Live Collision International Festival has just announced its 2019 programme, set to take over Dublin’s Project Arts Centre from 24-27 April, and the lineup is bursting with artistically and politically daring work.

This year marks the tenth edition of the annual live art festival.

“It’s been such a privilege to generate a collective space for Live Art in Ireland and to create a dynamic and experimental space in my home city for artists from across the world to meet, work and flourish,” says festival director Lynnette Moran. “Like any 10 year-old, this is just the start but we are running at the future with boundless energy and excitement!”

We couldn’t agree more – this year’s lineup of theatre, dance, music, art, installations, activism and parties takes on weighty themes of migration, feminism and sexuality with all the rambunctiousness of a child, but with a seriousness of intent that promises to leave us spellbound.

Here, we’ve picked out some events that hold special promise for LGBT+ viewers.

Nightclubbing
Thursday April 25th, 7.30pm

“Rachael Young and her badass band of super-humans embrace Afrofuturism and the cult of Grace Jones in Nightclubbing; an explosive new performance bringing visceral live music and intergalactic visions to start a revolution.”

So says the blurb for Nightclubbing, a fiercely political show that weaves together the story of dark-skinned, androgynous queer icon Grace Jones with that of three black women refused entry at a London nightclub in 2015. Francesca Peschier of The Stage has called it “a show of grit and glitter: an uncompromising original tornado.”

Bite Size // Scratch
Thursday April 25th, 9.00pm

Bite Size // Scratch offers a  curated glimpse of the next generation artists making dynamic new work in Ireland, bringing together works including a meditation on cults by a “gay art witch” and a kaleidoscopic theatre piece examining body dysmorphia in today’s beauty driven world.

Matthew Bratko’s The Church of The Tides: This Is A Cult seeks to negotiate the manipulation inherent in organised religion in order to understand and reclaim the revitalising power of religious services. Raised in the Evangelical Charismatic Christian movement, Matthew now aims to harness the power of spiritual energy as a performer in theatre and cabaret.

MorphMe, a multidisciplinary performance by new experimental Dublin based theatre company Chaos Factory, offers a kaleidoscopic examination of the relationship between body and mind.

Keep an eye out here for details on other featured artists.

Spicebag: XXXtra Portion Karaoke
Friday April 26th, 9.30pm

“Lash into that curry sauce, wet your whistle and doe, ray, me me meeeet us in the bar of Project Art Centre,” say Spicebag artistic directors and hosts Stephen Quinn and Sarah Devereux, “for a dedicated night of musical silliness.”

Established in 2017, Spicebag is spoken-word; cabaret; live performance; drag; visual arts; multimedia and a DJ set thrown in at the end for good measure. Stephen and Sarah have teamed up with Live Collision to bring you this special dance karaoke party, complete with ABBA, Spice Girls and Celine Dion.

If you need any more persuasion, watch Stephen and Sarah tackle sex toys and kinks in our very own Beducation.

Nu Roots
Saturday April 27th, doors 8.00pm

Amanda Azams of Fried Plantains Collective, a Nigerian woman who came to Ireland as an asylum seeker, has recently seen huge success in ThisIsPopBaby’s sold out show Mouth Of A Shark, a play which draws parallels between gay foreigners who seek safety in Ireland and Irish people who leave out of fear. Her collective also won Dublin Fringe Festival’s ‘Judges Choice Award’ in 2018 for the show Black Jam.

Now, Fried Plantains Collective is coming to Live Collision for a night including film screenings, conversation, spoken word, live hip-hop and a DJ.

The lineup for the night includes a screening of 2011 documentary Witches of Gambaga, a round table chat about the film’s themes of female isolation and imprisonment, and a host of spoken word and music performances by Raven, Maeve, Damola and DJ Karma.