Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival

announces 2009 programme

Get ready to be blown away. 

Today, Tuesday 28^th July, Artistic Director Loughlin Deegan announced details of the programme for the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival which will run from 24^th Sept – 11^th Oct 2009.

Loughlin acknowledged the invaluable support of their title sponsor who over the past three years has underpinned an extraordinary period of growth for the Festival. Ulster Bank, who is renowned for its championing of the arts, plays a vital role in bringing the best of Irish and International theatre to audiences in Dublin. He also credited the invaluable support of the Arts Council in its continued support of the Festival.

This year’s programme offers a wealth of Irish and international productions, with strands including a new Physical Theatre Season, Documentary Theatre Season; and the return of Late Night at Project Arts Centre, the ReViewed programme and the ever popular Family season. For the very first time the Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival will also take to the road touring a production to 3 venues during the Festival and will literally light up the city in a very special way.

“I am particularly pleased to announce details of a new touring initiative in 2009. We have steadily extended the geographical reach of the Festival over the last two years and this year we are going one step further as we take the Nomad Theatre Network / Livin’ Dred Theatre Company-production of The Dead School on tour to three suburban venues, bringing the Festival to a much wider audience”.   Loughlin Deegan Artistic Director said at the launch today.

Cormac McCarthy Group Chief Executive, Ulster Bank said “Through our investment in the performing arts, we are keen to ensure as many people as possible enjoy the very best of both Irish and international theatre while supporting a vibrant and integral part of the economy. Our support for the festival also sees the continuation of our established programme of ‘free ticket initiatives’ where hundreds of people can enjoy a free performance of ‘The Manganiyar Seduction’ in The Gaiety Theatre on September 23^rd”. 

International productions include:

Direct from the deserts of India, The Manganiyar Seduction, the most colourful, joyous and inspiring show likely to be seen this year. Staged by the acclaimed Indian director Roysten Abel to spectacular effect, over 40 Indian musicians and singers from three generations, present a highly theatrical evening of traditional Indian gypsy music.

Two acclaimed directors are set to return to the Festival in 2009, Declan Donnellan with his elegant and poetic version of Chekhov’s Three Sisters (Chekhov International Theatre Festival and Cheek by Jowl) and Robert Lepage with The Blue Dragon. Lepage was the sell out sensation of the 2003 Festival with far side of the moon; as was Declan Donnellan with the now legendary show, Twelfth Night in 2004.

Based on a true story the National Theatre UK and Live Theatre Newcastle bring the most successful new play of the last year in the UK - Lee Hall’s hit The Pitmen Painters - to Dublin. Humorous and deeply moving, this timely look at art, class and politics tells the tale of a group of miners who decide to take classes in painting and become a very unlikely success story.

Rising star of French Theatre Joël Pommerat brings to Dublin Cet Enfant a profoundly beautiful show explores the emotional ties that bind parents and their children together (Compagnie Louis Brouillard).

The Festival is delighted to announce that Kamp, the acclaimed production by Hotel Modern is finally coming to Dublin. An enormous model of Auschwitz will command the stage of the Samuel Beckett Theatre. Thousands of 8cm high hand-made puppets represented the prisoners and their executioners and the actors, move in and out of the scene with handheld cameras. Animation, puppetry, visual arts and music are combined with astonishing effect.

Each night during the Festival, the city skyline will be alive with a major interactive light installation - Playhouse - which will illuminate Liberty Hall. get involved online or just enjoy the spectacle as the building façade changes with animations created by leading Festival artists and the general public. www.daft.ie/playhouse (Dreambox in partnership with Daft.ie and Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival).

Enough Talk -A season of international physical theatre

Recent winner of the Grand Prix De Danse, DV8 are back in Dublin with a stunningly visual physical theatre production, To Be Straight With You. DV8's Artistic Director Lloyd Newson leads a multi-ethnic cast in a poetic but unflinching exploration of tolerance, intolerance, religion and sexuality Incorporating dance, text, documentary, animation and film.

With a cast ranging from ages 14 – 80 The Age I’m In (Force Majeure -Australia) is a stunning piece of physical theatre painting a poignant, witty and revealing portrait of how we inhabit the age we’re in throughout our lives in a distinctive dance-theatre language

Real Lives Real Voices, A Season of Documentary Theatre

As part of Real Lives, Real Voices, visionary director Stefan Kaegi brings to Dublin four of Cairo’s Muezzins - the men who lead the Muslim call to prayer. As the government works to centralise this call to prayer, the muezzins give a glimpse into their lives and show the devastating effect such a decision could have on the lives of thousands of Muezzins. Featuring haunting beautiful music, Radio Meuzzin (Stefan Kaegi & Rimini Protokoll) gives a profound insight into a culture that is about to change forever. 

The Festival is delighted to secure multi award- winning Felmish show Once And For All We’re Gonna Tell You Who We Are So Shut Up And Listen (Ontroerend Goed, Kopergietery and Richard Jordan Productions Ltd) which has been taking Festival’s worldwide by storm in 2009. A cast of 13 teenagers poised on the brink of adulthood bring the audience on an incredible journey of restless energy and the reckless abandon.. 

A moving and eloquent song-cycle Silver Stars (Brokentalkers) based on celebrated singer/songwriter Seán Millar’s interviews, features a community chorus of old and not-so-old gay men, telling through their own words their stories of searching for happiness and fulfilment in a country that was challenged by their very existence.

When the ground disappears from beneath your feet some feel the thrill – some the fear – of the fall. The Corn Exchange, one of the most original voices in Irish Theatre, are back with a new original piece Freefall which examines the outrage and euphoria that accompany change, in this, the company’s most daring work to date. 

Following its huge success in New York, Pan Pan brings its production The Crumb Trail by Gina Moxley to the Festival for its Irish premiere. This stark illumination of Hansel and Gretel explores the isolation that comes from groping for survival in a dark world of technology and greed. 

Set in the grand rooms of one of Ireland’s finest houses, Newman House UCD, and featuring St. Patrick’s Cathedral boys choir The Stomach Box presents No Worst There Is None. The audience follow the choir and performers in this promenade piece which conjures the nightmare world of poet Gerard Manley Hopkins as he moves towards death. 

The Abbey Theatre will present two exciting productions in this year’s Festival. In the Peacock, the Abbey Theatre presents the Druid production of the multi-award winning play by Enda Walsh - The New Electric Ballroom. Funny, tender-hearted and at times pitch dark, The New Electric Ballroom is a coiled, dark, glitter-dusted fable of the emotionally stultifying effects of small-town life. 

On the main stage the Abbey Theatre will also present a new work by Sebastian Barry Tales of Ballycumber. The cast of this world premiere includes Stephen Rea and Derbhle Crotty. 

The Gate Theatre is delighted to present the world premiere of The Birds by Conor McPherson, adapted from the short story by Daphne Du Maurier. This world premiere, immortalised by Alfred Hitchcock, is an unrelenting and spellbinding portrait of terror and alienation and includes a star-studded cast featuring Sinéad Cusack and Ciarán Hinds.

ReViewed - A showcase of successful Irish productions restaged in partnership with Culture Ireland and Irish Theatre Institute

- Go back in time to Dublin 1798 where body snatchers rove the night and historical fact and fiction collide in the hugely entertaining, Buck Jones and The Body Snatchers directed and produced by Joan Sheehy. This historical romp will be restaged in the stunning Georgian building on Pearse Street, Ionad an Phiarsaigh. 

From exciting new director Padraic McIntryre comes the seamlessly choreographed production The Dead School . Produced by the Nomad Theatre Network in association with Livin' Dred Theatre Company.

Audiences also have another chance to see the surprise hit of the 2007 Galway Arts Festival featuring Japanese Butoh performer Maki Wantanabe, Trevor Knight, Rebecca Collins, Julie Feeney and Robbie Harris in Featherhead Productions, Slat. This is an intense and unique synthesis of music, dance and live-art.  

The stirring and affecting Silver Stars by the rising stars of Irish theatre Brokentalkers (See Real Lives, Real Voices above).

Late Night in Project Arts Centre

A Woman In Progress sees the Festival debut of Ireland’s first lady of drag, Panti, in her much anticipated new stand-up show, as she traces her journey from small-town boy kicking against the uptight traditions of rural Ireland; to towering plastique woman in wigs and false lashes. Silver Stars (above) will also feature in this late night series

Once again Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival working in partnership with The Ark, A Cultural Centre for Children present an exciting Family Season, co-curated by both organisations.  Reaching out to audiences both young and not so young this is a magical introduction to theatre for all ages with a mixture of schools and public performances in the intimate theatre space of The Ark and a special mystery venue.

This year all four productions in the season are from Denmark and includes two productions from one of the most renowned theatre companies for children – Gruppe 38.  Set in a room dressed for an elegant birthday party, two waiters guide us through two dozen magical place settings, and greet a table of fantastic personalities, each a fairy tale character created by Hans Christian Anderson in Hans Christian, You Must Be An Angel. 

Also from Gruppe 38 comes an adventure of gingerbread houses, windows made of sugar and evil little ladies in the darkest of The Brothers Grimm fairytales, Hansel and Gretel.

For the very young, join in on a beautiful, delicate adventure in its own specially designed world of musical stories in Songs From Above (Teater Refleksion and Teater My). 

A very special uplifting tale of the last days of a beloved guinea pig is a five star gem not to be missed – Goodbye Mr Muffin (Teater Refleksion and De Røde Heste).  

For the very young, join us on a beautiful, delicate adventure in its own specially designed world of musical stories in Songs From Above (Teater Refleksion and Teater My). 

A very special uplifting tale of the last days of a beloved guinea pig is a five star gem not to be missed – Goodbye Mr Muffin (Teater Reflecksion and De Røde Heste).   The Family season is co-curated by the Festival and The Ark. 

-      An exciting programme of ancilliary events is also planned for the Festival. These include In Development, an opportunity to see major Irish theatrical works in development before they reach full production on the stage; and NT Live, a live screening via satellite of All's Well That Ends Well direct from the National Theatre, London presented in association with the Irish Film Institute. Also presented with the IFI, the Festival will continue the stage to screen programme with Unsung Synge. This is all in addition to the International Critics’ Forum, The Next Stage, the Young Critics’ Panel, amongst other conferences, talks and networking opportunities.

Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival receives financial assistance from the Arts Council.

The Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival gratefully acknowledges the invaluable support of their Title Sponsor. 

Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival is proudly supported by Principal Sponsors Bord Gais Energy, Dublin Airport Authority, The Doyle Collection and The Irish Times

Public Booking opens: August 19^th   Tel: 01 677 8899 In person: 44 East Essex Street, Temple Bar, Dublin 2

Online: www.dublintheatrefestival.com   For the full programme and more information log onto: www.dublintheatrefestival.com

Press information: Sinéad O’Doherty / Gerry Lundberg    Gerry Lundberg Public Relations         

Tel: +353 1 679 8476 / +35386 259 1070 / +353 87 259 1070   glundpr@iol.ie