NOBODY could accuse former Belfast Festival acting director Robert Agnew of going quietly into the elevated territory of his newly created post of executive director. In the final year in which he has sole responsibility for the festival content - before handing over the monumental task for 1997 to recently arrived programme director Sean Doran - he has gone for an eclectic mix of old names and new, scouring some of the farthest flung corners of the world in the process.
"We are delighted that, for the first time, we will have four shows in common with the Dublin Theatre Festival," says Agnew, "Trainspotting, Snoshow, Macnas and the RSC - and are equally thrilled to have booked Guy Masterson with his two outstanding shows, Under Milk Wood and Animal Farm, as well as Peter Florence, who was such a huge success at the 1993 festival." Glossy names such as the Royal Flanders Ballet, Wim Vandekeybus, Cecile Ousset, the Siobhan Davies Dance Company, the Clark Terry Quintet and I Fiamminghi rub shoulders on the pages of the splendidly designed programme with more homely names like the Lyric Theatre, which will be premiering a new play by Jennifer Johnston, as well as Big Telly, Cois Ceim, Aisling Ghear (the North's first professional Irish language theatre company), Frances Black and the Ulster Orchestra. One notable absentee is Point Fields, the company founded by playwright Martin Lynch, which, for financial reasons, has just announced its closure and its withdrawal from the festival.
The Queen's Film Theatre continues its excellent tribute to the Centenary of Cinema, while also screening a season of children's films, Irish films and new releases from the burgeoning Northern Ireland film industry. The festival runs from November 4th to 23rd. Free programme is available from the Festival Booking Office at 25 College Gardens, Belfast, telephone: Belfast 665577. Postal bookings opened yesterday.
