Thrilling Dublin Theatre Festival programme announced

The acclaimed Dublin Theatre Festival will take place in 20 venues across the city from 29 September to 16 October 2022. Its wide-ranging programme, which this year has a strong emphasis on movement and bodies, will showcase the best of Irish theatre alongside exceptional international works.

Boasting 17 world premieres, a new initiative to increase accessibility of the programme, a full season of Theatre for Children and a FESTIVAL+ programme of engaging talks, critical events and new work-in-development showcases, the festival offers something for everyone.

The 2022 festival will feature a strong international showing, welcoming artists from the UK, Brazil, Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Norway, Italy and France.

Among this year’s highlights will be Romeo Castellucci’s remarkable Bros, a dark and unsettling work in which the actors follow orders received through headsets in real time.

From France comes Crowd, a hallucinatory rollercoaster of intense emotions and collective euphoria in a performance based on the club scene.

Irish highlights include the world premiere of the stage adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s novel The Blackwater Lightship, a story of a broken family, making a family of your own and the cost of caring for each other.

The festival also features a number of works relating to the centenary celebrations of James Joyce’s masterpiece Ulysses.

Lolling is a hard-hitting, witty, and immersive piece presented by Dublin’s multi award-winning theatre company ANU. Inspired by Episode 5 of Ulysses (Lotus Eaters), Lolling reinstates part of Joyce’s seminal book back into modern-day Dublin – observing the city's current relationship with masculine consumptive and compulsive behaviours.

All Hardest of Women is inspired by Episode 14 (Oxen of the Sun) of the novel. It is a unique collaboration between Irish writer, Emilie Pine and Theatre Director, Louise Lowe and the patients and staff of a local hospital. Staged in The National Maternity Hospital, the production is a physical response to the real-life testimonies of patients and staff who are at the frontline of maternity care in Ireland today.

And one of Ireland’s greatest contemporary writers, Edna O’Brien, also turns her attention to Joyce in a powerful new play, Joyce’s Women.

Among the productions for children, Grand Soft Day is a collaboration between Ireland and the UK/Norway. It’s a playful show about always being prepared even though you do not know what the day will bring.

Promising a thrilling programme of world-class theatrical experiences, the Dublin Theatre Festival is the perfect excuse to book an autumn break in Ireland’s vibrant capital city.

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