Tomorrow – 25th September 2014 – is the first day of this year’s Dublin Theatre Festival. The DTF is the highlight of Dublin’s “festival season”, so I’d like to provide a few suggestions about what you might go see.
The Seagull And Other Birds – Pan Pan Theatre – I saw a rehearsal for this and was impressed and amused. Now, “re-imagining of Anton Chekhov’s much-loved comic masterpiece” with a play-within-a-play might not sound like it’ll actually be funny, but this has potential. There’s a different play in each performance, and the one I saw was just hilarious, a deliberate mockery of overly-ambitious art-house-style plays. If you’re an infrequent theater-goer The Seagull might not be for you, but if you’re a regular, go see this.
Nearer to the other end of the conventionality spectrum is Spinning, “a contemporary tragedy” by Fish amble. As you might know Fish amble has a strong reputation, so hopefully this will live up to my expectations. I’ll let you know.
After Sarah Miles – I saw this one-man play over the summer and gave it 4/5. One caveat though: I saw the play in Smock Alley’s Boys’ School, and I’m not certain it’ll work as well in the several venues it’ll be shown in as part of the ‘festival on tour’.