HAVING BROUGHT the audience increasingly closer to the performers in recent years, this year’s Absolut Fringe Festival in Dublin is to take the next step and make them the stars of several shows.
According to organisers announcing its programme, the festival plans to create a “dream factory” in Dublin. Now in its 18th year, it says 150,000 people attend at least one show during the festival’s 16 days.
The festival of theatre, dance, comedy and art will have a playground theme at its heart.
Among the shows will be Just In Time, in which the public will use a phone app to search Temple Bar for “a criminal who can time travel”. One show will allow an audience member to control a dancer on the street; another will have the ticketholder walk down a street while following instructions delivered through headphones.
Meanwhile, Dublin Youth Theatre, with British company Coney, is to create a party at which the public is advised only that “you’ll need a mobile, good shoes and your wits about you”.
Theatre company Thisispopbaby will follow the recent success at the Abbey of Alice in Funderland with a new show, Elevator. Other highlights will include Flatpack, a new opera about Ikea, and a strong circus led by Northern Ireland company Tumble Circus.
The fringe will use the newly refurbished Temple Bar Meeting House Square as a venue for several shows, including Briefs, an Australian “circus-infused variety show” for adults.
The festival runs from September 8th to 23rd.
See Fringefest.ie
