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Programme 2026 — Week 2

May 11-16, 2026

 

The BBC’s First Homosexual

 
Written by Stephen M Hornby
Dates May 11-16, 2026
 Time Monday through Saturday 19:30 (7:30 pm)
 Time Saturday 13:00 (1:00 pm)
Running time 70 minutes (approx.)
Company Inkbrew Productions (UK)

 

Fresh from a critically acclaimed UK tour, Inkbrew Productions presents the Irish Premiere of The BBC’s First Homosexual.

In 1954, the BBC made its first ever documentary about male homosexuality. At the time, the topic was so taboo that when production on the radio programme was finished, it was promptly banned.

It sat on the shelves for three years until a heavily edited version was finally broadcast in 1957. Then it was lost. 

All that survived was a forgotten transcript of the original recording, remarkably rediscovered after over seventy years. With special agreement from the BBC, this is now being brought to life on stage by multiple award-winning writer Stephen M Hornby in a newly expanded dramatisation, directed by award-winning director Oli Hurst.

 
Following the Saturday Matinee only, there will be a panel discussion aboyut the themes depicted in the show.
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Dwell in Night

 
Written by Ayrton O’Brien
Dates May 11-16, 2026
 Time Monday through Saturday 19:30 (7:30 pm)
 Time Saturday 14:30 (2:30 pm)
Running time 70 minutes (approx.)
Company Ayrton O’Brien (Ireland)

 

Two very liberated friends with benefits run into complications when one starts dating a much more conventional doctor. 

How are they going to negotiate what their relationship was and what it will be now?
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The Enhanced Venus Experiment

 
Written by Ciara Hannon
Dates May 11-16, 2026
 Time Monday through Saturday 19:30 (7:30 pm)
 Time Saturday 14:30 (2:30 pm)
Running time 75 minutes (approx.)
Company 11th Hour Productions (USA)
 
To scholars, death is a complex phenomenon, but inside E.D.E.N. it is simple arithmetic.  What remains to be uncovered is what makes us human: fear, memory, attachment, love.  
Pierce helps map those limits.  Collins survives the cost of finding them. 
But when consciousness is examined in isolation, something shifts.  They thought they were helping build the future of the human experience.  They’re not only becoming the prototype, but grasping Adam’s rib and taking part in creation… and the only way out of the Garden is to sin.
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Friend-iversary

 
Written by Úna Florent
Dates May 11-16, 2026
 Time Monday through Saturday 21:00 (9:00 pm)
 Time Saturday 16:00 (4:00 pm)
Running time 65 minutes (approx.)
Company Random Tangent Theatre Company (Ireland)

 

“If you’re friends with someone for seven years, you’ll be friends for life: but is that what I want?”  

Meet Aisling, on the most important day of her early twenties, her seven year “friend-iversary” with her best friend Orlaith.  But Aisling’s mind cannot stay quiet as she sits next to the girl who knows her best. As memories collide with the present, a single confession threatens to unravel years of loyalty. 
 
Friend-iversary written by Úna Florent and Directed by Seán Brady is a story that reveals the complicated layers of friendship and queer identity. This two-hander captures the exhilarating yet terrifying space between friendship and something more. Through Aisling’s confusion, we face a haunting question: “what happens when your soulmate is also your best friend?” – and loving her might mean losing her forever?
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Hunter

 
Written by Lluís Garau
Dates May 11-16, 2026
 Time Monday through Saturday 21:00 (9:00 pm)
 Time Saturday 16:00 (4:00 pm)
Running time 60 minutes (approx.)
Company Lluís Garau (Spain)
 
A nickname born from selfies, filters, and the urge to disappear behind an image. When he was far too young, he stepped into the adult-content industry, which trapped him before he understood who he was. He fled once he realized it was a giant that would eventually break him down psychologically. 
Now he lives almost in isolation, in a room where the screen is both his connection to the world and his confinement. His anonymous followers, always there, are his biggest support and his only company. They watch him, admire him, rely on him. But none of them know who he really is. 
 
A vulnerable young man hides behind a persona. But what happens when he completely dissolves into it?
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I Am 108

 
Written by Luis Bellassai
Dates May 11-16, 2026
 Time Monday through Saturday 19:30 (7:30 pm)
 Time Saturday 14:30 (2:30 pm)
Running time 60 minutes (approx.)

Company Luis Bellassai (Canada/Paraguay)

Join the fabulous Juanita Bang Bang, a campy comedy queen who explores Paraguay’s infamous number 108. 

Once used to discriminate against presumed homosexuals during Dictator Alfredo Stroessner’s regime, this number has been reclaimed by the LGBTQ+ community as a symbol of pride. 
 
Through extravagant performances, dazzling outfits, and heartfelt storytelling, Juanita Bang Bang illuminates the authentic experiences and challenges of the LGBTQ+ community in Latin America, resonating deeply with immigrants everywhere.
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II

 
Written by William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe
Dates May 11-16, 2026
 Time Monday through Saturday 21:00 (9:00 pm)
 Time Saturday 16:00 (4:00 pm)
Running time 75 minutes (approx.)

Company Abrahamse & Meyer Productions (South Africa)

II is a darkly seductive encounter between Shakespeare’s Richard II and Marlowe’s Edward II – two fallen kings bound by desire, power, and dangerous love. 

In a fevered, non-linear dreamscape, whispered confessions and shattered crowns collide as bodies haunted by politics and passion seek absolution. Language becomes touch; poetry becomes flesh. 
 
Raw, hypnotic, and unapologetically queer, this visually arresting, stripped-back ritual draws you into the secret chambers of monarchs undone by devotion and betrayal – an intimate reckoning where legacy, longing, and loss burn beneath the crown.
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Kinder

 
Written by Ryan Stewart
Dates May 11-16, 2026
 Time Monday through Saturday 21:00 (9:00 pm)
 Time Saturday 16:00 (4:00 pm)
Running time 60 minutes (approx.)

Company a ry presentation (Australia)

When an unexpected phone call from a local library derails a performance planned by the barely digestible (and wholly intolerable) drag thing Goody Prostate, all hell breaks loose as they scramble to put together a new number for a crowd of unruly parents and their children. 

But as they race against the clock to pull off a new number in time, they spiral into a chaotic interrogation of childhood, memory, and a long overdue examination of what it means to ‘grow up’. 
 
A response to the global rise in reactionary politics around the exposure of children to queerness, join Goody as they read between the lines of the opposition and craft a timely reminder of the lesson to not judge a book by its cover (girl).
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One Morning at the Office

 
Written by Vandy Beth Glenn
Dates May 11-16, 2026
 Time Monday through Saturday 18:00 (6:00 pm)
 Time Saturday 13:00 (1:00 pm)
Running time 55 minutes (approx.)

Company Philomath Productions (USA)

Writer and comedian Vandy Beth Glenn takes the stage in this sharp, funny, and deeply personal solo performance about identity, resilience, and justice. 

With a blend of standup comedy and storytelling, she traces her journey from growing up in Georgia to working as an editor at the Georgia State Capitol—while quietly navigating the lifelong reality of gender dysphoria. 
 
As Vandy Beth shares the humour and absurdities of transition, she also reveals the profound internal struggle that led her to live authentically. When she informs her supervisor of her intention to come to work as herself, she is abruptly fired. 
 
By turns hilarious and heartfelt, this one-woman show is a testament to courage, conviction, and the power of claiming one’s truth, no matter the cost.
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Subhuman

 
Written by Natalie Meisner
Dates May 11-16, 2026
 Time Monday through Saturday 19:30 (7:30 pm)
 Time Saturday 14:30 (2:30 pm)
Running time 55 minutes (approx.)

Company DMV Theatre in Association with Halstead Electric (Canada)

Things are turning around for Evie – new relationship, great job, happily sober – when her past comes crashing into her life like an incoming missile. 

When asked to join a lawsuit by LGBTQ+ former service people purged from the Canadian military, she must decide whether she can face her past with honesty while wrangling the real and ethereal ghosts who come with it. It will require Evie to dig deeper into her arsenal than the biting sarcasm and razor-sharp wit she wears like armour. 
 
Award-winning playwright, Natalie Meisner, explores this challenging chapter of history with humour and heart.
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Yesterday is Dead

 
Written by Maria Chryssopoulos
Dates May 11-16, 2026
 Time Monday through Saturday 21:00 (9:00 pm)
 Time Saturday 16:00 (4:00 pm)
Running time 60 minutes (approx.)

Company Maria Chryssopoulos (USA)

Yesterday is Dead is a comedic one woman show examining the universal question: Why are lesbians so sad?  

Ellen, our eager protagonist, dives into the story of Joel, a romantic and curious college student in the 1920s who discovers her love of literature, pants, and other women. 
 
Through the themes of loneliness, grief, and hope, Ellen and Joel’s intermingled lives become a comical escape to discovery, leaving audiences questioning what really has changed in over a hundred years for lesbians.
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