TIGER DUBLIN FRINGE :: September 7 – 20, 2015 | www.fringefest.com
First off, the tent is back! That’s right, the spiritual home of the festival returns with the Spiegeltent which will find a home in Wolfe Tone Square.
The Tiger Dublin Fringe is now all grown up and celebrating its 21 birthday in style, with a big bash in the city from Sept 7th to 20th. Two weeks of madness where every crazy in the country is gathered in the one place to educate/ amuse and enthral the masses. At the opening last night, artistic director Kris Nelson encouraged us to go outside our comfort zone and take a few risks with what we see. As ever, there’s plenty of opportunity to do just that, with plenty of weird and wonderful in the 80 productions and 47 world premieres.
Come and be astounded with all that’s new on the Irish and international live entertainment circuits with new works across theatre, dance, circus, comedy, music, cabaret and more. We welcome back the glitzy cabaret vibe of the Spiegeltent, pitched right in the heart of the city at Wolfe Tone Square. Headlining the glorious turn-of-the-century pavilion is Australian acrobatic circus extravaganza, Company 2’s Scotch and Soda, in situ for the entire run of the festival. Mx Justin Vivian Bond will illuminate the Spiegeltent for one night only of pure wit, soaring song with And Things of THAT Nature, under the musical direction of Thomas Bartlett; Bourgeois & Maurice and David Hoyle bring their ripper of a music and comedy night Middle of the Road. The never-ending roll call for this year’s special Spiegeltent programme also includes Fringe’s first ever pro wrestling show, Over the Top Wrestling, with breathtaking acrobatic moves in a festival-first spectacle. Comedian Al Porter gets into the swing of things with the Swing Cats and conjures a hilarious night of music, dance and comedy while Booka Brass Band will have Wolfe Tone Square bursting at the seams. Sounds Alive offers a discerning night out of stories through sound, featuring multi-award winning radio producer and composer, Nina Perry, a live score from Crash Ensemble and singer Adrian Crowley’s spoken word stories. Get your Fringe on with these attention-grabbing shows and much more at the Spiegeltent running throughout Tiger Dublin Fringe 2015.
The multi-award winning Siren Productions returns to Tiger Dublin Fringe with the Irish premiere of the global one-woman theatre phenomenon, GROUNDED by George Brant. The remarkable Clare Dunne stars in this grippingly compulsive play directed by Selina Cartmell. Recognised for its support of new work and emergent talent, this year’s Fringe welcomes many other new faces and voices such as Alice Malseed, who brings to life an intimate confessional; titled Jellyfish, it’s a rollercoaster ride through the lives of Belfast’s posh teenage party set. This is your chance too to be first to see new works from Áine Ryan in Studio Perform’s Templemore set in Tipperary’s famed Gardaí training grounds; Sligo’s Tintoretto Sect present a darkly elegant theatre horror called Beneath the Bone Moon; and catch The Lir Academy graduates Eccles Theatre Group with The Windstealers, amongst many more:
THEATRE
True-blue theatre fans will find performances that delight, harrow and inspire. Spirit of the Fringe winner in 2013 (Way Back Home) Louise White returns with a new show, Mother You. Set in a disused commercial building, this new work tells the story of a prophetic township is a fuse of live performance, installation and video art. Stewart Parker Trust Award-winning, MIRARI Productions (In Dog Years I’m Dead), present their latest, Our Island. This new play examines what three couples risk when striving for happiness. Breach & Quinn come out of retirement to perform an unperformable soundtrack to a cult hit film, in Score. The ever popular Show in a Bagseries give shining examples of new writing and new performance and this year features Sure Thing by Eric O’Brien & Jed Murray, Rebel Rebel by Robbie O’Connor & Aisling O’Mara, The Auld Fella by Michael Glenn Murphy and The Matador by Shane O’Reilly. Stefanie Preissner (Solpadeine Is My Boyfriend) returns and assembles the lousiest Ard Fheis ever in a searing exposé on failure in It’s My Party Conference (and I’ll Cry If I Want To). Love+ by Claire O’Reilly (Boys and Girls) details the dark possibilities of human-machine relationships. Tracy Martin returns to this year’s festival with Harder Faster More, following her 2014 Fringe-hit, WRAPPED; This hilarious new show tells connected stories about women in a world where sex sells. Lastly, don’t miss innovative theatre from Brokentalkers who gracefully collide with the distinctive choreography by junk ensemble in It Folds, a surreal look at characters who attempt to find a connection through shared humanity.
MUSIC
Music lovers: prepare for a smorgasbord of great gigs in unique venues all across Dublin. Since a first turn at Fringe in 2007, Turning Pirate has been curating the famed music event, Mix Tape and this firm favourite again brings together some of Ireland best known musicians, this time sharing the gorgeous Spiegeltent stage; Bottlenote weave their spell in 13 North Great Georges Street in The Walls Have Ears; Young Hearts Run Free take over the Freemasons’ Hall for one night only with The Nineteenth Autumn; while newcomer Seán Kennedy will wow you in historic Smock Alley with Boy. Keep an eye out for Famous Seamus and Sean-tastic in unexpected corners of the city as the livewire Lords of Strut host the sweatiest 30 minute Contain-A-Rave. The Late David Turpin returns with yet another eclectic cast presenting his first work since 2013’s acclaimed We Belong Dead – Romances is a sinister, erotic, tender hearted excursion to the inner chambers of the human heart. Susannah De Wrixon proves there’s definitely life in the songbird still and creates magical new arrangements from jazz to popular, comedy to cabaret in Susannah with Strings Attached, on the Peacock stage. Afterwards, pop along with the opera fans reveling in Handel’s Agrippina, presented by Irish Youth Opera with Northern Ireland Opera.
DANCE
Dance is one of Ireland’s most astounding and creative art forms and a key focus of Tiger Dublin Fringe. Newcomer Alba Lorca leads us down a path where mistakes are seen as progress and chaos is constructive in Embody the Void; performer Justine Cooper makes a cinematic movement theatre piece inspired by back holes in Folds of Crane; while Luke Murphy combines storytelling, rich imagery and his dynamic movement in Your Own Man / Mad Notions; Classical lass, Liadain Herriott, living in a modern world finds her way in and out of the darkness in her new work, Liminal; Antje O’Toole and Emma Fitzgerald reveal their new work built on story, disruption and joy, in Tend. John Scott’s Irish Modern Dance Theatre presents a new work, Feathers. This quest for home and hope – while mashing styles of Trash and Kabuki with a slice of Emily Dickenson’s poetry – features an international cast of four brave and brilliant dancers. Finally Croí Glan and past Fringe favourites ponydance join forces in Elk and Saintly for a perception-challenging romp.
COMEDY
Comedy fans will split their sides as David O’Doherty, Alison Spittle, Katie O’Brien, Abie Philbin Bowman and Conor O’Toole offer great laughs. Martin McSharry theatricalises a comedian having his worst day. Top comedy trio Foil, Arms and Hogg make their Fringe comeback in SkiddlyWup. Blending their inimitable concoctions of the bizarre, surreal and the hilarious with outrageous characters and unexpected twists; Chris Kent (Stop Stalling) and Gearóid Farrelly (Gearóid Less Travelled) make a double comedy impression at Smock Alley Theatre. Kent was voted into the top 5 Irish comedians in 2013, and Farrelly promises that you’ll at least able to pronounce Gearóid by the end of this comedy double bill. Meanwhile Kim Noble is set to redefine theatre, comedy and everything in one of the most profound performances out of the UK in the past decade. The shock comedy of You’re Not Alone will push the envelope, push your buttons and get you right in the gut in what promises to be one of the most talked about shows of the festival.
CIRCUS
Join some of the world’s finest circus artists and music makers as Brisbane’s Company 2 present Scotch and Soda. Following hugely successful runs in Edinburgh, London and Australia this heady mix of risk-taking circus and rip-roaring humour combines the finest disarrangement of music from the Crusty Suitcase Band. Emily Aoibheann (PaperDolls) reconfigures aerial dance as a fetish for hardware; this aerial dynamic sculpture project, entitled Object Piggy by Dying Breeds, will be a show for all the senses with superb costumes, amazing aerial performance and music by Robert Mirolo, Brian Walsh and Ms. Aoibheann herself – developed in collaboration with Judith Mok. And Fringe’s circus story doesn’t end there; don’t miss out on aerial feats in the trees of Phoenix Park with Behind the Dark by Loosysmokes or sailboat acrobatics on Grand Canal Dock with Circomara’s The Way of the Coconut.
No More Workhorse 