Dublin Theatre Festival takes centre stage this autumn

One of Europe’s premier theatre events, Dublin Theatre Festival (28 September to 15 October) showcases the best theatrical experiences from Ireland and around the world with some 350 performances across 20 venues. 

With a first-class programme of international and Irish work, the world’s oldest specialist theatre festival offers 18 days of eclectic, entertaining and thought-provoking drama, music, art, dance, talks and thought experiments. 

Its international programme for 2023 features performances by artists and ensembles from Brazil, France, UK, Belgium, Poland, Switzerland, New Zealand and The Netherlands while the Irish productions include 12 world premieres and multiple award-winning dramas.

A much anticipated highlight of the festival is Luke Casserly’s Distillation, a multidisciplinary performance lecture which will feature original text, perfume, video design, and sculpture. The work is a performative journey that will take audiences to the Irish bog landscape through sight, sound, scent and touch. 

With a strong focus on sustainability, Distillation looks at our human relationship to place and is dedicated to the future of our broken landscapes in the hope that by listening to them, we might be able to better understand them.

The festival programme of Irish work runs across every genre, from the romance and comedy of Somewhere Out There You, through the intense drama of Breathwork and The Loved Ones, to explorations of our relationship with AI in Isla and To be a Machine.

International performances include Zona Franca, a study of the aspirations of Brazil’s youth, She was a Friend of Someone Else, which looks at the rights of women in Poland, and from Belgium Out of the Blue, a consideration of the impact of deep sea mining. 

There are also live artwork performances including Spin Spin Scheherazade and Powerful Trouble and a wide range of Theatre for Children events. 

Beyond the performances, the FESTIVAL+ programme presents engaging talks and critical events exploring a number of social and artistic topics. 

Dublin Theatre Festival takes place across a number of venues such as the famous Abbey Theatre, founded in 1903 by W B Yeats and Lady Augusta Gregory, the Gate Theatre, where Orson Welles, James Mason and Michael Gambon began their acting careers, and the modern Samuel Beckett Theatre in Trinity College. 

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