Day Twenty-One

Tuesday, July 14th, 2009

Tuesday during my drama class, our professor Caoilfhionn (pronounced something like Kway-leen…she’s super awesome) told us the amazing news that we would possibly have the chance to be a part of the Macnas parade for the Galway Arts Festival. Apparently she had made some calls and pulled a few strings to give the class the opportunity. I had absolutely no idea who Macnas was or what the parade entailed (only that I really wanted to see it), so you can imagine why I hesitated for about 0.0002 seconds before raising my hand and loudly yelling that, yes, I wanted to participate.

(It’s my secret dream to some day be in the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Please don’t judge me.)

So we determined that we would meet the next day down at Fisheries Field where their headquarters were located so we could go to Parade Rehearsal (I seriously think that’s the coolest thing ever in the world. Seriously…”Do you want to go get pizza?” “Oh no, I can’t, I have Parade Rehearsal.” Give it a try. Experience the awesome.) Abbie and I, however, had theatrical plans of our own for later that evening.

It was the start of the Galway Arts Festival, something I’ve been talking nonstop to people about since I discovered it existed. One of my top events was a street theatre performance entitled Firebirds being performed on Shop Street by a company called Theatre Titanik. The only thing I had gained from the leaflet was that there were going to be large “flying machines”. Abbie was a bit reluctant to go, but I forced her off the couch and downtown.

We got to Eyre Square, the starting place, a few minutes early and settled in. I admit, even after taking DK’s class last semester and having my eyes opened to the world of non-traditional theatre, I still expected—in my dumb American way—to have some mellow parade a la the Rose Bowl slowly crawl past me as I applauded politely. What I was NOT prepared for was the roaring of engines and three large machines appearing seemingly from nowhere, their engineers screaming and shouting.

Abbie and I scrambled towards the action, and she was the first to figure out that each of the machines was captained, respectively, by America, France, and Germany. The American was solo, wearing overalls with a white face and ball cap. His machine featured a fire canon and one of those giant, movie special-effects fans at the back. The French, a man and a woman who we’re still not sure whether they were brother/sister or husband/wife, looked like the Thernadiers had escaped from Les Mis. Their flying contraption resembled a very large, old-fashioned bicycle and the woman would walk around the crowd offering baguettes. The Germans, two men, road in a machine with giant black wings…and a lamp (I was seriously waiting for Flight of the Valkyries to play at any minute). One German resembled a cross between Augustus Gloop and the Monopoly man..the other was a thin, gangly man with a white face, who wore a spiked helmet (and if Stefan were here he could tell me the name of it), except the spike was something like a candle, and when he blew into a tube, fire would shoot into the air.

It was an amazing experience running after them as they rode down the streets, bickering with one another and interacting with the crowd. Occasionally one would steal the other’s machine, they would often bring members of the crowd to ride along with them, and they absolutely loved to take pictures with people (I got some, don’t even worry). All the characters were vivid and beautiful, but our hands-down favorite was the French male, even though he inadvertently made Abbie spill her cup of water on herself (I’m sure there’s a deep metaphorical meaning there too.)

We were both on such a high after seeing the performance and would not shut up about it, much to the annoyance to some of our other friends who we found on Shop Street. But after learning about it in Dr. Katie’s class, it was absolutely amazing to actually be able to experience it for ourselves.

Next stop: Parade Rehearsal.