Last time round we looked at the ESB Dublin Fringe Festival so now let’s see what’s happening during the life of its Big Brother, The Eircom Dublin Theatre Festival 2003. It runs from September 29th-October 11 with 150 performances, making this one of the biggest festivals in years. And its kick-off play just may be the highlight for many.

The Shape Of Metal, by Tom Kilroy, opens at the Abbey on the Sept 29. Directed by Lynn Parker with a three person cast of Sara Kestleman, Eleanor Methuen and Justine Mitchell, the play “explores the life and work of a sculptor and her complex, often difficult, relationship with her two daughters. Judith and Grace.”
In fact, the play is set on the opening night of an exhibition by the sculptor, at the Museum of Modern Art, and revolves around the fact hat one of those daughters has disappeared. Kilroy, of course, has a long association with this Festival, ever since his play The Death and Resurrection of Mr. Roche opened at the 1968 Festival. More recently, and more in keeping with my own memory of the Festival, he premiered the magnificent The Secret Fall And Rise Of Constance Wilde.
The Gate, too, has a long and fruitful association with Brian Friel that now spans nearly 40 years and this year sees the world premiere of Friel’s Performances. Intriguingly, in this work Friel intertwines his words with the music of Leos Janacek’s final string quartet, Intimate Letters, to create what we are promised will be “an illuminating, unique and profoundly moving theatrical experience.” No doubt it will be. Let’s not forget that when Janacek was composing this quartet, at the age of 74, he was also writing long, passionate letters to a married woman who was 37 years younger than he. His obsession with Kamila Stosslova is at the core of Friel’s play. The production is directed by Patrick Mason’s whose love of classical music runs as deep as his commitment to theatre. Another must-see.
Likewise one can’t wait to see Martin McDonagh’s new play The Lieutenant of Inishmore, which was premiered by the Royal Shakesperean Company in Stratford-Upon-Avon to critical acclaim. It’s hereo ‘Mad Padraic” is said to be a “dangerously loose cannon who has formed his own splinter group within the INLA.’ I suppose in that setting “loose cannon” is the appropriate phrase! And I guess even political terrorists, who kill people, can still love their cats. So when Padraic hears his beloved cat is “poorly” it “sets in train a series of murderous events.” Oh, by the way, yes, his play is a comedy!
Happily, part of the role of the Festival this year is “to bring younger artists to the attention of a wider public.” And so we will see a major new work by choreographer/director Michael Keegan Dolan. Called Giselle, it’s about the “entrapment of the innocent young Giselle in a small Irish town in the midlands.” Meanwhile, at the Peacock first time playwright Stella Feehily will premiere his play Duck, a fast moving play of life in modern Dublin.”
Other major new works this year include Robert Lepage’s The Far Side Of The Moon, focusing on two brothers trying to make sense of life after the death of their mother, and bound to be imbued with Lepage’s skills as a magician. Spanish director Calixto Bieto also brings us a new version of Hamlet while Rina Yerushalmi premieres Mythos, which draws together Arab and Jewish Israelis in an amalgam of ten Greek plays. The author, incidentally, specifically phoned the Festival offices two years ago and said she wanted this work to be staged in countries that had “long histories of conflict.” That we have.
Indeed, the subject of how far theatre should go in involving itself in the politics of the day is the subject of a two day conference, Playing Politics, which will be held in, where else, Liberty Hall. Where else? Maybe Kinsealy, before it’s sold!
Anyway, they’re just my highlights from the Festival. Full details of the Festival can be had from 01- 6778439. Or on line at www.dublintheatrefestival.com