Druid Theatre’s outgoing General Manager, Tim Smith, will open the fifth Galway Theatre Festival at Nun’s Island Theatre at 1pm on Monday next October 1. Tea, cake and sandwiches will be served and everyone is welcome to attend.

The opening will kick-start a week of theatre across the city, which will see a variety of shows with themes from pole dancing to prostate cancer, bathroom monologues to Beckett shorts, love, loss and lamentations on the idea of home.

Companies from across the country are taking part in the theatre festival with Galway favourites Vagabond, Blue Teapot, Mephisto and Fregoli among them.

The newly renovated An Taibhdhearc Theatre will host Moonfish Theatre, whose production of Tromluí Phinocchio/ Pinocchio’s Trials received an excellent reaction when it was staged during Dublin’s recent Fringe Festival.

Other venues hosting shows include Blue Teapot Theatre in Munster Avenue, the Town Hall Studio, Druid Lane Theatre and of course, the Festival hub, Nun’s Island Theatre.

The Galway Theatre Festival will run from Monday next, October 1 until Sunday, October 7 and tickets for shows, which are priced €12/10, are available from Town Hall Theatre at 091 569777 or online at tht.ie.

For a full programme and further information check out galwaytheatrefestival.com.