Last year's inaugural Segue festival at The Street Theatre celebrated the cultural interplay between Europe and Australia. Now Segue is back for 10 days in May, timed to coincide with Europe Day celebrations on May 9.

Street Theatre artistic director Caroline Stacey says, "We've got a really full program with a lot of experiences for people – theatre, music, drawing performances."

There will also be forums delving into the cultural interplay and collaborations between the two continents.

Stacey says, "We had a great response to it last year on two or three levels."

European artists talked a lot in forums about the exotic in Australia and wanting to be a part of what artists are doing here, and what also emerged was how exciting the blend of the northern and southern hemispheres was.

Stacey also says she is increasingly aware of the vast array of contemporary European literature that isn't available in English translation and that in 2017 she is looking at having a modern European play produced.

But that's for the future. For this year's Segue, an innovation is an artist-in-residence, who will be Polish-Australian visual artist Gosia Wlodarczak.

"She will do a nine-day drawing-on-glass performance called Streetcloud," Stacey says.

"She draws what she sees in real time. She draws in white, inspired by childhood memories of frosty windows."

Wlodarczak will draw from 10am to 6pm on the windows of the Street Theatre as well as perform at the National Gallery of Australia, DFAT and Canberra Museum and Gallery. She will also deliver an artist talk at the National Gallery.

Marking the 100th anniversary of the Easter Rising in Ireland and celebrating the fact that the Irish Embassy in Canberra now processes more passports than any other mission outside Ireland, the Street will present Irish writing company Fishamble's play Swing.

"It's a comedy about finding yourself again and finding your love life again."

Divorced father Joe has lost his business during Ireland's recession and is looking for a job and for something to do with his life. May is a graphic artist looking to fill in time while her boyfriend is away. Joe is a divorced father seeking a new job after losing his business during Ireland's recession. They meet at an evening dance class and fumble their way through a lot more than just the steps. The play is written by Steve Blount, Peter Daly, Gavin Kostick and Janet Moran and directed by Peter Daly.

"We also have a couple of interesting Austrians," Stacey says.

Justus Neumann – who now lives in Tasmania and divides his time between Australia and Europe – acts in a one-man show he co-wrote, Alzheimer Symphony, which uses the motif of the European dark clown to examine the process of ageing. During a performance of Shakespeare's King Lear, a renowned elderly actor forgets his lines and begins the long descent into Alzheimer's disease.

"It's his way of humanising this very challenging experience ... It gives a very human insight into the feelings around it," Stacey says.

"This is the first time it's been performed on the Australian mainland. It's a very clever and beautiful work and quite profound."

The other Austrian, Heinz Riegler, is "a sonic Renaissance man", a composer and performer who also works between Europe and Australia. He's known as the vocalist and guitarist in the ARIA Award-winning trio Not From There, and as co-curator for the minus20degree biennale in Flachau, Austria. Now he has moved into solo performance and improvised collaborations, including performances alongside sound artists David Toop, Scanner, DJ Olive and Lawrence English among others.

At the Street Theatre, he will be performing solo and will use electric guitar and laptop electronics to create a sonic landscape. The performance will feature excerpts from his upcoming sound piece North/South, which takes inspiration from the constant movement between the hemispheres. The composer will also conduct a forum on his work.

Continuing in the musical vein, Bandaluzia Flamenco is "a group of Australian artists, some of who are of Spanish heritage, who take flamenco dance and music and put a unique Australian take on it."

They're led by flamenco guitarist Damian Wright and feature dancer Jessica Statham and Canberra brothers Ben Hauptmann on mandolin and James Hauptmann on percussion.

And Sydney ensemble Terza Madre will present a contemporary take on Italian torch songs in orchestral arrangements by Ennio Morricone and the nostalgic star power of Italian pop icons Mina Mazzini, Masssimo Ranieri, and Milva.

Creative Collaborations will look at opportunities for artists working with diplomatic agencies and Interplay sees four panellists explore the creative movement between Australia and Europe. And a Radio National Big Ideas from Europe presentation, The Big Flight, on creative and cultural responses to migration and the refugee crisis in Europe, will be hosted by Paul Barclay.