Full programme launching on 2nd April 2024
An international multi-disciplinary celebration of women’s creativity inspired by James Joyce’s most famous female character, Molly Bloom, from his epic novel Ulysses.
Fiona Shaw, Harriet Walter, Cush Jumbo, Imelda Staunton and Siobhan McSweeney are among 8 award-winning stage and screen actors taking part in The Molly Films to be world premiered at the YES Festival.
The YES Festival will be Ireland’s inaugural all women artists festival, a cross border and cross community affair taking place in Derry~Londonderry and north-east Donegal, 13-16 June 2024 and inspired by the final Episode 18 (Penelope) of Ulysses, more familiarly known as Molly’s Soliloquy.
YES Festival is the culmination of ULYSSES European Odyssey 2022-2024, an unprecedented Creative Europe project across 18 European cities and is the concept of its Lead Artistic Partner, Arts Over Borders Ireland (which is co-funded by the Department of Foreign Affairs Ireland). Its programme has seen literary museums, activist community organisations, artists from the visual arts, film and theatre along with festivals of photography, light and literature take Joyce’s novel as the starting point to explore contemporary issues, from migration to the environment, disability to mental well-being and democracy to The Future: A Female Vision, the theme set for its grand finale in Ireland.