The sun is lingering a little later in the evenings, the promise of spring is on the horizon, and we’re ready to add some new queer events to our list for the coming weeks.
As we look forward to warmer weather and longer days, here are some incredible LGBTQ+ productions and events you don’t want to miss!
Mother Presents Cultúr Club
Thursday, March 16
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St. Patrick’s Festival and Mother are delighted to present Cultúr Club at Festival Quarter in the National Museum of Ireland – Decorative Arts & History at Collins Barracks.
We can’t wait for this very special night of live music queer performances and art in celebration of Irish LGBTQ+ club culture in one of Ireland’s most iconic spaces.
The event will span 4 separate stages across the Festival Quarter. Expect to see some of Ireland’s finest DJs, drag queens, artists, cabaret talent and performers from across the LGBTQ+ community with musical styles with everything from pop to disco and electro to techno!
Featuring the first ever LGBTQ+ Géilí, RTÉ‘s Dancing with the Stars Queen of Ireland herself, Panti Bliss and some of the most exciting artists on the Irish music scene including Bobbi Arlo, Lewwab, Pastiche, and Tim Chadwick.
Pillow Queens
Saturday, March 18
The incredible queer Irish band, Pillow Queens, will be headlining the annual St Patrick’s Festival on Saturday!
In a unique collaboration, St. Patrick’s Festival invited Pillow Queens to curate an evening that celebrates the best of new Irish music. The evening will see the iconic site transformed into a unique urban Festival from 6.30pm with 12 live music acts across 4 stages, live DJs, the best in Irish food and drinks, art installations, pop-up performances and much more.
Pillow Queens will perform on the main stage with a set that is sure to thrill audiences in a true celebration of Irish culture.
The four-piece indie rock group includes Pamela Connolly, Sarah Corcoran, Cathy McGuinness, and Rachel Lyons. Their first album In Waiting was released in 2020 with phenomenal success. In 2022, the band released Leave The Light On, played two sold-out Vicar Street shows and performed to crowds of thousands during their North American and European tour.
Tickets are €35 and are available at stpatricksfestival.ie
In Loco Parentis
Saturday, February 18 in Smock Alley
As part of Smock Alley’s Scene and Heard Festival, In Loco Parentis is a queer play that follows the dynamic shift in the relationship between a mother and her trans daughter when the latter begins her transition.
Enjoy writer Wren Dennehy’s debut piece that promises to be a family drama with a gothic twist. Directed by Nessa Matthews and produced by Kat Ennis, tickets are available here.
Hyper
February 21-22 at the Smock Alley Theatre
Described as an “unabashedly queer deep dive into transness and music”, this performance will investigate what it means to speak while an audience is listening. The show was written and directed by Ois O’Donoghue and produced by Daniel Culleton.
Grab your tickets here! Tickets to Hyper include access to a range of unapologetic sketches “dipped in a satirical sauce” called Is It Just Us?! – MEELAGOOLA on the same night.
Brokentalkers present MANIFEST
Thursday, February 23 – March 4, 2023, at the Project Arts Centre
This “frank and unflinching” performance includes themes of empathy, power and the suppression of vulnerability in the form of a men’s workshop. Manifest was developed as part of a long-term project called What Does He Need, which aims to create public dialogue about how men and boys are shaped by and influence the world they live in.
Drawing on testimony, research, and personal experiences, the piece explores the societal expectations and learned behaviours that contribute to the current state of masculinity. The performance combines movement, testimony and research to create an honest and timely theatrical experience.
Shows are playing at 7.45 pm, February 23 – March 4, with a 2:30 pm Matinée on Saturday, March 4th. Tickets are available at Ticketbooth.
Candlelight Cabaret
Saturday, February 25 on LoSt LaNe off Grafton St
Candlelight Cabaret is going back to the ’80s, and the whole cast is looking forward to this queer-friendly burlesque show featuring a range of musical acts, comedy, and drag performances, all packed into one glorious evening in Dublin.
Hosted by Lotta Lungs, a singer with a penchant for anything purple and a flare for musical theatre, the event also offers music from Carl Connie Lingus, Belfast’s number one quirkiest singing GenderQueer Drag King.
The evening includes the multi-talented Bella Agogo, an eclectic award-winning burlesque artist, clown, and comedian. And you won’t want to miss a performance by Avatarguille, the pole dancer with panache from Venezuela.
Don’t miss this incredible queer evening – and keep an eye out for more Candlelight Cabaret events in 2023!
Tickets from €20, available here.
Gold in the Water
Saturday, February 25 – Sunday March 5 at Mermaid Arts Centre, Bray, Wicklow
Friday, March 10 – Sunday March 26 at Project Arts Centre, Temple Bar, Dublin
Coming to Wicklow and Dublin this February and March, Gold in the Water is a quirky, funny, life-affirming fabulous new musical about family, friends and a fish.
Bart and Harvey have never been happier. They have just celebrated their first wedding anniversary with all their friends. When a mysterious goldfish lands on their doorstep, they take it to a pet shop and return to living their fabulous lives. But this leads them to meet an angry and righteous pet shop owner, and their world is changed forever.
This truly quirky musical will work its charm on musical theatre lovers, thrill-seeking pet-owners, and audiences young and old!
Individual Tickets €23/€26, Group Ticket (4 people) €85
Book tickets now at www.goldinthewatermusical.com
Ethereal Skies presents: TDJ, Mercorn & Pauline
Saturday, March 11 at Wigwam in Dublin
If you’re looking for a wild queer night to add to the events on your list, look no further. Montréal trance sensation, TDJ, is making her Irish debut with an evening full of heavenly uplifting trance, nostalgic euro-dance, and hard house music and you simply cannot miss it.
Geneviève Ryan-Martel, now known as TDJ, started her career with an early emo guitar band. TDJ is short for TranceDeeJay, and she’s created music inspired by Techno, Trance, Gabber, Eurodance, and artists such as Tiesto, Signum, ATB, and Blink-182.
Sure to be one of the most talked about queer events in 2023, the night will be opened by Pauline, a multi-genre DJ from Limerick who is a fan of drum-heavy, lively sets as well as trance, euro-dance, electro pop beats.
The event also includes Dublin’s Mercorn who is a multi-disciplinary creative and DJ. As the co-founder of the new ‘Tender’ queer party and ‘Skin and Blister Club’, she’s established a platform that nurtures female, trans, and non-binary musical talents.
The whole evening will be queer and inclusive and tickets from €11.70 are available here.
Bonus: Conversations After Sex by THISISPOPBABY
April 19- 22, 2023 at Project Arts Centre in Dublin with future dates in Wicklow, Galway, Drogheda, Cork, Clare.
This production might not deal with strictly LGBTQ+ themes, but we thought that it still deserved a mention in our list of queer events, since both the playwright and director are part of the community. In Conversations After Sex, a woman discovers men with a deep need to communicate and connect in a lonely, atomised city. This intimate, outstanding drama provides a surprising level of honesty and vulnerability around sexual hookups through a series of unguarded conversations.
Winner of the 2022 Irish Times Theatre Award for Best New Play, the production examines grief and the type of honesty that thrives through anonymity.
Playwright Mark O’Halloran says, “The encounters in the play…set up a unique confessional space between two people. I wanted to write a character dealing with unbearable pain through these interactions. The weight of pain is too huge for her to deal with the people in her life—but she can deal with her pain piece by piece with each new encounter.”
This 80-minute play will be touring nationwide to five venues, tickets are available below:
- Mermaid Arts Centre, Wicklow / 3-5 May
- Town Hall Theatre, Galway / 9 May
- Droichead Arts Centre, Drogheda, Co Louth / 13 May
- The Everyman, Cork / 16 & 17 May
- Glór, Ennis, Co Clare / 20 May
We’ve sadly come to the end of our list of queer events happening in Ireland in the coming weeks, so all that’s left to do for you now is gather your besties and grab some tickets!
© 2023 GCN (Gay Community News). All rights reserved.
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