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WORDS Michael McDermott PHOTO Ailbhe O’Donnell DU
BLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL The joyous juggernaut that is the Fringe Festival starts this month under the helm of new director David Francis Moore. Here’s three which have taken our fancy. MOSH We loved the electronic slow dance vibe of Crowd in the theatre festival last year. With Mosh, we are promised “a high-octane dance, theatre and music show about moshing and heavy metal culture.” Five performers dive into the deeper meaning behind a misunderstood subculture. Is this violence or dancing? What are the rules? Headbangers need apply. Project Arts Centre, September 13-17, 6,15pm, €14-€18 JUST A MINUTE “Alienated, delusional, and with a monumental crush on the straight boy in the office, our intern is the ultimate corporate flop,” says the blurb for Conor Murray’s one-man theatrical comedy show. “Join him for one life-changing day as he attempts to suppress his queerness and rise through the ranks at the Greenwich Meantime Museum.” Just a Minute was developed as part of the Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts masters programme course exploring queer relationships to time and how distraction through work is a frequently used coping mechanism to deal with mental health. Bewley’s Cafe Theatre, September 14-17, 1pm: 14-16th, 6pm: 16-17th, 8pm: 14th, €11-€13 Director Wayne Jordan and actor Paul Reid ponder Dublin and their relationship with it ahead of Somewhere Out There You, a new show, written by Nancy Harris, which receives its world premiere in the Abbey Theatre this month. and TV scripts, perhaps best known for The Dry. “I won’t even bother telling some people about shows I’m in but with this one I’m telling everyone to go,” says Reid. “People will be laughing their heads off and thinking about it. There’s also a huge sense of pride in being on the stage of the national theatre. The late Karl Shields said it’s like playing for Ireland.” “It’s an extraordinary thing to think a group of people imagined a national theatre before we even had a nation. It is a beacon for a possibility of something that remains guarded. I wish we had several of them,” says Jordan. Jordan is quick to laud recent productions such as Fun Home, Girl on an Altar and Every Brilliant Thing and expresses excitement about getting to see playwright Erica Murray’s The Loved Ones which is on in the Gate during the festival. “It would be really great to create more space and language to speak about what we are doing and what else can be done,” says Jordan. “There’s not nearly enough articulation about vision… not just criticism but critique about what people are doing and could be done. “The gesture of this show is about Dublin and one of celebration of personal identity and imagination. We’re inviting people to reach into that and open all the doors and windows in that space. We are all mired in recent history but its spirit is one of positivity.” RETCH Developed by Storey Horse Productions through the Fringe Lab and the Scene + Heard festival of new work, Retch is a debut work by Leanne Bickerdike which explores the world through the eyes of an angry, broke, young woman who is grief stricken after the death of her mother and unable to communicate with her father. Set in Dublin in the mid ‘90s, this promises to be an intensive and fast-paced, physical theatre, onewoman show. Bickerdike cites influences such as Mark O’ Rowe and Sarah Kane. Bewley’s Cafe Theatre, September 19-23, 6pm: 19th, 1pm & 8pm: 21st, 6pm: 22nd & 23rd, €11-€13 Dublin Fringe Festival runs from September 9 to 24. fringefest.com Somewhere Out There You receives its world premiere in the Abbey Theatre Festival as part of the Dublin Theatre Festival running from Wednesday September 27 to Saturday November 4. Dublin Theatre Festival runs from September 28 to October 15. abbeytheatre.ie/whats-on/somewhere-out-there-you dublintheatrefestival.ie The Abbey Theatre is proud to support the ‘Setting the Scene’ section of Totally Dublin. This initiative aims to support discourse around theatre practitioners, venues and productions working with the national theatre and outside it. 23