Programme 2026

2 hours (approx.)

Rock Bottom Saloon (Ireland)

Rock Bottom Saloon return to deliver this year’s festival halftime show, bringing you the only thing they know:

Pure, unfiltered TRASH.

Every Sunday, the Pearse Centre will transform into a shrine for the gloriously unhinged, with screenings pulled straight from the depths of trash-cinema canon. Expect chaos on screen and off, with some of Dublin’s dirtiest divas joining as very special guests.

Things kick off with a live comedy set from TikTok superstar Meg “Few Cans” Reilly, followed by a surprise cult film that’s just as glamorous!

Trash Cinema Club:

Sasha Shame and Goblinsx3

May 3, 2026

20:00 (8:00 pm)

2 hours (approx.)

Rock Bottom Saloon (Ireland)

Rock Bottom Saloon return to deliver this year’s festival halftime show, bringing you the only thing they know:

Pure, unfiltered TRASH.

On Sunday 3 May, expect a drag double whammy as GoblinsGoblinsGoblins and Sasha Shame, two shameless purveyors of flith, pull you into the depths of depravity before treating your to a cult film often called “the gay version of The Room”.

Trash Cinema Club:

Dr. Sarah Cleary: Cult Horror Night

May 10, 2026

20:00 (8:00 pm)

2 hours (approx.)

Rock Bottom Saloon (Ireland)

Rock Bottom Saloon return to deliver this year’s festival halftime show, bringing you the only thing they know:

Pure, unfiltered TRASH.

On Sunday 10 May a discussion with Dr. Sarah Cleary will bring Trash Cinema 2026 to a thrilling close as she imparts her expertise that earned her the title ‘Dublin’s Queen of Halloween‘.

Followed by a surprise screening of a cult horror classic!

Ticketed Free Play Reading:

A Quarter of Broken Biscuits

Eamon Somers

May 16, 2026

13:00 (1:00 pm)

2 hours (approx.)

(Ireland)

All during his teens, Seamus Higgins worked alongside Josie McGeoghan in McAllen’s grocery shop in Dublin’s Liberties. When the owner, Brian McAllen sacks him unexpectedly, he flees to London. Years later, and Seamus is back to support a housing protest, just down the street from the shop he used to work in.

But why is the sight of him in his shop so unsettling for Brian? And what exactly was the role played by an underwear catalogue discovered by his mother?

A Quarter of Broken Biscuits is a nostalgic snapshot of life in Dublin’s Liberties in the 1960s when to be your authentic self meant you sometimes faced a difficult choice. This is a rehearsed reading of a new play which will be broadcast on local radio later in the year.

Director: Berni Dwan

Free Event

Queer Theatre: Is There Any Need for It?

May 15, 2026

18:00 (6:00 pm)

55 minutes (approx.)

Wilde Stages Festival (Ireland)

What purpose is queer theatre serving now? Is there any need for a specifically queer theatre festival anymore?

Come hear artists from around the world give their perspective, and feel free to add yours!

PANELISTS:

Natalie Meisner – Playwright and poet (Canada)

Ty Autry -CEO Qreative Voices and Artistic Director, Lavender Fest (USA)

Marcel Meyer- Actor/Producer (South Africa)

Sean Denyer- Wilde Stages Artistic Director

Úna Florent- Actor, writer, theatre maker

Free Event

The BBC’S First Homosexual: post-show Community Forum

May 16, 2026

14:30 (2:30 pm)

54 minutes (approx.)

Inkbrew Productions (UK)

Immediately following the matinee performance of ‘The BBC’s First Homosexual’ there will be a panel discussion with special guests around the themes raised in the piece. This includes challenges we face as a community as society becomes more hostile, and as homophobic and transphobic crime rises, conversion therapy continues to not be banned and open attacks are voiced in the mainstream.

Festival Week 1

Beyond Words

Bill Bowers

May 4-9, 2026

Monday through Saturday18:00 (6:00 pm)

Monday and Saturday 13:00 (1:00 pm)

75 minutes (approx.)

Bill Bowers (USA)

One the most acclaimed physical theatre artists in America today, Bill Bowers employs an eloquent mixture of music, monologues and mime in his on-going investigation of the silence surrounding the enigmatic matters of gender in our culture today. Often compared to Chaplin and Keaton, he has performed throughout the U.S., Europe, and Asia.

For Beyond Words, Bowers draws his characters from life and moves beyond mere anecdotes to create a vibrant and visual poetry.

With both audacity and compassion he explores what it means to be a boy and the messages we receive on our way to becoming men.

Blindr

Sean Denyer

May 4-9, 2026

Monday through Saturday 19:30 (7:30 pm)

Monday and Saturday 14:30 (2:30 pm)

60 minutes (approx.)

Acting Out (Ireland)

Reluctantly forced to return to his rural Sligo roots because of the need to care for his sick mother, Frank has given up on ever finding love.

Prompted by his mother to get back on the dating scene, an unexpected connection on Grindr, gives him renewed hope. And with Yuri, a newly employed Ukrainian home-help, easing his caring responsibilities, things are really starting to look up. But when an unexpected discovery completely derails his budding romance, help comes from an entirely unexpected source.

A heartfelt comedy about love, family and taking chances, featuring Brian Higgins, previous winner of Best Actor at the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival.

The Bród, The Bold, & The Beautiful

Quintessence Theatre

May 7-9, 2026

Thursday through Saturday 19:30 (7:30 pm)

Saturday 14:30 (2:30 pm)

Pearse Center

75 minutes (approx.)

Quintessence Theatre (Ireland)

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are” – e.e. cummings.

Inspired by true stories The Bród, The Bold, & The Beautiful, is an original, raucous new comedy drama spanning 30 years of Irish LGBTQ experience and exploring the challenges and joys of living as a young LGBTQ+ person today.

Using their innovative physical ensemble storytelling techniques Quintessence Theatre examine and celebrate the lives of 3 LGBTQ people: each born into a different generation, and each navigating new and ongoing issues of prejudice, pride, identity, love and legacy.

Capitalism: The Musical

Deirdre Murphy

May 4-9, 2026

Monday through Saturday 21:00 (9:00 pm)

Monday and Saturday 16:00 (4:00 pm)

70 minutes (approx.)

Capitalism: The Musical (Ireland)

Capitalism: The Musical – the greatest show on earth is eating itself alive!

Catchy, powerful and elegant, Deirdre Murphy’s Capitalism: The Musical will embed itself in your heart and mind, in a refreshing counter-brain washing.

An incredible international cast and live band will have you leaning all the way in. Join us in a surreal other world where magic is bubbling under the surface, where heroes and emperors roam the earth, and where the fairy godmothers guide the way.

Double Bill:

Combat Cabaret

and

Within Reach

A double-bill of LGBTQ+ theatre.

May 4-9, 2026

Monday through Saturday 19:30 (7:30 pm)

Monday and Saturday 14:30 (2:30 pm)

65 minutes (approx.)

Within Reach

Alan Greig

40 minutes (approx.)

Alan Greig (Scotland)

Written and choreographed by veteran dance artist Alan Greig, Within Reach is a humorous exploration of identity, queer culture, aging, and the cracked glamour of fame.

Seamlessly blending eccentric spoken word monologues and crisp choreographed vignettes, this dance theatre performance sees Greig skilfully slip between characters as he embodies LGBTQ+ icons Quentin Crisp, Joan Crawford, Bette Davis and Tennessee Williams. With humour, intimacy and physical virtuosity Greig invites the audience to join him as he celebrates these stars of queer culture, and to confront the difficult question of where these figures now belong in a world so focused on the young and the new.

Combat Cabaret

Eoin O’Flaherty, Conor Duffy

20 minutes (approx.)

Combat Cabaret (Ireland)

Eoin and Conor are a delightful bickering duo. They are a team, a symbiotic pairing that blossom in the chaos they cause each other. Think queer meets Laurel & Hardy. But change the bowler hats for thigh highs and dazzling latex. And swords, lots of swords. Stage combat combined with burlesque, our heroes battle gender norms.

HEELS. NAILS. BLADES. MASCARA. / FIT CHECK FOR OUR COMBAT ERA

There is no interval between the performances.

Double Bill:

Deadnamed

and

Sombrero

A double-bill of LGBTQ+ theatre.

May 4-9, 2026

Monday through Saturday 18:00 (6:00 pm)

Monday and Saturday 13:00 (1:00 pm)

85 minutes (approx.)

Deadnamed

Dian Cathal

40 minutes (approx.)

Dian Cathal (UK)

Challenging mainstream narratives around the “loss” often associated with coming out as transgender, Dian Cathal offers a deeply personal, unfiltered perspective—blending sharp wit, Irish folklore, and raw storytelling into a one-of-a-kind performance. With a coffin on stage and a top hat in hand, he unpacks the complexities of identity, love, and acceptance, all while keeping the audience laughing.

Through laughter and tears, it’s a funeral like no other, and it’s time to hear the trans experience directly from a trans man.

Sombrero

Sean Denyer

22 minutes (approx.)

Acting Out (Ireland)

When Danny, his ex, comes knocking on his door at 2am, with a storm raging outside, it’s fair to say that Niall is not best pleased. However, they quickly fall into reliving the ups and many, many downs of their very turbulent relationship. But what exactly is Danny doing here? Why has he left his new boyfriend Carlos, stranded at the airport? And why on earth is he wearing a massive Sombrero?

Sombrero is a sparky short comedy about whether love ever really dies, by the award winning writer of The Ref and Stealing Stories.

There is no interval between the performances.

F*ckboy

Freddie Haberfellner

May 4-9, 2026

Monday through Saturday 21:00 (9:00 pm)

Monday and Saturday 16:00 (4:00 pm)

55 minutes (approx.)

No Tits Theatre (UK)

An exploration of gender dysphoria, bodily autonomy and celebrity crushes from a trans perspective.

Frankie is on the District Line, drunk, with a pair of scissors in their coat pocket. Meanwhile, their past self is in a club struggling to find a hair tie, their future self is in therapy insisting they’re not insane and their imaginary self is having a passionate love affair with Andrew Garfield. As these four realities come together, Frankie learns who they are and who they want to be, and ultimately decides whether or not to put those scissors to good use.

★★★★★ – Binge Fringe

★★★★ – West End Best Friend

★★★★ – Rev Stan

★★★★ – Lou Reviews

Winner – Binge Fringe Queer Performers Award 2024

Winner – The Stagey Place Best LGBTQ+ Production

Her Way

Lesley Ann Reilly

May 4-9, 2026

Monday through Saturday 18:00 (6:00 pm)

Monday and Saturday 13:00 (1:00 pm)

60 minutes (approx.)

Moonshock Productions (Ireland)

Leigh is on the road, determined to get her ex back, and her sanity.

As she navigates this treacherous path, there are distractions along the way; an old flame, a lonely drifter and the occasional emotional landmine. Not to mention the arrival of a very mischievous muse!

Double Bill:

How May I Help You?

and

T.M.I.

A double-bill of LGBTQ+ theatre.

May 4-9, 2026

Monday through Saturday 21:00 (9:00 pm)

Saturday and Monday 16:00 (4:00 pm)

75 minutes (approx.)

How May I Help You?

Darragh Scannell

30 minutes (approx.)

Darragh Scannell (Ireland)

Greg spends his time at Sentinel, Ireland’s first choice in home safety, diligently manning the lines and patiently supporting its customers, his days uneventful and routine. That’s until the night Shane calls to sort his faulty security system… though perhaps more needs fixing than just a broken alarm.

How May I Help You? is a comedic and tender tale about romance between strangers, elusive connection in a time of limitless contact, and how we’re all in need of a

little customer support.

T.M.I.

Mark Keller

40 minutes (approx.)

Theatre Topikós (Canada)

After countless failed relationships, Mark tries speed dating as a single gay man in his 40s dealing with sex, heartache, and aging. During the dates, he shares true stories as he desperately tries to make a connection in a quickly emptying room.

From award-winning playwright and television writer, Mark Keller, whose performance style Forget the Box describes as “nothing short of captivating” and NEXT Magazine calls “a masterclass in engrossing storytelling and self-acceptance”.

T.M.I. is a hilarious and brutally honest exploration of what it means to put yourself out there.

There is no interval between the performances.

The Land of Make Believe

Mark Power

May 4-9, 2026

Monday through Saturday 19:30 (7:30 pm)

Monday and Saturday 14:30 (2:30 pm)

60 minutes (approx.)

Power Play (Ireland)

This is the true story, using songs, pictures and a whole lot of humour of how imagination, humour & particularly music, saved a young boy’s life.

The journey from trauma to acceptance involves a whirlwind of experiences from joining the world’s first gay boyband, to living in Germany, to becoming a songwriter, to writing an award winning musical.

“What happens when a bird with two broken wings learns to fly? The bird never quite gets to where they want to be. But what if the bird gets to where they need to be?”

Mark Power is an award winning singer and songwriter who has released numerous albums with his band EDEN and acted in several previous festival hits.

Shallowspace

Callie O’Brien

May 4-9, 2026

Monday through Saturday 21:00 (9:00 pm)

Monday and Saturday 16:00 (4:00 pm)

55 minutes (approx.)

Elastic Fantastic (UK)

A disembodied artificially intelligent voice awakens August deep in space. In a daze, she confronts her reality – one of the last human beings floating in the void, guiding the archive of civilisation towards its destination in the far beyond. Frozen blood. Coolant in your veins. Every moment of human history preserved in digital hyperspace. Memories become data. Routine becomes regimen, yet somehow, your limbs feel… wrong?

A new trans sci-fi body horror play exploring humanity’s legacy in the stars from emerging playwright-performer Callie O’Brien.

Fizzing data on your tongue, pulsing synths in your ears, ripples of time threading through your body.

Typewriters and Paintbrushes

Niall O’Riordan

May 4-9, 2026

Monday through Wednesday 19:30 (7:30 pm)

Thursday through Saturday 18:00 (6:00 pm)

Monday 14:30 (2:30 pm)

Saturday 13:00 (1:00 pm)

70 minutes (approx.)

Niall O’Riordan (Ireland)

Typewriters and Paintbrushes centres on two 19-year-olds, Sam and Max. They meet at the Longitude Festival on the last Saturday of June 2024, when Longitude, Taylor Swift, and Pride were all happening in Dublin on the same night and a queer person just didn’t know where to be!

Over the course of twenty four hours Sam and Max argue, laugh and share some deeply held secrets, discovering things about each other and themselves that will change them both, forever. This is a hilarious and heartfelt new play by a very talented new Irish playwright.

Festival Week 2

The BBC’s First Homosexual

Stephen M Hornby

May 11-16, 2026

Monday through Saturday 19:30 (7:30 pm)

Saturday 13:00 (1:00 pm)

70 minutes (approx.)

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.

Dwell in Night

Ayrton O’Brien

May 11-16, 2026

Monday through Saturday 19:30 (7:30 pm)

Saturday 14:30 (2:30 pm)

70 minutes (approx.)

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?

The Enhanced Venus Experiment

Ciara Hannon

May 11-16, 2026

Monday through Saturday 19:30 (7:30 pm)

Saturday 14:30 (2:30 pm)

75 minutes (approx.)

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.

Friend-iversary

Úna Florent

May 11-16, 2026

Monday through Saturday 21:00 (9:00 pm)

Saturday 16:00 (4:00 pm)

65 minutes (approx.)

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?

Hunter

Lluís Garau

May 11-16, 2026

Monday through Saturday 21:00 (9:00 pm)

Saturday 16:00 (4:00 pm)

60 minutes (approx.)

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?

I Am 108

Luis Bellassai

May 11-16, 2026

Monday through Saturday 19:30 (7:30 pm)

Saturday 14:30 (2:30 pm)

The New Theatre

60 minutes (approx.)

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.

II

William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe

May 11-16, 2026

Monday through Saturday 21:00 (9:00 pm)

Saturday 16:00 (4:00 pm)

75 minutes (approx.)

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.

Kinder

Ryan Stewart

May 11-16, 2026

Monday through Saturday 21:00 (9:00 pm)

Saturday 16:00 (4:00 pm)

The New Theatre

60 minutes (approx.)

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).

One Morning at the Office

Vandy Beth Glenn

May 11-16, 2026

Monday through Saturday 18:00 (6:00 pm)

Saturday 13:00 (1:00 pm)

55 minutes (approx.)

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.

Subhuman

Natalie Meisner

May 11-16, 2026

Monday through Saturday 19:30 (7:30 pm)

Saturday 14:30 (2:30 pm)

55 minutes (approx.)

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.

Yesterday is Dead

Maria Chryssopoulos

May 11-16, 2026

Monday through Saturday 21:00 (9:00 pm)

Saturday 16:00 (4:00 pm)