face of climate doom.
CHOP with Cian Kinsella: A wood chopper, stuck in a surreal, purgatorial loop, endlessly chopping wood as the world crumbles around him. Through physical comedy, slapstick, puppetry, and dance, CHOP is a hilarious and heartbreaking exploration of humanity’s impact on nature and our struggle to break the cycle.
Colm O’Grady – The Lonesome Boatman: A musical clown odyssey that turns climate change into a rollicking adventure. Buttons, a corrupt politician, sets sail in his bathtub on rising tides. Theatre that makes you laugh while making you think.
Morghan Welt – But We’re Right: An urgent, politically charged two-hander exploring the rise of right-wing ideologies in young Europeans. A story of friendship, fear, and what happens when the world you knew changes too fast.
Nth Degree Productions – Mr Bergmann of Deadman’s Point: Based on the true story of Ireland’s most famous unidentified man, this play unravels the mystery of Peter Bergmann, a man who erased his identity before being found deceased in Sligo. Told through the eyes of an embalmer with his own ticking clock, it’s a haunting, poetic meditation on identity, legacy, and death.
Pauline O’Driscoll – JUMP!?: A middle-aged coming-of-age comedy/drama tackling every hormonal taboo from puberty to menopause. Raw, funny, and searingly honest – because sometimes, you just have to scream into the void (or jump out of a plane).
Jo Morrigan Black – Carpet Muncher: Mothman spoken word, drag, and a frenzied call of resistance. Blurring the lines between poetry, physical theatre, and performance art, this show is a celebration of queer identity, body metamorphosis, and the monsters in our closets.
Allta Productions – Pre-Ops: Set in a maternity hospital, two strangers awaiting hysterectomy navigate gender, identity, and bias in a candid and darkly funny play about transphobia, healthcare, and the choices we make.
An Evening with Wee Daniel: Experience the magic of Daniel O’Donnell live in concert...almost! Join Aoife Sweeney O’Connor for an absurdist autobiographical cabaret as they celebrate quare identity, growing up in Donegal, & their unironic obsession with wee Daniel; from their first meeting with Daniel as a baby, to a surprise appearance at their mother’s funeral.
"Galway Theatre Festival isn’t just about great theatre – it’s about theatre that matters. It’s about stories that challenge perspectives, make us laugh, and make us feel. It’s about keeping Galway’s cultural scene thriving and fearless," said Sarah Byrne, Artistic Director at Galway Theatre Festival.
After enjoying the theatre, submerge yourself into a celebration with TABÚ, a Queer club culture night in all its filth and glory. As the night unfurls, you can look forward to a wide variety of gorgeous, hilarious and downright weird Queer performances while you shake your booty to our signature sounds of campy bangers and global infused bouncy basslines. TABÚ is a Queer Culture project that places FLINTA (female, lesbian, intersex, trans and asexual) artists and audiences front and centre. TABÚ is driven by the desire to create an environment where everyone can fully express themselves while feeling seen, supported, and celebrated.
So, whether you’re a theatre aficionado or just looking for something unforgettable, join in for Galway Theatre Festival 2025. Let’s make a week of it!
Galway Theatre Festival
May 2nd - 10th, 2025 in Venues Across Galway
Tickets & Full Programme via galwaytheatrefestival.com
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