Graphic courtesy of Dublin Theatre Festival
From the 29th of September to the 16th of October 2022, our fair city hosted its annual theatre festival. Dublin Theatre Festival (both affectionately and humorously referred to as ‘DTF’) immediately follows the Dublin Fringe Festival, resulting in a two month lineup of shows from both Irish and international artists alike. I was lucky enough to see a handful of shows: particularly during the Dublin Theatre Festival, which was greatly helped by the newly introduced scheme of ‘10 for 10’. ‘10 for 10’ allocated 10% of shows tickets to be available for €10 to under 30s, unwaged, freelance artists and arts workers. Hey, us Dublin Creatives need as much help as we can get guys.
A few shows especially grabbed me from the festival. Bros by Italian experimental director Romeo Castellucci was a particularly memorable one. Taking place on the large stage of the O’Reilly Theatre, an intimidating gaggle of men dressed as soldiers fill the stage, and even march into the audience. The piece’s pre-set features a machine gun, pointing at the audience and rotating back and forth, creating a foreboding feeling to say the least. The soldiers then proceed to engage in repetitive activities such as shooting one another, covering themselves in blood, and kneeling by a massive photograph of Samuel Beckett. As an audience member, I felt a lot of discomfort, largely due to the fascist themes the piece was exploring and particularly the onstage ‘torture’. There is a waterboarding scene, as well as a naked actor being dragged across the floor, repeatedly beaten, and having milk poured over him. Both of these events were instances where the audience walked out. This is not the kind of theatre we get to see in Ireland everyday. Which is a shame, as I wish the Dublin scene prioritised experimental work such as Bros.
The large stage of the O’Reilly was also purposely utilised for Franco-Austrian artist Gisèle Vienne’s Crowd. Crowd gave its audience a true audio-visual delight with 15 performers moving across the stage in slow motion to blaring techno music. No, like it was really loud. The performers would occasionally speed up, slow down, and freeze, all while performing their antics of drinking, dancing, kissing, and fighting. What stood out to me in Crowd was the use of the number of its performers and large space, allowing the audience to focus in on a specific performer’s journey throughout the performance as no character would be doing the same thing. I could have watched it 15 times, watching a different performer each time, and would have had a different experience each time from watching it through their perspective.
Lastly, I would like to talk about the beautiful What We Hold. From dance company Our Steps, and created by Riverdance star Jean Butler, What We Hold was an exploration of Irish dance. The piece was an immersive experience, taking place in City Assembly House, where we were walked by the dancers through the house’s beautiful rooms. We saw a boy practising his steps on a wooden board, facing the mirror, something I remembered doing myself back in my dancing days before transferring my need for onstage attention to acting. Jean Butler herself performed in the piece, dancing barefoot on a table with a young girl adorned in medals, as the audience sat around the table. We listened to pre-recorded voices of older people talking about Irish dance, one woman expressing the accessibility of dance as a hobby for those who did not have the money to buy their children musical instruments. The piece ended in a beautiful crescendo of the dancers of all ages coming together, looking at one another in a familial way, and creating an atmosphere of community and togetherness amongst them through dance. This finale was also somewhat reminiscent of a Satanic cult at the ending of Hereditary, due to similarities in the music and the fact that the dancers were consistently silent. This, combined with the apparent contentment on their faces, made me think they were hiding something.
The showcase of work during the Dublin Theatre Festival makes me long for consistent showcases of experimental and movement based theatre such as Bros, Crowd and What We Hold throughout the year. As someone from the west coast of the country, I know first hand that theatre in rural Ireland is few and far between, and if I were still living there I would be forced to move to Dublin to experience it. However, I often joke that there is no theatre in Ireland for ten months after the Fringe and DTF, and I very much hope this can improve. By bringing platforms to smaller creatives and inviting more international ones to our stages, theatre could expand outside the city. Otherwise, I guess I’ll see you all in London. Let’s just hope they don’t take away Smock Alley’s ‘Seen And Heard Festival’…well, take it away again anyways.
