Unmissable queer highlights at Scene + Heard theatre festival 2026

Scene + Heard is back and ready to make an impact this February 12-28.

Events . Written by Ailo James Kerr.

Scene + Heard queer theatre. Three images: The left image is for The Politics of Disgust. It is two drag queens with seemingly botched faces. The middle image is for Fag & Dyke Get Cancelled, it looks through a window into an intimate scene of two people embracing under a blue light. The right image is for dole bots. Two young women sit in a bath with their hairy legs hanging out. One reads a magazine with nude women, the other is holding a glass of red wine and wearing a VR headset.
Image: Scene + Heard

Scene + Heard is so back, babes, once again bringing your queer theatre fix while we wait for spring to blossom. Nothing says we are done with 2025 and staunchly committing to 2026 like new and developing theatre pieces coming to Smock Alley, filling up its February programme more than your auntie filled up on chocolate after she tried to quit the vape this month.

Here is a selection of the queerest Scene + Heard shows you can see at the festival this year, in no particular order, to hopefully help guide you in the difficult decision of what to see and hear.

If you haven’t been before, most of the works in this festival are quite short and are often paired up into ‘blocks’, so it’s a real BOGO offer, a 2-for-1 deal!

Safelight
“A two-hander about memory, chosen family and violence.” This piece is about cruising, death, and the Dublin riots. Get tickets and see more info here.

 

 

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Dole Bots
Dole Bots is about a couple of exes living together in a bathroom, a soon-to-be-standard living arrangement in Dublin. “Directionless, dissociated and compulsively impulsive, they have just about everything they could ever need.” Get tickets and see more info here.

 

Behind The Drag
This is the story of a drag queen called Sweet Charity, as she returns to Carlow after time in America and stardom. Get tickets and see more info here.

Behind the Drag is paired with Stars are Blind, an ‘obnoxiously gay comedy’, and the block is playing on Valentine’s weekend.

Stars are Blind
This one sounds like if Harold and Kumar were a super gay Medusa and Eros, and instead of looking for burgers, they’re looking for love. Get tickets and see more info here.

Fag & Dyke Get Cancelled
“‘Fag’, a gay trans man and ‘Dyke’, a non-binary lesbian, love each other. Platonically. Romantically. Sexually. All of the above. No, really. Except–sometimes–they hate each other. And then they get cancelled…” That’s the description; I don’t know what to expect, but I want to see it. Get tickets and see more info here.

 

BUTCH
BUTCH is set to be a comedic jaunt through the history of butch culture, the stereotypes, and why they exist. Get tickets and see more info here.

BUTCH will be paired with Mother Bunker.

 

Mother Bunker
Labelled a post-apocalyptic dark comedy, Mother Bunker follows Timm and his mam Tina, who are in a bunker hiding from a green mist that turns people into foetuses. Get tickets and see more info here.

My Love Is A Hound
A coffin maker in rural Ireland in 1949 is hiding a (gay) secret, and someone finds out, putting his life at risk. Get tickets and see more info here.

All the Quiet Ends
All the Quiet Ends takes a sensitive yet critical look at masculinity, how it can be tender, and how it can become something else. It follows five disillusioned boys, played by a cast of female and non-binary performers, gathering “to drink, dare, and unravel”. Get tickets and see more info here.

stripped by Jade Pepper
Ever wanted to know what goes on backstage at a burlesque show? Well, for this particular show, something is wrong. A look behind the scenes of the performers who seem to bare all on stage. Get tickets and see more info here.

lady on the rock
This is a rehearsed reading of a play from the POV of a lady on the rock statue! The description calls it “humour with gothic surrealism”. Get tickets and see more info here.

The Politics of Disgust
You know the way dystopian novels can read more true than documentaries now? Politicians used to have to work very hard to maintain a picture-perfect image and hide all indecencies. The façades are rotting off. Here are some drag performers talking politics. Get tickets and see more info here.

 

Death Notice Disco
Irish wake culture, undead celebs, electropop and the stuff of folklore, Death Notice Disco is sure to be a riot. Get tickets and see more info here.

A Biological Redundancy
A cathartic and playful stand-up set about growing up in foster care by Michael Marshall. Get tickets and see more info here.

As you can see, there is plenty of queer theatre to stick your teeth into this February at Smock Alley as part of Scene + Heard festival 2026. The festival bolsters bold and innovative new work, and you have a chance to see it all where it starts.

© 2026 GCN (Gay Community News). All rights reserved.

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