Hungry Grass/Stray Sod – Dublin Fringe Festival – Review

Hungry Grass/Stray Sod – Wandering Stories Theatre

Performances – 8 Sept, 19:00 (preview), 8 Sept, 20:15, 9 – 10 Sept, 19:00 & 20:15, 15 – 17 Sept, 19:00 & 20:15
Venue – National Leprechaun Museum

Cast: Sinead O’Brien (Ireland) Tatiana Santos (Brazil) Dr Senem Donatan Mohan (Turkey) and onscreen Naomi Namutebi (Uganda).

This show is part of Dublin Fringe Festival’s Pay What You Can Pilot, offering accessible pricing on all performances from 7pm on Wednesday, 17th September. The performances at 19:00 and 20:15 on the 17th September are part of this initiative.

Winner of the Best Play award at New York’s Origin’s 1st Irish Festival 2025, Wandering Stories presents some storytelling theatre in the National Leprechaun Museum. It is great to see spaces open to theatre and utilising space innovatively, but it is also a stark reminder of the paucity of performance spaces in a city that once boasted more theatre seats per head of population than any other European City.

Hungry Grass/Stray Sod presents a mix of live and onscreen episodes of what they call  ‘fucked up folklore and heartrending personal stories’, utilising some familiar and relevant themes. It is an intimate, well-written and warmly delivered performance that is very well done.

The Museum pulls out all the stops to accommodate this storytelling theatre. Here, history, legend, cultures and contemporary lives are woven into a tapestry that resonates. In many ways, by introducing us to stories from Uganda, Brazil and Turkey, we are reminded vividly of the common themes, impact and experience that we glean from our past and see again in our present.

We perambulate throughout the building, sitting for the storytelling, both live and on screen, from the four most eloquent and engaging performers, O’Brien, Donatan Mohan, Santos and Namutebi. The personal threads are spun and woven from hungry grass to stray sod, until we all see ourselves in these testimonials. The delivery makes even the most uncomfortable stories clear and accessible.

There are personal experiences of trafficking from our own Aoife Mc Murrough traded to marry Strongbow, to demonic presentations of same sex love and human exploitation, migration, rape and ritual. But traumatic as some stories are, the powerful underscore that ‘the victim can become the victor’ remains long after the warm farewell.

Every story is different. Our own perspective on the same story can be different. Sure, some differences can be invasive and smother our ability to thrive, but equally, they demonstrate that non-native things can grow and prosper here in harmony. The performances are assured, warmly and calmly delivered by four excellent storytellers who would enchant even the (absent?) Leprechauns to re-emerge for a skilfully crafted stroll through the myths, legends, stories and experiences that shape us all in a modern diverse Ireland.