55th Dublin Theatre Festival Announces Programme Including 13 World Premieres, 25 September – 12 October

The 55th Dublin Theatre Festival will stage 27 world-class productions across 21 different venues in Dublin city and suburbs this September and October. As always the range of work will be eclectic, bold and diverse, offering spectacular, large-scale presentations, intimate performances and theatrical firsts to appeal to both seasoned theatre-goers and first-time audiences alike.

The programme includes 13 world premieres from great Irish writers and companies, alongside an extensive programme of international work.

• Eimear McBride's multi award-winning novel A Girl is a Half-formed Thing will be adapted for the stage by Annie Ryan of The Corn Exchange and performed by actress Aoife Duffin (Moone Boy).

• ANU Productions conclude their celebrated Monto Cycle with Vardo - the last in a series of four plays charting 100 years of history in Dublin's north inner city.

• A stellar cast including Sine?ad Cusack, Ciara?n Hinds and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor stars in an anticipated new work by Mark O'Rowe at the Abbey Theatre, Our Few and Evil Days.

• Acclaimed Irish language theatre company Fi?bi?n Teo. stage Re?ilti?n by Paul Mercier, the first

• Renowned visionary director Thomas Ostermeier's (Berlin's Schaubu?hne Theatre, Germany) 020 7697 8453 sensational production of Shakespeare's Hamlet makes its Irish debut at the Bord Ga?is Energy Theatre.

• A new production from Fishamble: The New Play Company. Spinning, a new play by Deirdre Kinahan.

• Druid stage a double-bill of plays by Tom Murphy: Bailegangaire and a newly-written companion play, Brigit.

• The world premiere of a new play by Hugo Hamilton, The Mariner, is presented by the Gate Theatre.

• Dublin Youth Theatre returns to the festival with Frank Wedekind's Spring Awakening. International work demonstrates theatre's relationship with other art forms and includes work from Belgium, France, the UK, Chile and Germany, and three productions show the vitality of Australia's cultural scene.

• The Family Season returns to The Ark for ages 3+ with work from Spain, the UK and Australia, and a stage adaptation of Irish author Oliver Jeffers' The Way Back Home, produced by Branar Te?atar do Pha?isti? and Denmark's Teater Refleksion.

• Festival+ - special events, many of which are free - complement the main-stage programme, with talks, critical events, exhibitions and work-in-progress presentations, including a discussion on Brian Friel's Philadelphia, Here I Come!, celebrating the 50th anniversary of its premiere at Dublin Theatre Festival 1964. For this 55th Festival, The Little Museum of Dublin will present an exhibition drawing from the festival's history.

Willie White, in his third year as Artistic Director and Chief Executive of the festival, says: "In this programme I aim to reflect the quality and range of current Irish and international theatre, to mix humour and seriousness and to present intimate performances alongside large- scale work. It is more difficult than it has been for some time to make theatre but the talent and resourcefulness of generations of Irish theatre practitioners shines through in the 2014 festival programme."

Priority booking for Friends of the Festival: 21st July
General public booking: 12th August
William Shakespeare's Hamlet is already on sale to the general public.

Book online at www.dublintheatrefestival.com, by phone on +353 1 677 8899 or in person at the Festival Box Office.

More details of the productions and booking information are below.

IRISH WORK

This year Dublin Theatre Festival celebrates Irish theatrical excellence, with 13 world premieres 'from Irish writers and theatre-makers. The programme provides an important platform
to showcase new and upcoming talent alongside established and highly successful Irish playwrights.

After selling out Dubliners in 2012, and Desire Under the Elms in 2013, The Corn Exchange return with the first stage adaptation of Eimear McBride's award-winning debut novel, A Girl is a Half-formed Thing. Directed by Annie Ryan, this daring new production features Aoife Duffin (Moone Boy, Behold the Lamb).

The festival is delighted to present an Irish language performance for the first time in 17 years. Re?ilti?n, starring Cli?ona Ni? Chiosa?in and staged by Fi?bi?n Teo., is a spectacular musical performance centring on the life and ambitions of a young singer in post-boom Ireland.

Champions of new Irish writing for the stage, Fishamble: The New Play Company continue their outstanding work with Spinning, a new play by Deirdre Kinahan, writer of 2012 sell-out Halcyon Days, directed by Jim Culleton and with a cast including Karl Shiels, Janet Moran and Fiona Bell.

ANU Productions are also welcomed back to the festival. Having staged the first three parts of their multi award-winning Monto Cycle in 2010 (World's End Lane), 2011 (Laundry) and 2012 (The Boys of Foley Street), they conclude the series with Vardo, a courageous and interactive performance that delves into the underworld of human trafficking in Dublin's north inner city.

The Abbey Theatre presents the world premiere of a new work by Mark O'Rowe, one of Ireland's most important contemporary playwrights. Our Few and Evil Days is a chilling, human story questioning the limits of love and devotion. A world-class cast includes Ian Lloyd Anderson, Sine?ad Cusack, Ciara?n Hinds, Charlie Murphy and Tom Vaughan-Lawlor.

Pan Pan Theatre (The Rehearsal, Playing the Dane) has conceived The Seagull and Other Birds, re-imagining Anton Chekhov's classic masterpiece. The production showcases Pan Pan's theatrical world and their continuing commitment to exploring new forms and methods of presentation.

Festival stalwarts, Druid theatre company bring their inimitable style of production to the festival for a 16th year, staging a duo of plays by Tom Murphy: Bailegangaire (premiered in 1985 with Siobha?n McKenna), alongside a newly written sister play, Brigit, which occurs in the same household 30 years earlier. The double-bill is directed by Garry Hynes with a stellar cast that includes Jane Brennan, Marie Mullen, Aisling O'Sullivan, Marty Rea and Catherine Walsh.

Following their great success in 2011 with The Speckled People, the Gate Theatre presents the world premiere of The Mariner by Irish writer Hugo Hamilton. Directed by Patrick Mason and with a cast including Ingrid Craigie, it tells an intimate story of a Royal Navy sailor returning home from World War 1 unable to speak or tell his own story. His wife welcomes him back with open arms, but the war has changed him and his mother begins to question whether this really is her son. As he slowly relearns to speak, his true identity will be revealed.

Dublin Youth Theatre demostrates its significant talent with a new production of Spring Awakening (A Tragedy of Childhood). The festival proudly supports the work of youth theatre makers exploring adolescent themes, and Wedekind's classic, though written at the end of the 19th century, still resonates strongly today.

Multi award-winning theatre-makers Brokentalkers (Have I No Mouth, The Blue Boy) present their newest work, Frequency 783, exploring health and ageing through the eyes of the young and the old. With an original soundtrack by Sea?n Millar and choreography by Jessica Kennedy (junk ensemble).

Festival on Tour is working with four venues to stage Michael Hilliard Mulcahy's After Sarah Miles, starring Don Wycherley, extending the programme's reach beyond the city centre
to axis:Ballymun, the Civic Theatre Loose End Studio (Tallaght), Pavilion Theatre (Dun Laoghaire) and Drai?ocht Studio (Blanchardstown).

INTERNATIONAL WORK

Australian Season

For the first time the festival presents a dedicated Australian Season- three companies stage exceptional performances, offering an insight into Australia's remarkable contemporary culture.

Ganesh Versus the Third Reich, Back to Back Theatre: This remarkable company present their powerful play-within-a-play which follows the Hindu God Ganesh on his journey through Nazi Germany to reclaim the swastika, an ancient Hindu symbol. Includes a pre-show 'Touch Tour' and a captioned performance, in association with Arts & Disability Ireland.

Hello my name is, Nicola Gunn / SANS Hotel: An interactive performance in which the audience members become part of the cast, with Nicola Gunn leading them in a mission to understand and change the world. This is a funny and entertaining performance which includes live drawings and an outdoor stroll.

Jack Charles V The Crown, ILBIJERRI Theatre Company: The extraordinary true-life story of Uncle Jack Charles, an Australian legend, veteran actor, Koori elder, activist and former heroin addict. Charles' remarkable resilience transforms his tale of addiction, crime and imprisonment into the story of a vagabond's progress.

Focus on Belgium

Three Belgian productions demonstrate exhilarating innovation in contemporary European theatre. Presented with the support of NXTSTP, a network of European arts festivals that enables touring of work across countries and facilitates co-promotion of each country's most exciting emerging artists.

Perhaps all the dragons (Berlin): a digital installation in a bespoke structure. 30 filmed monologues about people connected through six degrees of separation are relayed on 30 individual screens. Each spectator has a chance to hear five stories that carry a universal message.

Book Burning from Pieter De Buysser and Hans Op de Beeck - a beautiful unfolding landscape created by Op de Beeck becomes the prop for De Buysser's captivating fable about a man he met at an Occupy demostration told by a charming storyteller in the guise of Schro?dinger's cat, about personal histories, globalisation and the beginnings of a new world.

A first-time festival artist, Benjamin Verdonck has created performance on and around a table- top theatre that disappears just as quickly as it appears in notallwhowanderarelost. Actor and stage technician, he uses few words, lots of tricks, plenty of colours, and an array of geometrical figures.

Also in the International Programme

If these Spasms Could Speak is an extraordinarily moving and uplifting solo performance, created and performed by Robert Softley and The Arches (UK). Softley lives with Cerebral Palsy and shows with sincerity, wit and experience the reality of living with a body that differs from the norm. Supported by Arts & Disability Ireland, all performances will be captioned and audio-described and the run includes an Irish Sign Language interpreted performance for deaf- ISL users.

One of the most highly-regarded young theatre groups in Chile, the astonishing Teatro de Chile (Chile) arrive at the festival with a performance that will provoke, stimulate and entertain audiences. In Zoo, two scientists discover the last two members of the Tzoolkman tribe and must find a way to preserve their fascinating culture.

Tim Crouch and Andy Smith (UK) (An Oak Tree, ENGLAND and The Author) return to Dublin with their latest production, what happens to the hope at the end of the evening. In this vibrant performance, long-time friends and collaborators interrogate their relationship and find that it takes on a universal significance.

Adishatz / Adieu is a musical exploration of adolescence by Jonathan Capdevielle (France). Capdevielle performs a "self-portrait through song," heavily influenced by Madonna and backed by a live male choir. His voice a cappella resonates beautifully through the theatre as the audience follows his journey to find himself.

A major co-production from Untitled Projects, National Theatre of Scotland, Tramway and Summerhall, Paul Bright's Confessions of a Justified Sinner features a solo performance as well as an archive and exhibition inspired by rebellious Scottish director Paul Bright's stagings of James Hogg's Confessions of a Justified Sinner.

FAMILY SEASON

Four beautiful and dynamic shows for children aged 3 and upwards, created by world-class theatre-makers and curated by Maria Fleming, theatre programmer at The Ark.

Based on the celebrated children's book by Irish author Oliver Jeffers, The Way Back Home makes its world premiere in a co-production by Ireland's Branar Te?atar do Pha?isti? and Denmark's Teater Refleksion, using puppetry and original music for children aged 3 - 8. El Patio Teatro (Spain) present the delightful A Mano, a non-verbal performance told with clay

for children aged 6+. From Finegan Kruckemeyer, author of the 2011 festival hit The Girl Who Forgot to Sing Badly, comes The Tragical Life of Cheeseboy (Slingsby, Australia), the tale of what happens when Cheeseboy's planet is reduced to a bubbling fondue, for ages 8+. Following her much-loved 2012 festival hit Potato Needs a Bath, Shona Reppe (UK) returns to the festival with a wonderful production for ages 7+, The Curious Scrapbook of Josephine Bean.

FESTIVAL+

Dublin Theatre Festival continues to cultivate lively discussions about theatre and to encourage emerging theatre practitioners with their work. The Festival+ programme complements the audience's experience of the work they will see on stage, with a series of talks, critical events, exhibitions, tours and work-in-progress showcases.

Two "Festival Exhibitions" will run throughout the festival. The Queen still falls to you has
been curated for the festival by Project Arts Centre, and at The Little Museum of Dublin an archive of past festival material will be on display. A number of Talks and Readings take
place throughout the festival, including a celebration of Brian Friel's most successful play, Philadelphia, Here I Come!, which premiered at the festival in 1964. The In Development series continues to support Ireland's talented emerging artists, enabling companies and collectives to present their work to the public at a critical phase in its development. The artist development programme of the festival, The Next Stage continues in partnership with Theatre Forum, and together with Irish Theatre Institute, the International Theatre eXchange invites international theatre presenters to Ireland. Two Symposia will generate discussion on theatre- making in the present day, and theatre critics of all ages will have a chance to develop their analytical skills through group discussions and public forums.

For full details of all Festival+ events visit the Dublin Theatre Festival website.

Priority booking for Friends of the Festival: 21st July

General public booking: 12th August

BOOKING DETAILS
Online: www.dublintheatrefestival.com
Phone: +353 1 677 88 99
In person: Dublin Theatre Festival Box Office, 44 East Essex St, Temple Bar, Dublin 2

Box Office opening hours

Monday - Friday: 10.00am - 6.00pm
Saturday: 10.00am - 5.00pm (Sept 20 - Oct 11 only) Sunday: 12pm - 3.00pm (Sept 28 - Oct 12 only)

Dublin Theatre Festival is funded by the Arts Council.
Dublin Theatre Festival is proudly supported by its presenting partner, Dublin Airport Authority and by principal sponsors including The Doyle Collection and The Irish Times.

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