The annual Tiger Dublin Fringe Festival kicks off this weekend and features over 70 works in venues around the capital. Interestingly there are more female performers, producers and directors taking part than at any other time in the festival’s 22-year history.
Running from September 9-25 there's there's a staggering choice of everything from comedy to cabaret, dance to musical performances to keep you entertained over the next two weeks. Here's our TEN top picks from the Festival though for the full programme be sure to check out the festival website here.
Riot - Spiegletent, Merrion Square (September 14 to 25)
Enfant Terrible of Irish Theatre? Check. National Treasure? Check. Acrobats? Check. Hot boys in hotpants? Check, check. In fairness when you've got Philip McMahon and Ms Panti Bliss on board you can be sure it's not going to be a dull evening. The THISISPOPBABY gang are back with a vengeance with a show which Panti's alter ego, Rory O'Neill, recently described to us as "like a cross between circus and cabaret and theatre". Expect lots of freewheeling antics and hi-jinks, though probably best to leave Aunty Maude at home.
The Vaudvellians: Jinkx & Major Scales, Spiegletent, Merrion Square (September 19-20)
The surprise - but very worthy winner - of season five of RuPaul's Drag Race, Jinkx headlines this two-night show in the Festival big tent. If you've seen the TV show (quite honestly, the biggest guilty pleasure on Netflix) then you'll know that she serves up some Golden Age Hollywood realness alongside some old-school comedy shtick. Here, she's performing with her cabaret co-star Major Scales as a fictional 1920s duo in what should be a bawdy and wig-spinning riot of silliness.
Jazz Age humour with a dash of comedy and champers
Penny Arcade: Longing Lasts Longer, Peacock Theatre (September 12-16)
Want a good kick in the complacency from a legend of the New York underground scene? Then this is the show for you. Ever since she left audiences in Galway and Dublin clutching their pearls with her break-out show, Bitch!Dyke!Faghag!Whore! in the mid-90s, she's returned to deliver some straight-talkin' and hilarious musings on life, sexuality and identity. This show should prove no different with hipsters, gentrification and modern relationships in the firing line.
Release the Baboons, The New Theatre, (September 14-17)
After wowing the Edinburgh Festival, the suited, booted and extravagantly moustached stand-up, shout-out comedian Paul Currie comes to Tiger Dublin Fringe like a frankly deranged force of energy. Scrap that - "comedian" is too small a word for this bloke. Currie has been described as “A one-man Monty Python on acid” and you can expect audience participation, lots of audience participation. Oh, and a rubber duck.
Wrestling Is Art, Spiegeltent @ Merrion Square (September 10)
Is wrestling fixed? Probably. Is wrestling funny? Nah. Perhaps the most physical show at this year’s Fringe, Ireland’s favourite Pro-Wrestlers are back to bruise, bash and batter after a sell-out debut show at Fringe 2015. Wrestling is Art is a new show from the unstoppable pecs machine (sorry) and it pitches the Session Moth and the Kings of the North against the best of international talent including Holland’s ‘The Anti Hero’ Tommy End, Britain’s finest Ryan Smile and many more. Marvel at the acrobatics and improvised comedy and sure, bring your granny!
The Definitive View with Sneachta Ní Mhurchú, Smock Alley Theatre Black Box (September 10-11)
Not quite as pure as the driven eh, sneachta this one-hour send-up of radio strands, set in Ireland in the near future, is in the tradition of The Goon Show and RTÉ radio’s celebrated satire series Scrap Saturday. The Definitive View with Sneachta Ní Mhurchú is a fictional - but possibly all too realistic - arts and opinion show: a playback revue of the best and worst Irish radio of the past week, hosted by Ireland’s favourite self-important presenter. All 71 characters are performed by just four actors (they do the jingles, sound effects and commercials too). An anarchic composite of many different radio strands, we just wonder who or what it could possibly to be based on . . .
Davey Reilly: Dysmorphin' Time - The Stag's Head (September 1-24)
Yes it's him what's off YouTube (if you're a fan of those Facts videos you'll know who we mean). The comedian brings a new show to the festival exploring his issues with eating and body dysmorphia. For someone who's braved all by getting his er bits waxed on camera this should prove to be an insightful, honest evening of laughs from the Cavan funnyman.
Davey Reilly: Making flaws funny
Deirdre O'Kane: 1Dee - Spiegeltent, Merrion Square, September 19
The very funny and frank Deirdre O'Kane makes a welcome return to the stage with a brand-spanking new stand-up show. After a seven year break from stand-up comedy she's sure to have lots of material to draw from, including having two babies, filming a movie in Vietnam and starring in Moone Boy.
Deirdre will be putting her own idiosyncratic spin on the challenges of being a stay-at-home mum, reaching middle-age and chasing after collagen as it attempts to leave her life forever. Her show 1Dee is sure to be a hoot!
Aeriel Cirque: Black Pitch Pitch Black, 10 Exchequer Street, September 19
This sounds absolutely fascinating. One of Ireland's leading aerial silk artists Ria Murphy is front and centre of this new aeriel theatre performance, set rather aptly in a dilapidated Victorian building in Dublin's city centre. The show explores a young woman's psyche, as she delves deeper and deeper into her seclusion. Marie is accompanied only by the pitch drop experiment, and waits year after year for the fall of her dark companion. The very core of her reality is called into question in this dark and moving show.
Warning: Venue is not wheelchair accessible. Seating is floor based. Contains strobe lighting.
An Evening with HamsandwicH, Spiegeltent at Merrion Square, September 11
For a joyful night of musical abandon, you can't go far wrong with indie rockers HamsandwicH. Their explosive performances have put them right at the top of the must-see live acts in Ireland today. Lead singer Niamh Farrell's sweet but powerful voice contrasts beautifully with Podge McNamee's gravelly baritone, giving them their signature sound that resonates with audiences around the country. Asides from the music, their live performances incorporate unique crowd interaction and plenty of fun and playfulness in the form of balloons and confetti. You can't go wrong!
