Twenty diverse shows with LGBT+ themes will arrive on Dublin city centre stages for the 16th International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival from May 6-19th, 2019. Following an extensive curatorial process, the Festival has secured productions from Ireland, the UK, the USA, Canada, South Africa and Australia to perform over the two-week-long event.

“New writing continues to dominate the selection process which also included visiting 50 productions at the Edinburgh Fringe,” said artistic director Brian Merriman. “I am delighted that South Africa and Australian LGBT theatre return with new companies this year and acknowledge the great efforts these companies make to showcase their work at the world’s biggest gay theatre event in Dublin.”

“We are pleased that new Irish companies are embracing this genre with challenging and important LGBT stories for the stage. This opportunity to share stages and network internationally within this theatrical genre is hugely important for all writers and artists and has sustained us for our 16th year,” he added.

“We are very pleased to have increased support this year from The Arts Council and Dublin City Council to help us build mainstream audiences for such an innovative programme of work, as we meet the challenges to let audiences know that everyone is welcome at our Festival,” concluded Merriman.

The Dublin Gay Theatre Festival, an annual festival emphasising recent international and Irish works with a broadly LGBT+ theme or relevance, has grown over the past sixteen years to become the world’s largest event in LGBT+ theatre. Last year’s festival brought in vampires, robots and flying penis drones, all the while tackling weighty themes of homophobia, sexual violence and isolation – so we can’t wait to see what’s in store this time.

Details of the selected shows will be announced later this month at a launch event in Dublin. Regular festival updates can be found on www.gaytheatre.ie and on social media.