Dublin Theatre Festival 2022 is back with amazing shows to grab your attention

With an incredible 17 world premieres for this big return to full capacity in-person shows, organisers are "affirming the power of coming together".

Photo of the cast of The Blackwater Lightship, which is the opening performance of Dublin Theatre Festival 2022
Image: @DubTheatreFest via Twitter

The incredible line-up for the Dublin Theatre Festival 2022 has been announced, featuring no less than 17 world premieres. This year, the unmissable event will make a return to full capacity in-person shows from September 29 to October 16.

With that in mind, the Dublin Theatre Festival 2022 focuses on the “power of coming together” – so there are no excuses for not attending the festival this year!

There are so many unique options that our team decided to take some of the pressure off by highlighting a handful of unmissable performances happening during the Dublin Theatre Festival 2022.

Opening the festival is the world premiere of an adaptation of Colm Tóibin’s powerful novel The Blackwater Lightship, which takes place during the ’90s in Ireland when HIV/AIDS was still a terminal diagnosis. Ruth McCabe, Karen Ardiff, Rachel O’Byrne, David Rawle, Donncha O’Dea and Will O’Connell are some of the cast who will hit the stage of the Gaiety Theatre for a week starting from September 27.

In Crowd, the French performer, Gisele Vienne, “expertly harnesses the undulating, stuttering, liquid physicality of the club scene to magnify the interactions of a group of revellers”. Between October 7 and October 8, the audience can expect an experience full of emotion and collective euphoria at O’Reilly Theatre.

As a result of a global pandemic, war in Europe and growing intolerance, Máni Steinn has found himself on the fringes of a society going through an intense global transformation. Boy That Never Was is an adaptation of the famous novel by Sjón, Moonstone, that will take place in Samuel Beckett Theatre from October 12.

Each night from September 28 at Samuel Beckett Theatre, Good Sex by the novelist Emilie Pine will feature two new performers who have never rehearsed together. And to explore the concept of relearning how to be intimate after two years, they will interact with each other with the help of an intimacy director.

JEZEBEL is a dance performance “inspired by the Video Vixen: female models who appeared in hip hop video clips in the late ’90s and early ’00s” that will land at the Project Arts Centre between October 3 and October 4. Their intriguing aim with the performance is to question whether it is possible to “deconstruct the controversial stereotype and redefine herself today”.

After an 18 year absence, the acclaimed Italian artist Romeo Castellucci is back in Dublin with BROS. The dark and unsettling performance will take place between October 14 and October 15 at O’Reilly Theatre Belvedere, where a few minutes before the show begins, actors recruited from the streets are given a police uniform and a headset device. When the curtain rises, the “actors” must meticulously carry out the orders they are given over the earphones

Last but definitely not least, from September 30 to October 1 at the Project Arts Centre, Renata Carvalho stands on stage gives a powerful first-person performance that reveals the reality of travestis in Brazil. During Manifesto Transpofágico, she shares her struggle with and against her own body, which essentially defines her in the eyes of others.

The Dublin Theatre Festival is committed to providing something for everyone, which is why it has launched the 10 for 10 initiative – 10% of tickets for select festival productions will be available for 10 euros for those under 30, unemployed or performing arts freelancers (registration in advance required).

DTF’s organisers affirm that they are “proud to present a fully live, in-person programme of work across Dublin this autumn”. These live performances and intimate experiences are intended to promote the recovery of the nightlife scene in the city and its continued growth.

So, check DTF’s website or call +353 1 677 8899 for more information on all the available shows and how to get your hands on tickets.

© 2022 GCN (Gay Community News). All rights reserved.

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