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One of the people supported directly by the Fring
e this year is Resident Artist Aoife Sweeney O’Connor, whose An Evening with Wee Daniel (18-21 September) has afternoon and evening shows at Bewley’s Café Theatre. Moore describes it as a “semiautobiographical piece about their comingof-age story as a non-binary person in rural Ireland, correlated with fascination with Daniel O’Donnell”, partly brought about by his recurring presence in their life. Moore is also keen to point out that Fringe is about so much more than theatre – there are interactive pieces, site-specific performances, stand-up comedy, and some club nights that take the Fringe way out of the ordinary bounds of theatre. It Was Paradise, Unfortunately (9-14 September) by Raphaël Amahl Khouri and Myrto Stampoulou is a combination of performance and live art. Khouri is “a trans artists who traces the history of theatre, back to the Ancient Greek God of Theatre and Wine, Dyonisus, a transgender figure who has in some ways been erased. He uses this to discuss his own transitioning and becoming an artist, and the relationship between theatre and hallucinogens. It’s a really gorgeous presentation piece, and an interesting and intimate way to explore the journey of a Jordanian transgender artist, and the eradication of trans voices throughout history”. Similarly, Pagan (12-14 September) by BK Pepper in collaboration with Katsukokoiso is blend of live music and visual art that Moore says “focuses on our relationship to religion, placing instruments in a beautiful space, but in collision with AI, creating a dialogue between them”. There are also dance shows that invite participation from the audience - Tearmann Aiteach/Queer Sanctuary (19-21 September) by Isabella Oberlánder and Fearghus Ó Conchúir is “a dance piece that is queer celebration, and looks at how bodies interact with the space, and the audience are invited onstage to join in, and asked to dress up for it. Fearghus is a great artist whose work has been seen all over Ireland, it’ll be a gorgeous piece”. He also notes Terra (6, 8-11 September) by the Brazilian artist Previous spread: Pagan This spread, clockwise from top left: Television Queer Sanctuary An Evening with Wee Daniel Illness as Metaphor It was Paradise, Unfortunately Terra supported by the Fringe in the last three decades. This means that the Fringe has a vital place not only in Dublin’s cultural calendar, but that of the nation, and Moore feels that this is a crucial part of its remit: “It’s vital for us to be in direct conversation with artists all the time, and also to ensure that there are cultural spaces for them in the city that allow them to make work. Now we have FringeLab in the heart of Templebar, with studio and rehearsal spaces, and specific programmes like Weft, a programme for black and global majority artists. We also have masterclasses, we have Elevenses on the last Friday of every month, a networking event for artists to come together and meet each other”. Alessandra Azeviche, saying that centres on “her quest to explore beauty from the chaos that has emerged in her life as she moves between Ireland and Brazil, and how she understands her identity. She uses an alter ego to dissect her own understanding of her intersectionality, and it offers a new perspective on Afro-Brazilian femininity, which is really especially interesting because we have such a large Brazilian community in Ireland now”. There is a new piece from Dead Centre, Illness as Metaphor (7-9, 12-14 September), an adaptation of Susan Sontag’s 1978 book of the same name, about how sickness is spoken about in society. Performers with long-term illnesses, including journalist Una Mullally and playwright James Ireland, provide personal testimony, along with excerpts from the book, to examine Sontag’s work in a contemporary context, and bring its vital questions into the 21st century. It follows on from their two recent adaptations of Mark O’Connell’s To Be a Machine. 15