Tiger Dublin Fringe – 10-25 September 2016 – Preview by Frank L.
The Tiger Dublin Fringe returns on 10th September for fifteen days and nights of promoting “the radicals and experimentalists, artists whose projects just don’t fit in the box, the crafters, the grafters, the misfits and the clarion voices [who] thrive at the Dublin Tiger Fringe.” So Kris Nelson, the Festival Director, and Ruth McGowan Programme Manager, are challenging into which category, if any, the multiplicity of shows on offer may possibly belong. Perhaps more than one and possibly even none. Who knows? That is the excitement of the Fringe.
But before turning to five shows which, on paper, whet the appetite the BIG news about Tiger Dublin Fringe 2016 is that the Spiegel Tent is again centre stage but in a new and brilliant location…. Merrion Square. The Tiger Dublin Fringe 2016 will declare with Wildean elan its genius in the square where Oscar himself sits spread-eagled on a rock looking at No. 1 which is the very house in which he was reared. Oscar broke the social, artistic and creative moulds of his day and continues to do so. Tiger Dublin Fringe 2016 in commandeering Merrion Square for the Spiegel Tent has a great mentor in Oscar in assisting it to create a new aesthetic. Let us hope Oscar’s indomitable spirit will inspire all of the productions and create a good deal of controversy as well as pleasure as Oscar did himself so magnificently.
Now for five shows which ought to appeal:
Preview Sep 14 @ 18:30 Dates Sep 15 – 18 / 20 – 24 @ 18:30 Other performances Sep 21 & 24 @ 21:00
Venue: Smock Alley Theatre 1662
Maybe it is a bit odd to recommend for a fringe festival a show entitled “The Aeneid”. However it is the product of the innovative Collapsing Horse company. According to the programme “in a time of pageantry and remembrance in Ireland, this legendary tale is a celebration of myths and their complex relationship to the truth.” Sounds more than promising.
Preview Sep 13 @ 13:00 Dates Sep 14 @ 18:00 / Sep 15 @ 20:00 / Sep 17 @ 13:00 / Sep 18 @ 18:00 / Sep 19 @ 20:00 / Sep 22 @ 18:00 / Sep 24 @ 13:00
Margaret McAuliffe takes on dancing champions as they are “churned out at a massive rate” from the parochial halls all over Ireland. “Rat tat tat tata dum diddli dum dee dum dum dumb…Louder!” McAuliffe examines the importance of coming first in the world of Irish dance and why it matters.
Preview Sep 10 @ 21:00 Dates Sep 11 – 12 & 14 – 17 @ 21:00 / Sep 16 – 17 @ 13:30
Venue: Project Arts Centre Space Upstairs
The ever-inventive Brokentalkers have co-produced this performance with MunchnerKammerspiele/Europly and Goethe Institut Irland in collaboration with Onassis Cultural-Centre (Athens), Sirenos- Vilinus International Theatre Festival, Teatro Maria Matos (Lisbon) and Tiger Dublin Fringe. A Beach owned by a family for generations is being used to celebrate a wedding. A stranger arrives in their midst. The family must decide how to deal with this stranger. This is a response to the current refugee crisis and the notion of sovereignty of one people over a piece of land; and the lengths people will go to bar entry to their dominion. It is the crisis which surrounds us.
Dates Sep 19 – 20 @ 21:30 / Door 21:15
Venue: Bewley’s Cafe Theatre @ Powerscourt
Jinkx Monsoon and Major Scales are all the way from Seattle. The Vaudevillians were big in the twenties but a devastating avalanche buried them under two tons of sleet and snow. Thawing out almost a century later they discovered that their music, their songs had been stolen by pop artists who were passing it of as their own. The Vaudevillians were enraged and all hell breaks loose as they perform Janis Joplin and Gloria Gaynor hits in the style of Cole Porter and Irving Berlin. A night of cabaret and with a touch of drag.
Preview Sep 21 @ 20:45 Dates 22 – 24 @ 20:45 / Sep 24 @ 18:15
Venue: Project Arts Centre Space Upstairs
Joanne McNally is on an “amazing” diet. She has lost jobs, friends and men but she does not care as she can wear bangles and that is all that matters. Then one day she lost her mind. Trying to entice it back from a lost property board in space to which it was pinned became Joanne’s “hardest, funniest, greatest and weirdest time”.
The entire programme of events can be viewed at http://www.fringefest.com/festival/whats-on