WORDS: KATHERINE MURPHY
“Artistic Director of the festival, Willie White has managed to shake the image of the festival as being the conservative, middle-class older sibling of the Fringe Festival”
You’ve heard it before. Kids on the street calling by your house. You re-enact scenes from fairy tales, create mountain ranges from towel, treat the floor as lava in jumping from chair to couch. A stick becomes a wand, any hat is a crown, and under the table lays a vast cavern. Everything you touch and everything you see is magical.
“Come out to Play.” The perfect slogan for this year’s Dublin Theatre Festival. One that inspires the sense of fun and spontaneity that only theatre can create, and one that engages the audience and invites them to partake. In his second year as Artistic Director of the festival, Willie White has managed to shake the image of the festival as being the conservative, middle-class older sibling of the Fringe Festival. The advertising, this year and last, focuses on the youth and energy of the festival culture that is becoming more and more infectious year after year.
And the programming continues on this trend. Just take a look…
The Critic, October 2-13, Rough Magic: Mr and Mrs. Angle happen across a group of drama students performing his historical play in the contemporary style Rough Magic showcase brilliantly. The real magic here is that the drama students are real, gathered from DU Players, UCD Dramsoc, and the Gaiety School of Acting. Rough Magic is literally training the next generation of acting talent while injecting older, more trained actors with the vibrancy of youth and the gift of spontaneity. The Critic will be an impressive blend of 18th Century discourse and 21st Century stagecraft.
Germinal, September 26-28, Halory Goerger and Antoine Defoort: This French production aims to “conjure a universe in a black box.” Reminiscent of childhood play four performers interact with screens, microphones, mixers and intercoms in order to map their complex environment. Engaging with the audience through and around technology creates a fascinating dichotomy that young theatre-goers will both understand and empathise with. This is one not to miss, only running for three nights and tickets are selling quickly!
The Rape of Lucrece, October 10-14, RSC: This production seamlessly blends the fluidity of a Shakespearean sonnet with the musical abilities of Camille O’Sullivan. A gifted singer and actress, O’Sullivan has become a staple of the Dublin Fringe Festival; her progression to the Dublin Theatre Festival showcases White’s eagerness to invite this in vogue performer to shape and mould one of the oldest texts in the festival. This production premiered at the Edinburgh Festival last year to top reviews and will moving onto Derry in October before going back to the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon in 2014. Lyrical and melodious, O’Sullivan can only move up.
I’ve to Mind Her, October 1-6, Dublin Youth Theatre (DYT): Unlike other productions in the festival that try to inject older texts with a sense of youth, DYT use Sean Dunne’s newest offering to examine the responsibilities of these young performers in relation to the family and to themselves. Fringe regulars become festival newbies, and amateur youth theatre is invited to sit with the best that Ireland has to offer — hopefully not for the last time. This is an exciting opportunity to see the best of Dublin’s younger actors for a fraction of the DTF’s normal ticket prices.
BUT if you can’t wait until the festival begins on the 26th here are some Fringe alternatives to play along with…
Boys and Girls, September 17-21, by Dylan Coburn Gray: Spoken in verse Dylan Coburn-Gray’s script weaves through the city centre (mapping the yokes, the failed sex, and the never-ending search for the ‘craic’) of a night out in Dublin. This ambitious play interweaves four stories without ever letting them quite touch. One to watch.
A 20th Century Concert: Abridged, September 17-21, by Taylor Mac: Taylor Mac is one of New York’s most legendary performers, meshing theatre with music and burlesque in this stunning musical montage, charting 100 years. The Fringe’s version is abridged from the upcoming 24hr concert which includes at least one song from each decade of the 20th Century.
