Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival Race Card (first and final!)
Here are some of the shows you've almost certainly heard of already. But the message has not got through to everyone, like that woman i met in the clarence who seemed sure that Long Day's Journey Into Night was directed by Peter Brook. Yes, Peter Brook is in Dublin this year -- sort of -- but for a different show..
The Heavyweight Contenders...If you’re gonna make a splash, make a big one…
A Long Day’s Journey Into Night
When it comes to committed festival-going, show your metal with a front row seat for Druid’s A Long Day’s Journey Into Night, the bookies’ favourite for the Crown. Tipping the scale at 240 minutes, is the reining Heavyweight Champion of the World, Eugene O’Neill’s unstinting dissection of Irish-American dysfunction, starring James Cromwell, (6’5”), alongside Marie Mullen, Michael Esper, and hometown hero, Mr. Aidan Kelly (see interview). And, of course, wielding the magic sponge of destiny, top coach, Gary Hynes. It’ll be a knockout – one way or the other.
The History Boys
Alan Bennett delivered a stunning jab with his The History Boys, racking up a shelfful of international awards with his quintessentially British tales of education and its miscontents. A gang of Sheffield grammar school kids have their work cut out contending with their teachers’ turf way. Luckily enough, the battle provides some strong parts for a bunch of eager British hopefuls.
The Playboy of the Western World
When it comes to a bit of toe-to-toe fisticuffs, you can’t beat Synge’s tale of attempted patricide and its aftermath. But anyone coming in search of a west of Ireland sheebeen, would be on the wrong track. Roddy Doyle and Nigerian born, Bisi Adigun have collaborated to update the action for “the new Ireland” – which in this case means re-making Christy Mahon as a Nigerian asylum seeker.
The Seagull
Hungarian company Kretakor Theatre have also been doing a little upgrading, this time on Chekhov’s epic of bizarre triangle of love and shotguns. Or perhaps downgrading is the word, as the company have ‘un-pimped’ the play, stripping it of its Nineteenth century trappings and performing it without props or costumes.
This one is for shorty...But it not all big and clever at this year’s festival. Some of it is small and clever.
Bistouri
You might think that puppetry and surgery don’t really make natural bedfellows, but Belgian company, Tof Theatre’s contribution to this year’s festival aims to rid you of any such silly preconceptions. Assist in the operation as Leon and Willy wield the bistour (that scalpel to you and me) one more time.
Private Peaceful
It’s not all fun and game you know. And to prove it, Alexander Campbell performs Simon Reade’s one man show about the last hours of a First World War soldier awaiting the firing squad, adapted from Michael Morprugo’s award-winning children’s book.
Young Critics Panel
And for the slightly older folks, The National Association for Youth Drama (NAYD) is offering an introduction to the noblest profession (yeah, right) with its Young Critics Panel (Project, 14 October, 1pm) where young critics can exchange views, or try out their hatcheting skills.
On The Case
Not strictly part of the children’s festival, this Australian spectacle promises mid-air acrobatics, turning the days of George’s Dock into a ‘vertical stage’ for a performance-cum-game that mixes wire-antics and video projections.
The Outer Limits...Show up if you want a little challenge…
The Idiots (Project Arts Centre)
Gavin Quinn’s Pan Pan theatre company graduate to the “main” festival with their version of Lars Von Trier’s The Idiots. Not quite sure why (other than for branding reasons) everybody seems to want to make theatre versions of Dogma films these days, but I’d bet on Pan Pan to make the experiment work.
Bobrauschenbergamerica (Project Arts Centre)
Alongside a faulty space bar on their keyboard, Anne Bogart’s SITI also have a radical approach to theatre that happily mixes verbal gymnastics and physical verse in a manner that often works out as highly entertaining. Here they tackle the life of one of America’s best know painters, Robert Rauschenberg.
Small Metal Objects (Mayor Square, IFSC)
Outsider theatre in full effect this year comes from Australia, where Back to Back theatre first performed Small Metal Objects at Melbourne festival. The concept puts the audience into a public space in the IFSC, gives them each a pair of headphones and lets them work out for themselves exactly what the drama is – and where it’s happening.
Fragments (Tivoli Theatre)
Even after all these years (and the pornography of the Beckett Festival) the theatre of Samuel Beckett can be brilliantly indigestible, and never more so than in these late shorter works. This time around Peter Brook is in charge for a program that includes Beckettian dramaticules, Come and Go, Rough for Theatre, Rockaby, Act without Words II and Neither.
The Heavyweight Contenders...If you’re gonna make a splash, make a big one…
A Long Day’s Journey Into Night
When it comes to committed festival-going, show your metal with a front row seat for Druid’s A Long Day’s Journey Into Night, the bookies’ favourite for the Crown. Tipping the scale at 240 minutes, is the reining Heavyweight Champion of the World, Eugene O’Neill’s unstinting dissection of Irish-American dysfunction, starring James Cromwell, (6’5”), alongside Marie Mullen, Michael Esper, and hometown hero, Mr. Aidan Kelly (see interview). And, of course, wielding the magic sponge of destiny, top coach, Gary Hynes. It’ll be a knockout – one way or the other.
The History Boys
Alan Bennett delivered a stunning jab with his The History Boys, racking up a shelfful of international awards with his quintessentially British tales of education and its miscontents. A gang of Sheffield grammar school kids have their work cut out contending with their teachers’ turf way. Luckily enough, the battle provides some strong parts for a bunch of eager British hopefuls.
The Playboy of the Western World
When it comes to a bit of toe-to-toe fisticuffs, you can’t beat Synge’s tale of attempted patricide and its aftermath. But anyone coming in search of a west of Ireland sheebeen, would be on the wrong track. Roddy Doyle and Nigerian born, Bisi Adigun have collaborated to update the action for “the new Ireland” – which in this case means re-making Christy Mahon as a Nigerian asylum seeker.
The Seagull
Hungarian company Kretakor Theatre have also been doing a little upgrading, this time on Chekhov’s epic of bizarre triangle of love and shotguns. Or perhaps downgrading is the word, as the company have ‘un-pimped’ the play, stripping it of its Nineteenth century trappings and performing it without props or costumes.
This one is for shorty...But it not all big and clever at this year’s festival. Some of it is small and clever.
Bistouri
You might think that puppetry and surgery don’t really make natural bedfellows, but Belgian company, Tof Theatre’s contribution to this year’s festival aims to rid you of any such silly preconceptions. Assist in the operation as Leon and Willy wield the bistour (that scalpel to you and me) one more time.
Private Peaceful
It’s not all fun and game you know. And to prove it, Alexander Campbell performs Simon Reade’s one man show about the last hours of a First World War soldier awaiting the firing squad, adapted from Michael Morprugo’s award-winning children’s book.
Young Critics Panel
And for the slightly older folks, The National Association for Youth Drama (NAYD) is offering an introduction to the noblest profession (yeah, right) with its Young Critics Panel (Project, 14 October, 1pm) where young critics can exchange views, or try out their hatcheting skills.
On The Case
Not strictly part of the children’s festival, this Australian spectacle promises mid-air acrobatics, turning the days of George’s Dock into a ‘vertical stage’ for a performance-cum-game that mixes wire-antics and video projections.
The Outer Limits...Show up if you want a little challenge…
The Idiots (Project Arts Centre)
Gavin Quinn’s Pan Pan theatre company graduate to the “main” festival with their version of Lars Von Trier’s The Idiots. Not quite sure why (other than for branding reasons) everybody seems to want to make theatre versions of Dogma films these days, but I’d bet on Pan Pan to make the experiment work.
Bobrauschenbergamerica (Project Arts Centre)
Alongside a faulty space bar on their keyboard, Anne Bogart’s SITI also have a radical approach to theatre that happily mixes verbal gymnastics and physical verse in a manner that often works out as highly entertaining. Here they tackle the life of one of America’s best know painters, Robert Rauschenberg.
Small Metal Objects (Mayor Square, IFSC)
Outsider theatre in full effect this year comes from Australia, where Back to Back theatre first performed Small Metal Objects at Melbourne festival. The concept puts the audience into a public space in the IFSC, gives them each a pair of headphones and lets them work out for themselves exactly what the drama is – and where it’s happening.
Fragments (Tivoli Theatre)
Even after all these years (and the pornography of the Beckett Festival) the theatre of Samuel Beckett can be brilliantly indigestible, and never more so than in these late shorter works. This time around Peter Brook is in charge for a program that includes Beckettian dramaticules, Come and Go, Rough for Theatre, Rockaby, Act without Words II and Neither.
posted by luke clancy at 2:55 PM
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