THE ULSTER BANK DUBLIN THEATRE FESTIVAL
Various venues Until Oct 11 www.dublintheatrefestival.com
You know it’s festival time when the evenings become as dark as velvet, the streets thrum with people clutching programmes, and the only thing a taxi driver wants to talk about is whether a writer- centred form of dramaturgy is a more effective approach than the typically European model of auteur-led ensembles.
With 25 productions fanning out over two weeks, this year’s Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival is uncommonly strong and unbearably promising, its programme an artful balance between reassurance and risk.
For the spectacular curtain-raiser there is The Manganiyar Seduction, a theatrical display of Indian gypsy culture from director Roysten Abel (Gaiety Sep 25-27). For tasteful naturalism, we have Cheek By Jowl’s Russian-language version of Chekhov’s Three Sisters (Gaiety 7.30pm Sep 29-Oct 4). For something infused with both sexual politics and stunning physicality comes DV8’s To Be Straight With You (O’Reilly Theatre Sep 30-Oct 3).
In Cet Enfant (Samuel Beckett Theatre Sep 25-27) we have that much-envied theatrical entity – a full-time ensemble – in French company Louis Brouillard’s sparing (and often sparring) study of parent- child relations. A less sparing study, told with the immensely considered chaos of rampaging Flemish teenagers, is the truly exciting Once and for All We’re Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up and Listen (Project Arts Centre Sep 26-27).
Meanwhile, KAMP, a puppet show dealing with Auschwitz, seems like the most high-wire experiment between form and content: one misstep and what should be moving falls into something unsuitably trivialising (Samuel Beckett Theatre Sep 29-Oct 4).
Every year, the festival invites a rewarding interplay between international work and homegrown shows. Increasingly the Irish works reflect relaxing boundaries between national aesthetics. Sebastian Barry’s new Tales of Ballycumber (Abbey Previews from Sep 30 Opens Oct 7-Nov 7) is directed by British director David Leveaux, for instance.
Conor McPherson’s The Birds (Gate Previews from Sep 25, Opens Sep 29-Nov 14), based on Daphne du Maurier’s famous novella, represents another world premiere among a significant number of entirely new works. Another is Panti’s
A Woman in Progress (Project Arts Centre Sep 25-26, Oct 8-11) a drag confessional and high-glam diversion that illustrates the diversity of the programme.
Add to this a defiantly experimental strand of Irish work, from Pan Pan’s stark revision of fairytale, The Crumb Trail, which was test-run during last year’s festival, premiered in New York and now returns to Dublin (Project Arts Centre Sep 29-Oct 4), to The Stomach Box’s blend of choral music and poetry in the site-specific Gerard Manley Hopkins-inspired No Worst There Is None (Newman House Oct 1-7).
And Enda Walsh’s darkly compelling The New Electric Ballroom adds another stamp to its passport after performances in Munich, Galway and Edinburgh (Peacock Until Oct 17).
Speaking of second chances, last year’s hugely successful Re-Viewed programme offers second bites of the cherry to Livin’ Dread’s immensely enjoyable The Dead School (Draíocht, Blanchardstown Sep 25-26; Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire Sep 29-Oct 3; Civic Theatre, Tallaght Oct 7-10). Ken Bourke’s little-seen but hugely lauded Buck Jones and the Body Snatchers visits Ionad an Phiarsaigh (Until Oct 11). Silver Stars, Brokentalkers’ documentary song cycle on contemporary gay experience, returns to The Project (Sep 28-Oct 4), and Trevor Knight’s experimental piece slat fills the Empty Space (Sep 27-Oct 4).
A true cavalcade of rich pickings. And that’s just week one.
