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Róise Goan may be familiar to some as the head of
Dublin Fringe Festival from 2008-2013, and founder of Fringe Lab. Since then, she has built a career in both London and Belgium, returning home now with the same unwavering ambition and commitment to live performance, and a fresh European perspective. Aside from her admiration at the resources available to artists there, her key takeaway from her time in Brussels was their “total commitment to internationalism”. Being exposed to work from so many different places and cultures in Belgium, made her realise just how crucial the exposure to international work had been to her own artistic development, appreciating anew the gift of getting “to see so much international work at the Dublin Theatre Festivals” in years previous. We often forget, she says, that “Ireland is a small island…on the edge of Europe. We think that we have this kind of global culture because of the internet but, in actual fact, there’s something very, very different in the visceral experience of seeing live performance from somewhere else that you just can’t get from Netflix and Tiktok.” For this reason, she is proud to champion a variety of outstanding international producations as part of this year’s DTF programme. Key highlights include a production of Albert Camus’ Caligula by the Ukrainian company Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theatre. With 150 performances under their belt and having received wide acclaim at many major festivals, this bold, timely production looks at the cost of absolute power and it’s complicated relationship with silence, fear, complicity and resistance. Caligula “We started working on the play in early 2022, just one month before the full-scale war began in Ukraine”, director Ivan Uryvskyi explains. “At that time, I had one version of reality – but by the time we premiered in the summer, everything had changed. This play was born on the edge of two realities – and that energy is still inside it.” DTF kicks off on September 25th, for its annual 18-day celebration of the very best Irish and international theatre playing out on Dublin stages. Except this year, unlike any other in its 68-year history, there is a woman at the helm. WORDS Emer Tyrrell Given the nature of this production, its creators feel an immense emotional connection to the work. “This show means a lot to me”, Uryvskyi affirms. “It was the first production I finished after the full-scale war in Ukraine started, so it’s very personal and emotional for me… and over time the play has grown stronger – like it developed muscles.” I ask Uryvskyi how he hopes the piece will be received by Dublin audiences, when it plays for five performances from October 8th-11th in the Samuel Beckett Theatre. “How it will be received in October – we don’t know yet. Time changes quickly, and when time changes, the play also changes.” However, there’s a universality to this story that audiences across the globe have connected with, he points out. “For me, Caligula is a mix of many dictators, many kinds of power. He’s not just one person – he’s a symbol,” he explains, adding: “The idea of power and evil – it’s not far from us. People in many countries feel that. And this is why I think the play still works.” Aside from this, he adds: “I’m very glad that we will play five shows – it gives us time to connect more deeply with the Dublin audience. For me, what matters most is that this dialogue can happen, and that we are able to show the performance.” Goan also points me to another international production set to delight Dublin audiences: Pieces of A Woman by the Polish ensemble TR Warszawa running in The O’Reilly Theatre October 10th & 11th. For Goan, this is “a big deal” as she recalls attending two “extraordinary” and “so theatrically inventive” productions by the ensemble when they visited the Abbey Theatre in 2004 and 2011 respectively. They return to Dublin this October for the first time since, with a powerful piece that touches on themes of “class mobility… legacy, inheritance and greed”, themes which Goan feels are so relevant in today’s Ireland. “It’s such a full meal of a theatre performance and I hope people really enjoy it”, she adds. For artists and audiences alike, the benefit of enjoying international work is two-fold, according to Goan. “It’s very hard for Irish artists to dream big at the moment, I think, because of a lack of resources, and not least because artists can’t even afford to live in Dublin.” Seeing new and challenging work from other places, she explains, can usurp those boundaries and expand the imagination beyond. Seeing this kind of work may also quash the notion that “things are much easier in other places”, she suggests, when perhaps it’s more a case of “different priorities, emphases or different goals, and it’s not that one thing is better than the other, but that it’s interesting to see it.” Ultimately, as a nation of historical emigrants, and as someone who has recently returned, Goan wants to accentuate the existing culture of international dialogue and exchange within the festival. She puts it simply: “If you want to go out, you have to welcome in”. Another recurrent theme of this year’s festival programme is its myriad conversations with existing and canonical texts. “We respect the canon, and we smash it open”, Goan smiles. One such example is a new production of Checkov’s Three Sisters playing the Gaiety Theatre (8-12 Oct), adapted by Ciara Elizabeth Smyth and envisioned in a threepronged collaboration with direct-designer duo Marc Atkinson Borrull and Molly O’Cathain. This duo, who have worked harmoniously on a variety projects as freelance artists, have devised an unconventional but deeply artistic approach to making, synergising from the outset and actively collaborating with the playwright to shape the play. “Directing and design - they’re so interlinked. They are the core thing that makes 43