Outgoing Dublin Theatre Festival Artistic Director Willie White picks his must-see shows at this year’s DTF, which runs from 26th Sept – 13th October.
From the end of September to mid October I will be watching more than 30 productions as part of my final Dublin Theatre Festival as Artistic Director.
I love the diversity the of shows in the programme, with work from Irish and international artists playing in venues all across the city. Festival time is a time to catch new work and new formats and to take a chance on something that might just blow your mind.
Here are six picks to help you narrow down what you might see…
The Lords of Strut are celebrated for their comic, acrobatic dance and circus skills. With Dream Factory they use these talents to tell a contemporary ecological fable, with musical numbers from GMC Beats of the viral hit, The Spark. In the town of Ballyplastic, a brave young girl faces off against a corporate villain and his plot for ultimate destruction (Civic Theatre Tallaght, 25 September – 5 October)
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Playing Fields by The Chop Theatre from Canada grapples with large-scale ideas, such as resource extraction and its relationship to colonialism, and makes them accessible by using a playing field as a unit of measurement. It’s an outdoor, youth driven performance, created in collaboration with teens from Dublin, Richmond and Whitehorse in Canada, and Hong Kong. Interviews with local youth make up an immersive ‘sound-play’ that the audience listens to in their local field. The Dublin contributions were recorded in the precincts of Phibsborough’s feted Dalymount Stadium, home to Bohemian FC (Belvedere College Sports Ground, Cabra, 26–29 September)
Based partly on their own experience of agoraphobia, Belfast writer Caitlin Magnall-Kearns’ full length debut, playing at The New Theatre, Trifled is the story of an encounter between a young woman and an older man. Jen is housebound and earns money creating niche content for OnlyFans, the internet platform for user generated, mostly adult content. Her new neighbour, an English lecturer, is locked out of his house. He proffers a packet of Hobnobs to accompany the cup of tea she offers him while he waits for the locksmith. Magnall Kearns’ comic chops propel an affecting narrative of two strangers who make an unlikely connection (The New Theatre, 1–12 October)
Festival stalwarts Pan Pan have created a contemporary take on William Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale with their version of events, titled Exit, Pursued by a Bear. For this production, the accessible experimentalists have elected to tell the story from the point of view of the bear, with Pan Pan co-founders Gavin Quinn and Aedín Cosgrove directing and designing respectively for an international, interdisciplinary cast. Previous Shakespeare projects Playing the Dane (Hamlet) and Everyone is King Lear in his Own Home (King Lear) have charmed festival audiences and this one is sure to do so too (Whyte Recital Hall, Royal Irish Academy of Music/RIAM, 3–13 October)
British artist Ant Hampton has a long relationship with Dublin, stretching back over two decades. Having previously performed under the moniker Rotozaza as part of Dublin Fringe and at Project Arts Centre, his collaborations with Britt Hatzius and Tim Etchells have featured in recent editions of Dublin Theatre Festival. Using his established autoteatro method, Hampton gives spectators an active role in performances where they execute instructions, performing the piece themselves, for each other. Borderline Visible is the first outing for Time Based Editions, a project with David Bergé. Printed photography is brought alive by a soundscape that both guides and surrounds the spectator in a journey that brings together strands of Sephardic diasporas, forced movement, breakdowns and dementia, swifts and swallows and T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land (Patrick Sutton Studio, Gaiety School of Acting @ Smock Alley Theatre, 26–29 September)
UK hip hop theatre pioneer Benji Reid describes his photographic practice as ‘conflict photography’, documenting the trials his subjects have experienced rather than making simple portraits. With Find Your Eyes he stages a succession of ravishing and complex photos live, working with a cast of three, creating a stunning visual narrative that weaves together his photography with personal testimony, Afrofuturist imagery and a hip hop soundtrack. The Guardian gave the performance a five-star review on its premiere at Manchester International Festival last year, proclaiming it a “A powerful show, filled with devastating honesty and wonder.” This is the one I would bring an adventurous youngster or a first-time theatre goer to (For ages 16+, O’Reilly Theatre, Belvedere College, 10–12 October)
Dublin Theatre Festival runs from 26th Sept – 13th October – find out more here.
