Dublin Fringe Festival is about to be unleashed on the city, with more than a fortnight of shows. It’s a great opportunity to sample the huge range of theatre, comedy, spoken word, dance, music, storytelling, circus, cabaret and more being made in Ireland – plus some international treats too.
Bee Sparks, in her first outing as the festival’s director – she was formerly its programmer – promises “joy, community, brazen truths and blazing dance floors” for the fringe’s 31st year, which features 85 events at 36 venues over the next few weeks. The stats: more than 650 artists working on 492 performances, including 56 world premieres, 67 Irish premieres and five Dublin premieres.
There are also shows this year in less usual venues. The festival has teamed with Guinness’s experimental Open Gate brewery and Roe & Co distillery to transform their spaces for six performances (in the Creativity on Tap series).
The National Leprechaun Museum hosts Hungry Grass/Stray Sod, about an Irish bisexual and a Ugandan lesbian meeting in a foreign land. Holdings, from Clara McSweeney and Mel Galley, takes place on the phone, online and by post, to see Dublin city differently.
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What Are We Waiting For, at Loughlinstown Community Rooms, sees Men’s Shed members and the writer Colm Keegan explore mental health and masculinity. CoisCéim Dance Theatre presents Performing Memory free in civic spaces across the city.
The festival also has various schemes to improve accessibility, and tickets generally are great value.
Here, in chronological order, are some of the productions that have caught our eye.
I Want to Speak to Your Manager
Pearse Centre, Dublin 2, Friday, September 5th, to Sunday, September 14th
The Cork writer and artist Holly Hughes blends personal storytelling and stand-up in her one-woman show, which has the subtitle How I Was Radicalised and Became … Karen. The story of a fight for justice, one complaint email at a time, humorously deconstructing the archetype, to leave you asking, Is being a Karen really such a bad thing?
Octopus Children
Project Arts Centre, Dublin 2, Friday, September 5th, to Sunday, September 14th
The new show from Felicia Olusanya, or FeliSpeaks, with Thispopbaby, is about growing up as a “black, Irish, queer culchie”. With music and spoken word woven throughout.
Pea Dinneen: Raising Her Voice
Project Arts Centre, Dublin 2, Saturday, September 6th, to Sunday, September 14th
Trans woman Pea Dinneen’s musical story, a cabaret of personal narrative.
Young Radicals
Various venues and dates, Friday, September 5th, to Saturday, September 20th
A programme of shows made for and by young people, including Maisie Lee’s The Shape of Quiet Feelings (Mill Theatre, Dundrum, Friday, September 5th, to Sunday, September 14th), working with children aged eight-plus to explore the idea of change; and Bum Notes’ Pick’n’Mix! (Smock Alley, Dublin 8, Saturday, September 20th), in which children will create a live musical, along with comedians, in 60 minutes.
Clash at the Quays! II: Lokomania
The Complex, Dublin 1, Saturday, September 6th
The musicians Ahmed, With Love; Sloucho; VaticanJail; Julia Louise Knifefist; Lil Skag; Curtisy and Kibo take to the ring to settle some scores in a show of musical rivalries, wrestling blood feuds, and suplex-level silliness, where live music collides with the weird world of professional wrestling.
Project Arts Centre, Dublin 2, Saturday, September 6th, to Saturday, September 13th
This new play from the critically acclaimed theatre-maker Oisín Kearney is billed as a contemporary exploration of families, abuse and what it means to care.
Offspring: A Modern Frankenstein
Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin 8, Sunday, September 7th, to Saturday, September 13th
Emily Terndrup’s new dance-theatre work, a visceral reimagining of Mary Shelley’s horror classic, promises to thrust audiences into the chaos, beauty and terror of creation, whether birthing a child, a work of art or something far more monstrous.
Aliens
Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin 8, Monday, September 8th, to Wednesday, September 10th
This autobiographical, multilingual documentary play by the intergenerational Belfast company Curious Industries explores what it means to cross a border, between countries, cultures and generations, as mother and daughter Marta McIlduff and Alessandra Celesia take a road trip, both in life and on stage, weaving together personal stories, interviews and reconstructions of historical events. The starting point is the stories of Italians who emigrated to Northern Ireland between the wars, continuing to move on to New York.
Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin 8, Tuesday, September 9th, to Saturday, September 13th
In this aerial work, Christopher McAuley explores life as a young man growing up a queer Catholic with chronic eczema in post-Troubles Belfast.
Testo
Project Arts Centre, Dublin 2, Tuesday, September 9th, and Wednesday, September 10th
The UK drag artist Wet Mess promises to “messify transitions, testosterone and the edges of drag” in this solo show combining costume, dance, lip-syncing and avant-garde theatre.
Train Man
Pearse Centre, Dublin 2, Tuesday, September 9th, to Sunday, September 14th
The comedian Caroline McEvoy arrives fresh from Edinburgh with a tale of sibling rivalry in post-Troubles Northern Ireland and her relationship with her younger, neuro-divergent brother, who loves trains, buses and getting his way.
+353 Presents: The Revenger’s Tragedy
Abbey Theatre, Dublin 1, Wednesday, September 10th, to Saturday, September 13th
This “chopped and screwed reimagining” of Thomas Middleton’s Jacobean revenge tragedy, performed with a live orchestra, engages with black identity and drill music, the hip-hop subgenre. Where words are weapons and bodies are battlegrounds, two men wrestle with lust, shame and revenge.
Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin 8, Wednesday, September 10th, to Saturday, September 13th
Lords of Strut’s Cian Kinsella, fresh from touring with Thisispopbaby’s Riot, tackles climate and masculinity with laughter in a solo show described as “a violently stupid and stupidly violent deep dive into fragile egos, environmental collapse and the absurdity of existence”.
Seón Simpson’s on a Tangent
New Theatre, Dublin 2, Wednesday, September 10th, to Saturday, September 13th
Can you make poems about self-harm and suicide funny? Seón Simpson believes so: she turns her teenage diary and once-secret poetry blog into a mix of stand-up comedy, theatre and Ted talk about mental health, oversharing and wringing laughs out of teenage trauma.
Reverb
Civic Theatre, Tallaght, Dublin 24, Thursday, September 11th, and Friday, September 12th
Luail, Ireland’s national dance company, perform high-energy dance choreographed by Sarah Golding to pulse-pounding live music by the composer and musician Lisa Canny.
Am I the A**hole?
Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin 8, Thursday, September 11th, to Saturday, September 13th
An interactive courtroom drama from Dafe Orugbo and Lisa Nally that lets you sign up to be a member of the jury as part of a satirical, comedic, experimental show about social politics, turning the theatre-going experience into a game of cunning and manipulation.
Glass Mask Theatre, Dublin 2, Friday, September 12th, to Thursday, September 18th
David Rawle’s new play, which he also stars in, is an anxious love story about the ultimate bad idea: falling for your best friend. Two people arrive in Amsterdam as friends, but somewhere between canals and coffee shops they develop some strong feelings. Is it love in the air, or just weed?
Queens of Comedy
Smock Alley Theatre, Dublin 8, Sunday, September 14th, to Tuesday, September 16th
Aideen McQueen and Sophia Wren (aka Sophia Cadogan) host three nights of fast-paced stand-up with a rotating cast of Irish women comedians, from rising stars to established names.
Big
Project Arts Centre, Dublin 2, Tuesday, September 16th, to Saturday, September 20th
Alison Spittle confronts misogyny, sexuality, classism, death and M&Ms in a show about the changes the past year has imposed on her, and her recent weight-loss and health journey.
[ Alison Spittle: ‘I’m treated more like a human being now I’ve lost weight’Opens in new window ]
Last Gig Ever!
Smock Alley Theatre, Wednesday, September 17th, to Saturday, September 20th
This Dutch piece of dance theatre, from Agents & Juice, dives into the highs and lows, constraints and complexities of nightlife, DJ culture and nocturnal challenges, exploring the afterhours through slapstick comedy and rigorous movement.
Change
Project Arts Centre, Dublin 8, Thursday, September 18th, to Saturday, September 20th
The integrated dance company Croí Glan angles a hopeful lens on climate change while exploring disability, environment and immigration. A call to climate action through movement, music and diverse bodies in motion.
Grand Social, Dublin 1, Friday, September 19th
A queer-circus-themed club night with music, visuals, performance and interactivity, collaborations with local creatives and Honeypot friends, DJs, face painting and hypnotic dance-floor energy.
Dublin Fringe Festival runs from Saturday, September 6th, until Sunday, September 21st
