Dublin Fringe Festival 2023 – Preview

It’s always one of the most difficult events of the year to preview, with such a host of new artists and performers on display but we’ll do our best to guide you on the events that look worth a visit.

First off, a mention for a play that reminds us of an old school Anu production – Blue Thunder – (10-13 Thomas Street Meeting Point) – “staged entirely within a minibus at a city centre location”. It’s sold out but worth checking for returns.

Another unusual destination is the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, where The Garden of Shadows will take place – “This exclusive nighttime adventure brings you on a profound sensory journey through the mysteries of the night. An unforgettable experience as you navigate this intriguing garden, where nature is seen on the edge of darkness and light”. If you went to Remnant Ecologies last year you’ll know it’s not to be missed.

Another event at the National Botanic Gardens, Glasnevin, is A Symbiotic Symphonic Movement –  – The Teak House – “An evening of weaving individual and collective experiences through sound. It is a story of connection, of adapting, of place-making and loss. A research-led project initiated and curated by Laura Skehan, featuring composers Clíona Ní Laoi, Masaya Ozaki and Banu Çiçek Tülü who will be performing experimental sonic and music responses to migrating plant data”.  Some funky sounds in an interesting location.

Drainage Scheme – Abbey Theatre (Peacock Stage) – with writer/ director Dick Walsh as the main man, we’re looking forward to this one! “Focusing on a family living on the edges and struggling to survive, this play explores apathy, uncertainty and perseverance and how the ways life felt then, still feels now”.

At the Project Arts Centre (the spiritual home of the Fringe, according to some) there are a heck of a lot of productions, including endings. – (Project Cube) – “A show about love, loss, destiny and legacy”. Once in a Lifetime – (Project Arts Centre – Space Upstairs) offers us “Privilege, prejudice and barely concealed resentment are all served up for dinner, with a good dolloping of secrets and lies for dessert”.

MOSH – “With live music, real interviews, humour, heart and a whole lot of headbanging, five performers dive into the deeper meaning behind a misunderstood subculture. Is this violence or dancing? What are the rules? What do bacteria and moshers have in common? And why would anyone do it?” The King of All Birds – Project Cube – “This is a fresh and playful trad gig for voice and vocoder: a collage of film, text and music that began with hours of staring at an aerial photograph of a house in Dromady, County Mayo, and has a whole lot to show for it. It matches the voice with electronics, and finds a new sound in an old tradition.”

From the good people at MALAPROP, comes a new play called… HOTHOUSE – (Project Arts Centre – Space Upstairs) – “A play about horny songbirds, parents, love, legacy, and wanting to change, but not knowing how”. MALAPROP are one of the most inventive Irish Theatre companies, so definitely check this one out.

Bewley’s Café Theatre has a variety of events including The Scratcher, “Expect well meaning gobshites, masterful physicality and unflinching humour as a battle between truth and deception unfolds“. Another interesting sounding one is Float – “Erin, Mia, Caitlyn and Grace are an ode to young Belfast student life; the dirty dishes, the broken windows, the parties, the celebrity cardboard cut-outs, but things start to unravel as the girls realise that maybe they don’t know each other as well as they first thought”. There are also Just a Minute at Bewleys Café Theatre!

There are also a few dance productions at the festival, including Texture like Sun – 13 September 20:00 – Samuel Beckett Theatre. Definitely one of the more unusual sounding events is You’re Needy (sounds frustrating) – (Pembroke Cottages Meeting Point) – “An offsite experience for one audience member touching on monotony, meditation, medication, and, of course, Gwyneth Paltrow”.

At Smock Alley, there is a whole other world, including the return of Hannah Mamalis (Ok, she never really went away) with Stars in the Black Box with “a host of sketch like characters that uneasily inhabit our world. This is the show with no straight man, an idiot’s playground and comedic anarchy of the tarnished mind as we start to decipher who we are again after the fall”.

Another interesting one at Smock Alley is Boxing Day in which “William Keohane reads from Boxing Day, a 52-poem sequence detailing the poet’s experience of gender transition, one poem written per week over the course of a year”.

This one promises to be special, with a seasoned performer Jason Byrne and Feidlim from the Brokentalkers at the helm Paddy Lama – The Shed Talks – Smock Alley Theatre – 1662  “Jason Byrne is writing and performing in his first play, directed by Feidlim Cannon of Brokentalkers”.

And if you’re feeling bruised and battered by all that new information, this one is as safe a bet as you can have, with David O’Doherty telling it like it is… Tiny Piano Man at the Project Arts Centre in the Space Upstairs.