Its all over

And so we've reached the end of another Festival, another year done. A huge thanks to everyone who made it possible. Our Friends, sponsors, funders and supporters - and of course the theatre makers, dreamers and achievers.  

As you can imagine, with over 400 events at this year's Festival our thank you list is quite long. Firstly a big thanks to all the Irish companies who participated and thanks to those who also travelled to be here with us in Dublin. To all 22 venues who participated in the Festival, to all of our volunteers who provided tremendous support and energy assisting us in all levels of the Festival. THANK YOU! 

The blog may be a little bit quiet over the next while as we bury ourselves in the post-Festival clean up but don't forget us and remember Dublin loves DRAMA!

Hugh Hughes - Get In, Out and Shake It All About!

Today we had a brief visit from Hugh Hughes in the Festival HQ. Hughes has arrived in Dublin to begin his run of shows in Smock Alley at the Festival over the next few days including 360, The Story of a Rabbit, Floating plus the special events 'Stories from an Invisible Town' and 'How I Got Here'.




Book for all three shows in the trilogy and get 20% off! Book Now!

Festival Feeds Competition

Festival Feeds is the perfect way to sample some of the best restaurants in the city as exclusive menus have been created at unbeatable prices for Festival goers. Treat yourself to the best the city can offer at a fraction of the price. Special promotional rates are available to Festival goers from a range of the city’s best restaurants over the Festival period. Just mention Festival Feeds when booking to avail of this special offer!

To celebrate our Festival Feeds programme, The Church have offered us a voucher for Dinner for 2 in the Gallery Restaurant.  Located in the heart of Dublin’s shopping district, with five distinct settings on four levels, with over 450,000 visitors annually The Church has wowed guests from all over the globe.

Answer this question in a comment below:
 
What is the name of the Polish Director of Factory 2.
(hin - have a look here)



View List of Festival Feeds

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Hugh Hughs

Next week sees the arrival of Hugh Hughes at the Festival direct from Wales... via a short trip to the Traverese Theatre, Edinburgh.

The Wonderful World of Hugh Hughes is a collection of three shows 360, The Story of A Rabbit and Floating plus some new events including Stories from an Invisible Town and How I Got Here.

Why not pop over to their site where you can join Hugh Hughes for a cuppa. Or you can follow him on Twitter at @HughHughes or even check him out in his Dressing Room.. 

The Wonderful World of Hugh Hughes at the Festival

360 Oct 12 - 17
Story of A Rabbit Oct 13 - 17
Floating Oct 14 – 17

Competition Time - Lying Down

The Festival is delighted to announce a competition in association with The Ark for a family pass, that's four tickets, to ‘Lying Down’ on Thursday October 14^th in The Ark.

All you have to do is answer this simple question
 

Where is The Ark situated?
A) Dun Laoghaire
B) Temple Bar

C) Blanchardstown

Email your answer to marketing@dublintheatrefestival.com with your name and contact details.

About Lying Down

When you’re lying on your back, the world looks, sounds and smells totally different…

Three cheeky sisters live in a magic house, a house where nothing is what it seems and sometimes the most unlikely things come alive! Lying Down is about small fears, big dreams and the power of imagination. An enchanting, thrilling fairytale for everyone who loves exciting bedtime stories, wild goodnight songs and a little magic in their life.
Lie flat on your back, doze off with your eyes open and let your dreams carry you away with this deliciously lazy show.

The Ark will have a big bed of mattresses so children can watch this show sitting up or lying down! 
 

Lying Down is at The Ark Oct 14 – 17. Suitable for 5+.

More Info | Book Tickets

Druid's 'The Silver Tassie' Opens Tonight!

Winner in 2009 of 12 major international theatre awards in 2009 including Best Production, Outstanding Director and Outstanding Ensemble, Druid is back at the Festival with a production you simply won’t want to miss. Using all the resources of the theatre including live music and dance, this is an epic staging of one of Sean O’Casey’s greatest plays ‘The Silver Tassie’ which opens tonight at The Gaiety.

The show programme for The Silver Tassie (available at the Gaiety) features a number of contextual short essays by Keith Jeffery and Frank McGuinness and include some very interesting World War 1 facts.

Did You Know?

• Between August 1914 and November 1918 approximately 210,000 Irish served in armed forces engaged in the First World War.
• During the First World War there were three distinctly Irish Divisions, the 10th (Irish), the 16th (Irish) and the 36th (Ulster) Division. Within these were  nine Irish infantry regiments, the Irish Guards and eight regionally-raised ‘line’regiments. Most Dubliners would have enlisted in the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, or ‘Dubs’ as they were known.30,000 Irishmen died in the war: Ireland’sgreatest demographic catastrophe since the Great Famine.
• The Queen’s Theatre, the home of melodrama in Dublin, throughout 1915 almost exclusively staged plays about women (A Woman’s Hour, Her Luck in London, Only A Woman, The Shop Girl and Her Master, The OId Wife and the New, The Queen of the Redskins, The Mother’s Heart) and
  none about the war.

The Silver Tassie shows at The Gaiety Theatre Oct 05 - Oct 10.

Book Tickets | More Info

TALKING THEATRE: Members of the company. Oct 6, Post-show 10pm (approx.)

Phaedra Review

By Darragh Doyle.

I have only one regret about Phaedra.

I'm not sure why I'm so surprised by the play. I have seen Rough Magic's work before and it's always been of great quality.

I'd also watched some of the cast in other productions so knew their pedigree. It is the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival after all, the show has sold out and I've rarely seen anything in the Project Arts Centre that I didn't like, so my reaction to the piece, some 24 hours on, still bemuses me.

I hadn't read beyond the brochure description  - "the placing of a Classic story in modern Ireland ". Phaedra is a woman who loathes her husband, the scurrilous Theseus, but is in love/lust with her stepson, Hippolytus. The basic story is how all characters react to this.

This new version by Hilary Fannin and Ellen Cranitch does bring it to a modern setting, but with no compromise on the strength of the story. Very relevant, it focusses on the damage that excesses can bring, even if you don't think you're dependent on them. It's a sobering, chilling tale - no light hearted drama this, yet the theatrical experience overwhelms all that. The standing ovation at the end was well deserved.

The story is important in this play and is treated with the respect it deserves. I wonder if this is the influence of Lynne Parker. This has been a project in development for years and it shows. From the entirely impressive spectacle of the set to the fantastic live soundtrack performed by onstage musicians to the incredible costumes, I was instantly bewitched by it all, seduced by the language and feasting on the sumptuos spectacle presented to me.

It never lost me, even for a few minutes. Admittedly I scribbled notes, but haphazardly, afraid I'd miss something on stage. The script for Phaedra is magnificent - it's one of the few I'd reread to enjoy the turns of phrase. This isn't classical speak - there's plenty of modern references and you don't need to even know who Euripides is to get this. Instead sit back and let the vista presented to you wash over you like the sea we never see.

Of all the characters and actors on stage yesterday, I have to single out Sarah Green's portrayal of Ismene. I'd previously seen Sarah in Gúna Nua's Little Gem at the Peacock and thought she excelled in the role but yesterday, for me at least, she was the one grounding factor in the play - in a funny way her character was the story - as damaged as we are by our own actions, as affected as we are by others, as many mistakes as we learn, see and experience, we're still greedy, hungry or stupid enough to attempt gain at the expense of others and ourselves. Ismene was lewd, crude and common and Sarah was a wonderful choice to bring this to the stage. Definitely one to watch.

That's not to diminish in any way the other performances. Stephen Brennan's Theseus was abhorrent, while Michéle Forbes was a wonderful casting as Enone - perfectly played. Gemma Reeves and Allen Leech had a believable and enviable chemistry as Hippolytus and Aricia while Catherine Walker's Phaedra was a pathetic creature, perfectly pitched and acted; wonderfully performed.

Fionnuala Gill as Artemis too put in a brilliant performance - and the inclusion of the singers - Rory Musgrave and Cathy White - added an unexpected dimension that reminded me of the story's origins. This is a hugely ambitious production that is professionally done - a true testament to the quality and experience that Rough Magic has.

My one regret about Phaedra - other than that I won't get to see it again at this Festival (and I would) - is that I sat too close to the stage. Sit at least five or six rows back to get a full view of the stage and incredible set. You won't regret it.

Well done Rough Magic. Theatre at its finest.

Darragh is Communications Manager of Boards.ie, entertainment and events blogger in Ireland.

Phaedra runs at Project Arts Centre Sept 30 - Oct 10

Book Tickets

Behind the scenes of Pan Pan's 'The Rehearsal, Playing The Dane'

Pan Pan’s 'The Rehearsal Playing the Dane', opens at the Festival tomorrow following a number of successful previews over the weekend. To audition or not to audition that is the question though. Over the weekend all Hamlets performed. So now it's your turn, come see and vote for who you wish to play the Dane.

Susan Conley took a ‘behind the scenes’ trip to the rehearsals of ‘The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane’ for the Irish Theatre Magazine. 

Gavin Quinn appears to be the last director in Ireland who would throw his book across the room. As the second act of The Rehearsal: Playing the Dane unfolds, from time to time Quinn gently insinuates himself into the set, and guides the action along the way in which he would prefer it happen. Actions are repeated, by actors who are happy enough to do so, and the work flows, with very little intervention from any of the production team.

In a play that’s already well-haunted; each audience member is bound to bring in the spectre of the Dane that he or she has seen and admired, and has designated as the “perfect Hamlet”; upon seeing the play anew, many may wonder if the actor who is about to tread the boards can meet the expectations of the beloved shade (mine is Ralph Fiennes, in the Almeida production directed by Jonathan Kent in 1995; the production was excellent, but I also had a terrible schoolgirl crush on the actor, so take it with a grain of salt.)

 The Haunted Prince, In Triplicate, Irish Theatre Magazine

‘The Rehearsal Playing the Dane’ shows at Samuel Beckett Theatre Oct 1 – 10.

Book Tickets now.

+565 Review

By Darragh Doyle

I would love to meet Marie O'Rourke's doctor. Any doctor who'd advise theatre as a therapy is okay in my book.

565+ is an interesting premise. Marie O' Rourke, a school teacher living in Bray takes the stage to share her love of theatre and why she's seen over 565 plays in the last seven years. I sat in the Cube at Project Arts Centre, notepad on lap taking notes and at one stage scribbled "I really want Marie not to be a character, I want her to be REAL" because she seems like a lovely person, someone with natural flair who sits well in front of a crowd - or a classroom.

I've experienced Director Úna McKevitt's work before - Victor and Gord was a highlight of last year's Absolut Fringe for many and the most recent version at the Kilkenny Arts Festival was a delight. Úna seems to value real life, real people and exposition of what really motivates people on stage and she does it in a distinctive, intimate and sometimes disconcerting way.

I was at the opening night last night - it's important to note that for the rest of my review. The play is Marie's story about why she's been to the theatre so much in the last seven years. Emotional, interesting and engaging, there's a lovely concept here.

565+ made me think "If I was put on stage, how would I act? What would I tell people about?" and at times the simplicity of the set - chair, desk, piano - and the transition between scenes or stories made me think of plays I'd have put on with my little sister at home. Marie has a talent in telling a story - the image of polishing the floor was particulary lovely and her own talking style - her choice of words, of expressions - all endeared her to me. Simple statements were often disarming: "The Pope came to visit Ireland and we all got a bit over excited" provoked a guffaw of laughter.

There were other parts of 565+ too that have real potential. The reason Marie goes to the doctor in the front case. Her first experiences of the theatre and what she loves and hates now. Her connection to the audience - at one point she says "You have to have a very honest relationship with 10 year olds, else it doesn't work" and that, for me, became the great part of the play. Marie is the school teacher you loved in primary school - the one who told the best stories.

That's why, perhaps, despite the above, 565+ in its present form just didn't work for me. Every story has a start, middle and end but 565+ jumped (fell?) between the cracks and the resulting piece was a bit all over the place. We were brought high too quickly with Marie's enthusiasm and then dropped very low with the harsher stories. It was a bit too disconnected for me.

There were gaps in the narrative that seem less like a theatrical device than an ommitance. If the story was put more in order, the relationship between Duncan, the Stage Manager and Marie explained earlier - and, strangely - if Marie had explained how this came to be a piece at all, it would, in my opinion, have created a much better play. Marie was very brave to give the performance and this should be appreciated.

As it is, I'd love to see 565+ again when it's had a bit more time to mature, to settle, to get organised. I notice it's already been through "many tweaks, changes and running order rearranges" which is great to see. There's a great concept there and the necessary structure the play requires is attainable, with a bit more work. There's story to be told here, but it could be told in a slightly different way. Like a story you'd tell a 10 year old.

Darragh is Communications Manager of Boards.ie, entertainment and events blogger in Ireland.

+565 runs at Project Arts Centre Sept 28 - Oct 3.


Book tickets for +565

Special Events at the Festival

Alongside the thirty one shows at this year's Festival, we also have a programme of special events featuring performances, post-show discussions, the Theatre Censorship Conference, The Next Stage and In Development.

Tonight the first of our Special Events takes place following T.E.O.R.E.M.A.T. in the O'Reilly Theatre. Druid's Literary Manager Thomas Conway will be in conversation with Grzegorz Jarzyna, writer and director of the show.


There will also be another discussion at 9.10pm (approx) following CIRCA in the Gaiety Theatre with Director Yaron Lifschitz and members of the company.

If you can't make these events you can still participate in the conversation by following our Special Events  twitter hashtag #ubdtfse or leaving us a comment here on our blog.

The complete list of Special Events can be found on our website here.