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Contemporary stories of LGBT life in Ireland and abroad will be celebrated on Dublin City centre stages for two weeks opening on the May bank holiday.
Reaching its 4000th performance this year, plays covering a range of topical issues — from being a gay Traveller boxing champion to lesbian gangsters in East end London, and Mormon missionaries — are packed into a most innovative programme of theatre that makes Dublin the leading international centre in the world.
Launched by Senator David Norris and award winning actor Mark O’ Halloran, a capacity audience, including the Ambassadors of Chile and Norway and the US charge d’affaires, flocked to the announcement of a programme not hosted in any other global city.
Joni Mitchell, leaving certificate students, inter -racial love, a diverse group of queers, high school students from NYC, Calamity Jane, contemporary HIV and transgender stories, gay escorts, older community members, a Mexican confessional, lesbian artist models in the 1920s, a macabre reunion between an estranged father and his son, a man with a wife and a boyfriend, a modern exploration of masculinity separating the emotional from the physical self, and a closing night of a long established gay venue, the subjects of new and emerging playwrights who find a voice and a stage in Dublin each May, make up this year’s accessible programme of diverse theatre for the 14th International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival.
Carefully curated from over 100 submissions from around the globe, five venues across Dublin city will become home to the best international gay theatre the world has to offer, providing a unique opportunity to see LGBT culture (nine performances each night) presented by theatre companies from Ireland, the UK, USA, Canada, Germany, Mexico and Scotland.
“Dublin will once again host the world’s biggest and most diverse LGBT Theatre Festival, in a year when the City Council decided to cut the already small grant being made available to this unique theatrical event that attracts worldwide attention” said festival founder Brian Merriman. “I suppose if you give so freely to your city, its often taken for granted and this cut of over 10% shocked the LGBT theatrical community, who recognises our work to give the city this valuable label as the world centre for the genre. This is our fourteenth year staging new and diverse theatre, welcoming artists and audiences regardless of their sexual identity. Everyone is welcome in this unique festival of theatre, and if the city wants to reduce its small support so be it.”
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For future information please contact:
Brian Merriman, Founder/Artistic Director info@gaytheatre.ie
Secure online booking on www.gaytheatre.ie.
Tickets are priced at €15 per show (€13 Concession/€10 matinee).
Nightly Venue tickets; two plays in the same venue (7.30pm/9.00pm), available at €25.
Matinees are on Bank Holiday Monday (May 1st) and each Saturday (May 6th/13th).
