A Recurrence – Dublin Fringe Festival – Review
by Frank L. 

A Recurrence – D’Girlos Theatre –
Venue: The Civic Theatre – Studio Duration: 70mins
Dates: 2nd – 13th Sept

A Recurrence – Written by Trudy Nolan and Sophie O’Toole

Trudy Nolan and Sophie O’Toole are the driving force behind the D’Girlos Theatre Company. According to http://www.fieldarts.ie, they “saw no space for themselves in the theatre industry so they built their own [space]”.  D’Girlos Theatre Company is the result. Last year, D’Girlos made its debut in the Dublin Fringe Festival 2025 with their show “That’s Sooo Povo”, which was nominated for the Solas Nua New Voices Award. This is their second show. D’Girlos, according to the FieldArts article, is run by working-class women and represents working-class art with authenticity and pride.

A Recurrence forms part of the 2026 Fringe Festival. It brings you into the world of three Dublin women. Minnie (Erin Murray Byrne) was born and reared in a tenement in the 1930’s; Jasmin (Sophie O’Toole), whose home was a 1990’s corpo flat; and Grace, who was brought up in a modern council house. Each of them, at an early age, became entangled with the opposite sex. Notwithstanding the substantial changes which have been made in Ireland in relation to women’s health since the thirties, if a mistake is made, it is the young woman who has to negotiate the consequences. The doors of the Mother and Baby Homes may no longer await them, but the challenges each faces are far from simple.

Each of them has to surmount the challenges of the unplanned pregnancy, and Minnie’s misfortune is part of the folklore of Jasmin’s childhood. Grace has opportunities and options which Minnie could never have dreamed of.

The set consists of the front door of a tenement house on one side of the stage and the front of a modern council house on the other. In between, on the back wall, is the image of a block of flats. Minnie, Jasmin and Grace stand in front of their respective dwellings and tell their stories.  It all takes place at a good clip, and a variety of challenges that face each of these young women are aired. It is an ambitious undertaking, and it works well initially, but it is less successful in drawing together the various strands which have been recounted, and as a result it begins to lose impetus.

The underlying theme of the production is a good one. It explores the challenges which face Dublin working-class young women who are pregnant outside marriage, and the societal changes through the last century. The production is also quite ambitious in scale and scope. D’Girlos Theatre Company are to be congratulated for airing the topic. However, to hold your attention throughout, it needs to be more concentrated. Some judicious editing would intensify its impact.