Scotland, England, France, Poland, Belgium, India and Spain. This is a truly international festival of ambitious, contemporary work.
This year’s festival takes great pride in centring the stories and experiences of D/deaf people, neurodivergent people, and people with disabilities in productions including Hamlet, Deaf Republic, Her Father’s Voice, The Making of Pinocchio, What Are You Afraid Of?, My Right Foot, and Konstantin. New ways of experiencing the world we live in are opened up with great sensitivity and imagination.
The unique perspectives and vision of extraordinary female artists will be explored throughout the festival. Women telling sometimes their own, or other women’s stories, in works including Whitewashing, Deeper, The Boy, Bán, I Fall Down: A Restoration Comedy, Pieces of a Woman, Be Careful, Poor, and Beckett sa Chreig: Guth na mBan.
Róise Goan, artistic director, says, “I am thrilled to present my first programme at Dublin Theatre Festival this year. As an island nation on the edge of Europe, that punches above our weight with our global contribution to culture, Dublin Theatre Festival is a really important moment in the calendar for Irish audiences to see the outside world on our stages, and we have some really fantastic international shows in the programme this year that are not to be missed. With a world in turmoil, the shared experience of witnessing stories from artists from all corners, as well as excellent home-grown theatre, has never felt more important.”
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A number of inventive and imaginative shows will illuminate the geopolitical and culture war issues dividing our society at home and abroad. From the Ukrainian production of Caligula to activist and actor Khalid Abdalla’s Nowhere, Adam Rapp’s intense The Sound Inside, The Quiet Man at the Civic Theatre, Cade and MacAskill’s The Making of Pinocchio and more.
Conversations will also continue in Dublin Theatre Festival Thinks, the festival’s new talks programme which will connect the programme to some of the most illuminating thoughts and ideas of today. A special highlight includes a talk by renowned feminist philosopher Sara Ahmed with Sarah Durcan, on the publication of her new book about the #WakingTheFeminists movement, chaired by Emma Dabiri.
Dublin Theatre Festival has always played an important role in supporting and showcasing Irish artists at various stages of their career. As well as presenting work by some of Ireland’s most established companies, the 2025 programme also features those who are stepping up their work in both scale and ambition.
The festival will open at O’Reilly Theatre with Teatro La Plaza (Peru) where an ensemble of actors with Down syndrome take to the stage to share their desires and frustrations through a new version of Hamlet. The Stage has called this production “A joyous affair, five stars.” Built between Shakespeare’s text and the actors’ lives it takes as a starting point the most existential question: To be or not to be?
Artists and lovers Rosana Cade and Ivor MacAskill (Scotland and England) created The Making of Pinocchio in 2018 in response to Ivor’s gender transition. A true tale of love and transition told through the story of Pinocchio (Samuel Beckett Theatre).
Whitewashing from Rébecca Chaillon and Aurore Déon (France) is an insightful and searing performance from one of Europe’s most in demand performance makers, exploring the white gaze as experienced by Black women in contemporary France. It makes an illuminating, and visceral performance not to be missed (Project Arts Centre).
In a production from Rough Magic and Kilkenny Arts Festival at Smock Alley Theatre, Peter Hanly ends up on stage once more, searching through past and present and asking himself the broader question of himself, and of you... What Are You Afraid Of? The Irish Times review says, “This is an extraordinary piece of work. A totally absorbing, moving and funny piece.”
Shane O’Reilly fuses theatre, opera and film in a bold and ambitious new work, Her Father’s Voice. A young girl is about to have cochlear implant surgery as her parents wrestle with the weight of their choices in this contemporary family drama (O’Reilly Theatre).
An Taibhdhearc presents Beckett sa Chreig: Guth na mBan / The Women’s Voice, four short works by Samuel Beckett, the second part in a series by Company SJ; a compelling visual experience in this immersive Irish language production at Project Cube.
Adapted from the poems of Ukrainian-American author Ilya Kaminsky, Deaf Republic (Dead Centre and the Royal Court) is an epic modern fable of war, humanity and collective resistance. Told through a mix of spoken English, Irish Sign Language, creative captioning and silence, Deaf Republic brings together an ensemble of deaf and hearing actors, aerial performers, puppetry, live cinema and poetry (Samuel Beckett Theatre).
In Deeper at Project Arts Centre, Polish theatre maker Gosia Wdowik deals with representations of deep-fakes in contemporary culture. Based on personal experience and interviews with teenagers in Warsaw, the show critically examines the ongoing production and reproduction of altered images depicting female bodies without their consent.
At Project Arts Centre, Be Careful, from Mallika Taneja (India), is a performance work that challenges the notion of safety. Rooted in anger about the everyday violence against women, the show questions the burden of responsibility placed on women to ensure they are not attacked in public space.
How do you live your life in four short years? This is the question actor and writer Michael Patrick is faced with in My Right Foot, after being diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease — the same disease that killed his father. Laughing one minute, crying the next...A true story about disability, perseverance, and living life to the full. Directed by Oisín Kearney at Axis Ballymun.
A new adaptation of the Chekhov classic Three Sisters by award-winning playwright Ciara Elizabeth Smyth, at The Gaiety Theatre, directed by Marc Atkinson Borrull and designed by Molly O’Cathain, is given a contemporary Irish take and features Megan Cusack (Call The Midwife), Saoirse-Monica Jackson (Derry Girls), Alex Murphy (The Young Offenders) and Máiréad Tyers (Extraordinary). An extra performance on Friday October 10th at 2.30pm has just been added.
At O’Reilly Theatre, set against the backdrop of present-day Warsaw, 30-year-old Maja comes to terms with a traumatic loss. Pieces of a Woman is from the writer (Kata Wéber) and director (Kornél Mundruczó) behind the award-winning hit Netflix film adaptation; witness the Irish stage premiere from TR Warszawa Poland. This production is supported by Silvercrest.
From Fuel (UK), Nowhere, an intricate and playful solo show, inspired by his involvement in the Egyptian revolution of 2011, and his experience of the counter-revolution that followed, actor and activist Khalid Abdalla (United 93, The Kite Runner, The Crown) takes us on a surprising journey into his own history, set against a cartography of seismic world events (Project Arts Centre).
This year’s Family season also includes six productions for younger audiences showing at The Ark and in Draíocht Studio, Blanchardstown.
Dublin Theatre Festival runs from 25 September to 12 October. Don’t miss this opportunity to see the best of Irish and international theatre. Book now at dublintheatrefestival.ie or by phone, 01 6778899 (Mon to Fri, 12pm to 6pm).
