The Dublin Theatre Festival offers a wide range of productions performed in some new loacations.
This year the Dublin Theatre Festival features more performances than ever in new spaces and includes street theatre, fringe events and activities for children.
Seventeen shows will make up the main festival, including one that will transform the National Concert Hall into a combination of movie house and music venue. Bella Lugosi in a film of Bram Stoker's Dracula from 1931 will be screened, accompanied by a score written by composer Philip Glass. The original had no music. Philip Glass and the Kronos Quartet will perform the score live as the film is shown at the National Concert Hall.
Winner of the 1999 Laurence Olivier Award, actor Simon Russel Beale, will play the title role in the Royal National Theatre production of 'Hamlet' at the Gaiety Theatre. Footsbarn Travelling Theatre Company will stage the farce 'The Inspector' in a 500 seater marquee in the Iveagh Gardens. Oscar winner Geoffrey Rush will perform an all ages show 'Small Poppies' at the Tivoli Theatre.
An Abbey Theatre production of 'Barbaric Comedies', starring Mark Lambert, may be the most controversial production of the festival. This new four hour version of the Spanish trilogy by Frank McGuinness caused walk outs when it was staged in Edinburgh. Mark Lambert says the production is like nothing ever seen before on an Irish stage and warns, those with a weak stomach should not come although the work is humorous, which is not mentioned in the reviews.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 29 September 2000. The reporter is Colm Connolly.
