Kaos: Importance of Being Earnest
City Arts Centre October 11th-16th, 8 p.m.
Following their superb version of The Master and Margarita last year, Kaos Theatre UK brings energetic panache - and leopard-skin trousers - to Wilde's drawingroom comedy. Transposed to contemporary British club-land, this is a high camp, broadly satirical blend of clowning, mime and slapstick, with occasional bursts of Baroque oratorio to jolly things along. Wilde's witticisms may not benefit much from this treatment, but it's great fun.
Aerowaves
Tivoli Theatre October 27th-29th, 8 p.m.
Producers face an unenviable task choosing works for festivals these days, such is the range of dance and physical theatre throughout Europe. The Dublin Fringe Festival has cleverly linked up with Aerowaves, the brainchild of John Ashford, director of The Place in London. A networker par excellence, Ashford gathers a panel from 26 countries to choose 10 works every year which are performed in London and in other venues throughout Europe.
The four works in the Aerowaves programme - Do Hens Think? by Juan Benitez and Carmelo Fernandez; Love is Fastic (the Catalan word for disgusting) by fellow Spaniard Sol Pico, recently described by El Pais as "one of the sexiest dancers in modern dance today"; Karine Ponties's solo Dame de Pic and Liz Roche's Interrupted Light - all examine relationships in extremely different ways.
As always, Liz Roche has allowed eclectic influences in creating her work: "The title was derived from a quotation by physicist Richard Feynmann where he considers humans as energy and human interaction being light interrupting light," she says. "I'm not going to be literal but it was a nice concept to spring ideas from, especially as myself and fellow performer Jenny are sisters and look very alike."
Yip, Yip Mix in the 21st Century: Laurie Booth
Temple Bar Gallery October 10th-13th, 8 p.m.
The English choreographer and dancer Laurie Booth has also been missed since he performed in Wexford's Movement Month in 1992. Nowadays less visible in the British dance scene he is still an incredibly engaging performer. His unique vocabulary, occasionaly interwoven with speech, draws on many influences including capoera, a movement form that is both dance and a martial art.
Soul Survivor: Dance Theatre of Ireland
Tivoli Theatre September 30th-October 2nd, 8 p.m.
Dublin audiences get a first chance to view Dance Theatre of Ireland's Soul Survivor, premiered in Galway Arts Festival in July, a hi-tech but somewhat jaundiced view of our world at the end of the millennium.
Crime and Punishment: Shibboleth/Sinequanon
The Big Tent, Iveagh Gardens October 11th-Oct 16th, 8 p.m.
The Shibboleth/Sinequanon co-production of Crime and Punishment plays in the Big Tent in the Iveagh Gardens. "The tent will certainly be a challenge," says Emily Mytton of Belfast-based Shibboleth Theatre Company. "The space in Paris where we devised and premiered the piece was a long, narrow space in an old warehouse. It felt very urban and appropriately seedy. The production is therefore hyper-realist and relies less on theatrical tricks than previous works."
Fragile: Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre
Tallaght Civic Theatre September 29th-October 2nd, 8 p.m.
Fabulous Beast Dance Company, after their hugely successful performances in the festival last year, return to the Tallaght Civic Theatre where they will premiere Fragile, described as "a head-on collision between Jean-Paul Sartre and Hieronymous Bosch". Choreographer Michael Keegan Dolan, unseen for many years here in Ireland, has been very upwardly-mobile in Britain through the 1990s picking up numerous awards, generally in the "most promising" categories. A highly theatrical style and a good eye for nuances in human interaction mark Dolan's work and Fragile should be hugely popular and consolidate last year's success.
