The Dublin Theatre Festival opens today with plays hitting stages across the city.
For Artistic Director and CEO of the Dublin Theatre Festival, Róise Goan, today has particular significance.
It marks Ms Goan's first opening day as the newly appointed Festival Director, following on from Willie White, who stepped down after thirteen years in the role.
Ms Goan is also the first woman to hold this position in the 68-year history of the festival, and she is enthusiastic about her first programme coming to life across Dublin.
Speaking at the launch, she said: "The thing about Dublin Theatre Festival is we present shows that are literally at the top of their game. This is the premiership level of international theatre that we’re presenting here. If you don’t see it here in the festival, you won’t see it anywhere else. This is your chance!"
Among the most anticipated productions is Poor at the Gate Theatre, an adaptation of Dr Katriona O’Sullivan’s bestselling memoir.
The book details her childhood struggles growing up in the UK with Irish parents, against a backdrop of poverty and neglect. It has been on the non-fiction bestseller list for more than a year.
Dr O’Sullivan told RTÉ that she is both excited and nervous about the stage version, which has been written by Sonya Kelly and directed by the Gate’s Artistic Director, Róisín McBrinn.
"It’s my story as it was in the book, but it’s been turned into this magical journey of joy and sadness and music and triumph," O’Sullivan said.
"I’m really proud that a poor story, a story of me, a girl who grew up with nothing, with no hope, no opportunity, is being told on such an illustrious stage, on such a platform in Ireland," she added.
The production is currently previewing and will officially open next Thursday.
It is already sold out, and O’Sullivan said the thought of audience reactions excites her: "Imagine a theatre full of kids from Summerhill in Dublin, and imagine the women, the lone parents, the ones who are underserved coming to see it. Imagine them all filling that space."
For Druid, this year’s festival brings the company’s 50th birthday celebrations to Dublin. The Druid's Macbeth is joined by a reworking of J. M. Synge’s Riders to the Sea.
At the Abbey Theatre, there is strong anticipation for Marina Carr’s new work, The Boy: A Two-Play Theatrical Event.
The first play, The Boy, inspired by Oedipus Rex, portrays Oedipus and his family at the height of their power, before things begin to unravel.
The second, The God and His Daughter, draws on Oedipus at Colonus and Antigone, exploring the next generation and the consequences set in motion by the first play.
Together, they form a contemporary Irish reinterpretation of Sophocles’ Theban Trilogy, told with a fresh perspective, notably more from a mother’s viewpoint.
The Gaiety Theatre is hosting a new version of Chekhov’s Three Sisters from Ciara Elizabeth Smyth. Featuring a starry cast including Saoirse Monica Jackson, Megan Cusack and Alex Murphy (Young Offenders), the production opens on 8 October.
Redefining the classics is one of this year’s big themes, and Hamlet is also receiving a contemporary reimagining.
Presented by the renowned Teatro La Plaza from Peru, a group of actors with Down syndrome take over Shakespeare’s classic, inviting audiences to see Hamlet through their eyes.
Audiences are also invited to the Irish premiere of The Sound Inside by Adam Rapp at the Pavilion Theatre in Dún Laoghaire.
For Ms Goan, this groundbreaking production of Hamlet sums up the joy of what the festival can offer audiences.
She said that programming international shows has been important to her, as she has spent the last seven years living in Belgium and the UK.
"Over that time, I’ve seen so many extraordinary shows, and it was a great opportunity to pick up the phone to some of my favourite companies and ask them if they wanted to come to Dublin," she said. "I was really lucky, because most of them said yes."
