Dublin Fringe Festival has announced its first batch of hotly tipped shows from this year’s heartstopping new programme. Festival organisers says that this year’s festival will “transcend into a new magnificence” this September hosting a rip-roaring sixteen days and nights of thrilling, provocative events that will consume and inspire the city. As anticipation rises for the full 2017 programme next month, expect it to burst with work of conscience and consequence, of the pure, the empowered and the wild, brought to you by hundreds of messers, leaders, dreamboats and deep-thinkers who will shake-up your September.

Fringe, as always, is on the pulse of cutting edge new shows, all to be seen at the city’s annual home of bold ideas, brave performing arts, gregariously geared up for adventurous audiences. This is the country’s most daring platform for new voices and this year sees a big city take over with large scale outdoor work set in an exciting cultural hot-pot where international productions thrive perfectly alongside home-grown artists, all who are standing up to be counted and will be reckoning with our times.

Sketch comedy trio Foil Arms and Hog.Fringe will take to the Abbey Theatre main stage for the very first time. Making this debut are festival favourites and YouTube sensations, Foil Arms & Hog with the Irish premiere of their new show OinK. Fasten your seatbelts for a fast-paced sketch show which will perfectly domino from stand up comedy to hilarious theatre, in this not-to-be-missed comedy fest all of its own, while carving out another new slice of Abbey-Fringe programming. Book early as every year the comic trio have sold out fast at the festival. Runs at the Abbey Theatre for six nights only (from September 9), co-presented by the Dublin Fringe Festival and the Abbey  Theatre.

Hot off the press is a brand new partnership with Project Arts Centre called NEIGHBOURS that brings some of the best world stage to Dublin, all who are fully armed to disrupt the cultural landscape, while asking all the big questions:

As part of NEIGHBOURS, the 2002 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Jeffrey Eugenides gets a Fringe makeover by leading Italian theatre company Motus, who serve up their one-woman show, MDLSX, performed by the critically acclaimed Silvia Calderoni. Shaped like a DJ set, it’s an explosion of memoir and gender-blending featuring one of the most savage performances you’ll ever see. Runs at Project Arts Centre (Space Upstairs) (15 – 16 September).

The second show as part of NEIGHBOURS is another superb highlight for your 2017 cultural planner; the controversial Triple Threat, by Lucy McCormick. Having racked up many 5 star reviews in the UK already, as it played at the SOHO Theatre earlier this Spring – McCormick’s Irish premiere retells the New Testament via a Nu-wave holy trinity of dance, power ballads and performance art. Directed by cabaret and performance art superstar Ursula Martinez. Runs at Project Arts Centre (Cube) (19 – 23 September.

As international collaborations tighten between Irish artists and their Canadian counterparts and as the festival’s annual bid beckons to take over more Dublin streets; Trophy by Canada’s STO Union pitches a glowing pop-up tent city on Barnardo Square for the Dublin Fringe Festival opening weekend. This unique installation will house Ireland’s Change of Address (a collective of individuals living in direct provision and their allies) who reveal moments in their lives where everything has changed. Feel free to visit as many tents and storytellers as you wish, for this is a living monument to our lives offering compelling conversations, all about change. Runs at Barnardo Square, Dame St. (9 – 11 September).

With superb Fringe nuggets coming to the Abbey Theatre on the Peacock Stage, check out these two: ambitious and visionary director Maeve Stone brings us The Shitstorm, written by Simon Doyle. Co-produced by Dublin Fringe Festival and the Abbey Theatre, this highly compelling hallucinogenic riff and modern mash-up of a Shakespearean play. Runs at the Abbey Theatre on the Peacock Stage (9 – 16 September)

In yet another Fringe-Abbey co-presentation, but this time in the music genre – award-winning Canadian writer Ivan Coyote and their all tomboy band present Tomboy Survival Guide. A show for misfits, boy-girls, butches, nelly boys, drama queens and lady mechanics alike – and anyone who ever put the camp in camping. Part hymn, part howl, it’s like being around a campfire for stories, song, craic and knot tying lessons with a good ole dismantling of gender stories we tell about ourselves. Community partnered with Transgender Equality Network Ireland (TENI). Rus at the Abbey Theatre on the Peacock Stage (21 – 23 September).

If you want to get involved with the Dublin Fringe Festival, volunteer applications for this year’s festival open later this month too. Festival organisers ensure that volunteering offers “thrilling opportunities to get involved in box office, production, and much more”. Applicants should email Volunteer Coordinator Paul Donnelly on [email protected] for further details.

More events will be released in the coming months, with the festival taking over Dublin City for 16 days, from September 9 – 24.

Early release tickets for these six shows are now on sale at fringefest.com (full programme available from July 12).

FRINGE SNEAK PEEK TICKETS NOW ON SALE www.fringefest.com