Dublin Theatre Festival 2023 – Preview

The Dublin Theatre Festival starts today and runs until the 15th of October. You can find full details of the Festival on its website here. It’s almost impossible to predict which productions will be the ones everyone is talking about as most are new productions, but with some form and history behind the companies involved, we’ll have a punt at some recommendations below!

Dead Centre’s – To Be A Machine (Version 2.0) is sadly sold out, but it might be worth checking for returns. Otherwise, it would have made the list.

Zona Franca – (ALICE RIPOLL AND CIA SUAVE, BRAZIL) – 28 – 30 Sep – O’Reilly Theatre, Belvedere College

This production opens the Festival, so should be worth a visit. A Brazilian work by Alice Ripoll that fuses “Passinho, dancinha, voguing, samba, hip-hop and other styles of urban dance” to create something quite unique.

“Vibrantly political, Alice Ripoll’s latest offering echoes the aspirations of Brazilian youth at the point of transition between Presidents Bolsonaro and Lula. A fervent piece that tells of the hopes of a disinherited generation yearning to reinvent itself.”

PAN PAN –  History Play – 5 – 15 Oct – The Bank @ Digital Hub – €20 – €30

Pan Pan are always interesting and this work promises to take on the World of History. I’ve heard word of some special guests from the world of Academia. As ever, expect the unexpected…

“Sometimes you have to stop and freeze the narrative to find out what’s really not being said. Featuring an ensemble of prominent historians and performers who will explore everything historical and disgustingly relevant about the past right up to yesterday. Tackling the intertwining of official, personal and oral histories, they will dissect the big problems that are facing us today and curate them into a contemporary performance.

What if history could be kind and receptive?
What if history could be written by losers?
What if history was simply forgotten?

This is NOT a TED Talk.
This is NOT earnest.
This is NOT palliative.

“

Powerful Trouble – (JUNK ENSEMBLE) – 11 – 15 Oct – RHA Gallery

With a cast of individuals from the world of visual art, acting and music, there really is a lot going on in this production. It’s a “standing promenade performance” which should be one of the hits of the festival!

“A highly visual live performance installation from renowned dance innovators Junk Ensemble in collaboration with acclaimed artists Jesse Jones, Olwen Fouéré, Aideen Barry, Vicky Langan, Planningtorock, and Katie Kim. Created for six dancers and a percussionist, this immersive promenade spectacle in the RHA is a celebration of the witch as a symbol of dissidence. Powerful Trouble is a disturbance – a collision of artists’ interrogations marked by muscular choreography, euphoric beats, visceral imagery and a live band.”

This Solution – (SHAUN DUNNE AND PROJECT ARTS CENTRE) – 11 – 15 Oct – Project Arts Centre (Space Upstairs)

Shaun Dunne has created a number of thought-provoking pieces, such as Rapids and How to Tell a Secret. This sounds quite different from what went before, but it is definitely another interesting topic.

“A porn set.
A private dance class.
A perpetual agreement.
Cash in hand.

Based on a true story, This Solution is a new documentary theatre hybrid from Shaun Dunne that fuses revelatory testimony with new writing, dance, and original music. Inspired by a young Irish man’s experience of the gay porn industry, this genre-bending new work looks at consent and contracts, regret and rebirth, uniting a compelling team of contemporary artists.”

Ironbound – (BY MARTYNA MAJOK) – 3 – 14 Oct – Abbey Theatre, on the Peacock stage

While “Somewhere Out There You” is on in the main space, the Peacock has something that promises to be interesting. The writer Martyna Majok won a Pulitzer in 2018 for her play Cost of Living. Ironbound is her first play which was first staged in in 2014.

“Over the course of two decades and three relationships, Darja’s humour, tenacity and closely-guarded dreams have helped her to survive as an immigrant worker in a beat-up New Jersey town.

Now she’s standing at a bus stop, reckoning with a precarious future, while American prosperity rushes by without her.

Written by Martyna Majok (winner of the 2018 Pulitzer Prize and nominee for the 2023 Tony Award for Best Play), Ironbound is a stirring and darkly funny portrait of a woman navigating the perils and possibilities of a radically changing world.”

The Loved Ones – (ROUGH MAGIC AND GATE THEATRE –  BY ERICA MURRAY) – 29 Sep – 14 Oct – Gate Theatre

The writer of this piece, Erica Murray, is a recent graduate of the Lir. She previously wrote The Cat’s Mother which we reviewed here. It was in the Black Box in Smock Alley, a relatively small space. This is a big step up for her but in the capable hands of Rough Magic and the Gate Theatre, it should be one to watch.

“In a remote renovated farmhouse, Nell prepares to scatter her son’s ashes with her grieving daughter-in-law, Orla, while Cheryl-Ann, a visitor from America, settles in for an idyllic break in the wilds of West Clare.

However, their weekend plans will be turned upside down when an unexpected guest arrives looking for shelter, solace and understanding.

In this beautiful world premiere from Erica Murray, a situation as unlikely as it is inevitable will send these four lives reeling, leaving them questioning the true nature of love, loss and birds.”