Dublin Theatre Festival 2022: 10 world-class shows to catch

Heaven

From Thursday, October 6th, to Saturday, October 8th, Draíocht, Blanchardstown; then from Wednesday, October 12th, to Sunday, October 16th, Pavilion Theatre, Dún Laoghaire; book here

There is nothing like a wedding to make you re-evaluate your own marriage. That’s what Mairead (Janet Moran) and Mal (Andrew Bennett) discover when they are invited back to Mairead’s hometown for her cousin’s wedding. This new play from monologue master Eugene O’Brien returns to the fictional Offaly town immortalised on stage in his 2000 play Eden and on the small screen in the 2005 drama series Pure Mule. Directed by Jim Culleton, Heaven is a heart-aching and heart-mending tale.

Lost Lear

From Wednesday, September 28th, to Saturday, October 8th; Project Arts Centre (Cube); book here

Loosely inspired by Shakespeare’s King Lear, director Dan Colley has found a kingdom in a caring home, where Joy (Venetia Bowe), a woman with dementia, is living inside an old memory. How much of the past accounts for our present? Or “Who is it that can tell me who I am?” Formerly of the family-friendly Collapsing Horse, Colley is known for his visual inventiveness and playful aesthetic. With Lost Lear he turns his attention to a teenage audience. The allusive, loose nature of the adaptation may not be useful as far as a school curriculum goes, but it will certainly inspire lots of questions.

The Boy Who Never Was

From Wednesday, October 12th, to Sunday, October 16th; Samuel Beckett Theatre; book here

The Boy Who Never Was is an adaptation of the novel Moonstone, by Icelandic poet Sjón, who wrote the critically acclaimed film The Northman, released earlier this year. Unfolding in 1918, in the aftermath of the first World War, this queer coming-of-age tale, with its post-pandemic setting, is also a tale for our times. What is history, after all, but a cyclical spool: one thing after another? Icelandic composer Valgeir Sigurosson collaborates with the visionary Irish directors behind Brokentalkers for added cultural authenticity.

Bros

From Friday, October 14th, to Saturday, October 15th; O’Reilly Theatre; book here

For his third visit to the Dublin Theatre Festival, Italian avant-garde director Romeo Castellucci brings with him Bros, a comedy about control and conscription. A group of volunteers are recruited before each performance to carry out orders, relayed live to them on stage through individual headsets. Dressed as policemen, they perform their instructions in real time. Castellucci trained as a visual artist, and Bros bears his signature stylised aesthetic. Despite the humour, this is not theatre for the faint of heart.

Can we finally say goodbye to shaming women for letting their hair go grey?

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Ireland’s women DJs: ‘I don’t need your approval, mate. I’ve been at this a long time’

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Midlands-North-West: Battle for final seat could end with a small party making a breakthrough

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Robert De Niro’s raging at Trump outside courthouse was an extraordinary moment in American public life

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Jezebel

From Monday, October 3rd, to Tuesday, October 4th; Project Arts Centre; book here

If you are a child of the late 1990s and wondered about the women in the background of the music videos that used to play on a loop on MTV, this Dutch/Belgian performance from Cherish Menzo is the show for you. Performed to an R&B soundtrack created by Michael Nunes, Menzo is Video Vixen, the Hip Hop Honey of popular culture. Can she reclaim the hyper-sexualised stereotype of women of colour using her body alone?

The Last Return

From Thursday, October 13th, to Saturday October 15th; Gate Theatre; book here

Fresh from its triumph at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Druid Theatre’s production of The Last Return, by Sonya Kelly, is back in Ireland for a four-week run at the Gate Theatre. Kelly’s comedy is an inspired meta-theatrical conception, set in the foyer of a theatre as a group of antsy wannabe audience members await their fate. The plot’s tension (will they get in to see the sold-out show or not?) is not as important as Kelly’s intention: to exposé the relationship between the colonial past and the neo-capitalist present. It is hilarious, shocking and thought-provoking stuff.

Grand Soft Day

From Wednesday, September 28th, to Sunday, October 2nd; The Ark; book here

If you haven’t heard of “puddling”, you must be more than six years old. Put a young child in front of a puddle and watch what happens. The act that follows, “puddling”, is sensory delight like no other. In Grand Soft Day, Branar celebrate the surprises of a rainy day with a non-verbal piece of physical storytelling that uses live music, composed by Greg Hall, and colourful wellies, from Elaine Mears, to remind children’s grown-ups that being muddy and wet is a pleasure worth pursuing. Suitable for audiences aged 2-6.

Joyce’s Women

From Thursday, September 29th, to Saturday, October 15th; The Abbey Theatre; book here

In the year that Joyce’s Ulysses celebrates its centennial, The Abbey Theatre pays tribute with a new play from Edna O’Brien, which turns its attention to the women in Joyce’s life: his wife, Nora and daughter, Lucia; his patron Harriet Weaver Shaw; his publisher Sylvia Beach. The writer himself appears too, but O’Brien presents him through the eyes of the many women who loved and supported him throughout his life. Conall Morrison directs a cast that includes Hilda Fay, Bríd Ní Neachtain and Deirdre Donnelly, with Stephen Hogan as Joyce.

The Cold Sings

From Wednesday, October 5th, to Sunday, October 9th; The Depot @ The Complex; book here

It is almost 60 years since Sylvia Plath’s fictionalised account of her teenage nervous breakdown, The Bell Jar, was published. Choreographers Jessica Kennedy and Megan Kennedy have created a new dance piece that draws from the novel, as well as Plath’s poetry and diaries, to delve deep into the mind of the famous poet, while probing cultural expectations and attitudes to mental health and female suffering. With live music and song, text and dance, Junk Ensemble are aiming for an immersive experience that will complement the offbeat Smithfield venue.

Dinner With Groucho

From Monday, September 26th, to Saturday, October 1st; Civic Theatre; book here

In 1961, English modernist poet TS Eliot wrote to the actor Groucho Marx, proclaiming his admiration for the American comedy star. Three years later they met in London for dinner at Eliot’s house. Playwright Frank McGuinness has imagined the occasion, in which the very different artists break bread and philosophise about the universe, while a mysterious proprietor, who makes sure the unlikely pair mind their manners, looks on. Directed by Loveday Ingram, the B*spoke Production features Ian Barthlomew as Marx and Greg Hicks as Eliot.

Also playing at Dublin Theatre Festival:

The Blackwater Lightship: A long-anticipated adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s HIV novel arrives on the Gaiety stage, starring David Rawle.

How to be a Dancer in Seventy-Two Thousand Easy Lessons: Choreographer Michael Keegan Dolan stages his own life in this autobiographical show performed with his partner in dance and life, Rachel Poirier.

Good Sex: Are intimacy coordinators killing intimacy in art? Dead Centre with Emilie Pine investigate, with new configurations every night.

Manifesto Transpofágico: Brazilian actor and transgender anthropologist Renata Carvalho tells the story of a life of somatic struggle, in Portuguese with English surtitles.

Lolling/All Hardest of Women: Immersive installation-makers Louise Lowe and Owen Boss stage episodes five and 14 of Ulysses as part of Ulysses 2.2, with the venues (Kennedy’s Pub and Holles Street Hospital) taking starring roles.

G.O.D. (Good. Orderly. Direction): A new play from Lee Coffey about AA and the struggles of recovery at Axis Ballymun.

Colic: How does a marriage survive a colicky baby? Playwright Eoghan Quinn has some suggestions, in his new drama about parenthood.

No Magic Pill: Activist Martin Naughton is the inspiration for this drama from Christian O’Reilly about disability and disruption.

What We Hold: Jean Butler of the original Riverdance troupe returns to her Irish dancing roots to ask questions about tradition.

Animals: George Orwell’s Animal Farm is reimagined with irreverent invention by Louise White.

Window a world: Hong Kong-Irish theatre maker Choy-Ping Clarke-Ng invites you to take a peek inside her world.

A Whistle in the Dark: Tom Murphy’s classic family drama, with Sean McGinley in the leading role.

Crowd: Watch the dance floor in this techno-trance performance from French choreographer Giséle Vienne.

Elles Vivent (They Live): Two friends meet in a forest in an ashram of the future to chat about philosophy and Pokémon.

The Realistic Joneses: A new suburban drama from Will Eno, in which fantasy and reality mingle when the Joneses meet the Joneses.

Short of Lying: A theatrical TED Talk from Belgian theatremaker Luanda Casella, which plays with the idea and deceptions of performance.

Mount Average: Industrial ideologies come under scrutiny in this Dutch/Belgian collaboration, performed in English.

Farm Fatale: Futuristic ecological fable set in post-human times, where scarecrows are missing the birds.

Book these shows at dublintheatrefestival.ie