A Soft Revolution: Dublin's Fringe Festival turns the crash into a boom
As part of Dublin Festival Season, the Dublin Fringe Festival will this month showcase an eclectic array of Irish artistic talent in a vibrant and modern city.
The countdown is on - the Dublin Fringe Festival will return to Ireland's capital from September 5th, for 17 days of eclectic entertainment. A multi-disciplinary arts event, the Fringe will showcase an impressive array of theatre, dance, performance art, comedy and fashion, offering an exciting glimpse of the vibrant and creative renaissance that Dublin is experiencing in recent years.
A spirit of ‘soft revolution’ will inform this year’s event – which has themes of political, cultural and social rebellion at its core. From iconic Irish writers like Swift, Joyce, Beckett, Flann O’Brien and indeed, the late, great Séamus Heaney, the characteristic of the Dublin approach to art has always been ripping up the formula and pasting it back together in unexpected ways. This iconoclasm finds a happy home at Fringe - as Festival Director Róise Goan puts it; "We're anti-establishment at the Fringe Festival, and there's been a tremendous growth in grassroots activity here."
Among the many acts set to perform over the course of the festival are PaperDolls. The 2012 winners of the ‘Spirit of Fringe Award’ have spent two years developing far-flung strains of circus training, theatrical narration and experimental music in the creation of a breath-taking hybrid style.
Elsewhere, Game Of Thrones actor Jack Gleeson stars in Collapsing Horse Theatre's Distance From The Event, a multi-faceted "sci-fi noir", also featuring Aaron Heffernan of acclaimed gritty Dublin drama Love/Hate.
Fringe’s venues range from the traditional, to the modern, to the virtual. As the city’s reputation as the European hub of start-ups and technological innovation swells, this year’s festival reflects that nascent video-game-as-art attitude. Conor Lonegran’s Labyrinth installation offers a sense-deprived, first-person virtual horror, while in Fused Dan Bergin offers the audience the joystick in controlling the outcome of his actions. John Rogers’ Decision Problem exploits current technology in an examination of the digital age – a potent question for Dubliners ahead of the return of the gargantuan Web Summit next month.
In all, there’s something for everyone at this year’s Fringe Festival, which both showcases Irish creativity and innovation, and highlights how Dublin has emerged from recent economic strife as a major European cultural player. If the Fringe is not your cup of tea September to October marks the Dublin Festival Season with a host of festivals to choose from including the blood curdling Bram Stocker Festival to the Germanic Oktoberfest. Some food for thought if you're planning a weekend getaway!
For more information, visit:
fringefest.com
visitdublin.com
visitdublin.com/events/Festival_Season_2013
