The International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival is a celebration of love, diversity, and creativity that features some of the best Irish and global LGBTQ+ theatre talent, and this year’s productions run from May 6 to 19.

The festival spotlights LGBTQ+ performances from around the world, and includes a range of ticketed and free events.

Here’s a look at some of the queer Irish productions showing at this month’s International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival.

‌Unguarded
Teachers Club downstairs, May 9-11 at 7:30pm

This touching play from Anthony Kinahan follows Irish families through the uncertain process of trying to have children through surrogacy. The story follows an Irish father battling through obstacles to ensure a future for himself and his son. It uses imaginative physicality, vocal versatility, and song to highlight the vulnerable position many families find themselves in due to the lack of regulation of surrogacy in Ireland.

Oh, Good Grief!
The Ireland Institute, May 6-11 at 7.30 pm, Saturday Matinee at 2.30pm.

Burlesque comedian Laura Lavelle from popular comedy duo ‘The Wild Geeze’ stars in this one-woman stand-up theatrical piece. If you are in the mood for some unhinged healing with an abundance of dark humour, live singing and partial nudity, then Oh Good Grief! is for you!

Pre-Ops
The Ireland Institute, May 6-11 at 9:00pm, Matinee on May 11 at 4:00pm.

‘Fiachra and Helen’ meet for the first time in a maternity hospital where they each await a hysterectomy for different reasons. The play explores differences in class, nationality, and gender. Tensions erupt, biases are exposed and moments of rare connection are felt, while the play’s candid perspective on transphobia, personal identity, and healthcare maintains a wry approach.‌

 

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Double Bill: In Vitro and Babies and Bathwater
Teachers Club May 6-11 at 9.00pm, Matinee on May 11 at 2:30pm.

Lily and Sam, a Dublin lesbian couple, want to start a family, but financial imbalances, finding a donor, and housing concerns get in the way. In this heartfelt and hilarious play, both women begin to see that going through the IVF process together in Ireland isn’t as easy as they had originally thought.

This Double Bill ticket also gives you access to Australian play Babies and Bathwater, which follows a perfect 1950s housewife pursuing a divorce in court.

 

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GC…AF
Teachers Main Hall, Dublin 1, May 6-11, 9:00pm. Matinee on May 11 at 4:00pm.

The comedy-drama GC…AF offers a critical satire of the so-called Gender Critical movement. This play features: “a calamitous zoom call (live on stage), 8 brittle egos, surreal logical leaps and the reductive thinking of a group of the most deranged culture war fanatics.” Expect razor-sharp discourse on the so-called gender ‘ideology debate’ that overwhelms our newsfeeds.

‘MNA’ (Women)
Clink I Lár, May 12 at 3:00pm

This free play reading chronicles stories from ordinary and extraordinary Irish women. Enjoy a series of independent monologues beginning in 1895 and charting the changes in the status of women through the 1990s, including the promise for ‘Mna na hEireann’ (women of Ireland) during the Mary Robinson Presidential election.‌

The Pride
The Teachers Main Hall, Dublin 1, May 13-18 at 7:30pm. Matinee at 2:30pm on Saturday, May 18.

AnseoAnois Theatre presents a new full-length Irish production of Alexi Kaye Campbell‘s prizewinning 2008 play The Pride. The play is set in two time periods: 1950s UK and present-day Britain. It charts the struggles and changes related to sexuality over the past 60 years. The Guardian commented on the play, saying: “Campbell’s play is a work of art that juxtaposes scenes from the repressive 1950s with others from the more liberated, but still imperfect, present”.

Remember That Time – A Musical
Outhouse, 105 Capel Street, May 13-18 at 9:00pm. Matinee at 2.30pm on Saturday, May 18.

Reeling from a breakup, seasoned musician Annmarie leaves her corporate job and returns to Dublin for a fresh start. This inspiring one-woman, mixed-media musical is a must-see for anyone facing a crossroads in life, and it features on-screen cameos by Gearoid Farrelly and Naimee Coleman as well as songs crafted with Mundy and Emmy-nominated songwriter Jeannie Lurie.

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Double Bill: Pebble On The Beach and To The Bone – A Radio Play
The Liberties, Dublin 8, May 13-18 at 7:30pm. Matinee at 2.30pm on Saturday, May 18.

This 15 minute one man show from debut writer Douye Fumudoh is about growing up in Nigeria and his journey through adulthood in Ireland. “I thought I was here alone for years, but I never was. I see that now. No matter how far away you leave home, the angels and ancestors who bring you into this world are with you anywhere”.

Double Bill production includes access to To The Bone – A Radio Play a dark, rural, live radio drama by David Donovan. that follows Jack living on a farm with his aging father.

Double Bill: The Caoining and Was I Not Girl
Ireland Institute, May 13-18 at 9:00pm. Matinee at 2.30pm on Saturday, May 18.

What makes a Banshee scream? Patrick is a closeted man who plots to kill his housemate, Banshee, who possesses the power to predict death. This modern fable is a comedy in escalation as the two share a sleeping bag in the back garden of a house in Swords, Dublin. Who is society’s true monster: the Banshee, or the sexually confused white man?

Double Bill production includes access to Was I Not Girl, which follows Louis, a transgender man, as he struggles to navigate the world of his own. When two individuals come head-to-head, who will come out victorious? Can we ever truly let the dead rest?

In addition to these incredible Irish theatre productions, the festival will offer a variety of international plays from Australia, The Philippines, The UK, Sweden, Nigeria, Greece, and Spain. Tickets are on sale here, and group discounts are available, just email the [email protected].