OnTheTown: Personal mythology, truth recovery, heavenly beings reflecting on social change, transgender lives - all this and more is promised at the Dublin Fringe Festival next month. The programme, which was launched this week at Dublin's louche and luxurious Camden Deluxe Hotel Pool Lounge, comprises 116 shows over 16 days.
"The big thing this year is that we will be out in the city. Everybody will be aware of the Fringe," said artistic director Wolfgang Hoffmann, citing the opening event on George's Dock, involving 3,000 candles, as well as a lantern exhibition along the boardwalk and a series of Out of Site performances, in which artists will interact with the city in different locations on every day of the festival.
"A lot of things are for free and outdoors so that people can engage with it," he said. "Nobody can escape from it. It's really inclusive, with fantastic shows, new artists and fresh ideas."
Among those who crowded into the Pool Lounge to celebrate the event was Joe Roch, who says he and Megan Riordan will stage a devised piece about "personal mythology" at the festival.
Phil Kingston, who will perform in Dr Dillon and Ms Georgia: Two Transgender Lives, was also at the programme launch, as was Derry actor Darren Greer, who will play in AH6905, which is about "truth recovery", he said.
Nicola Whelan, dressed as a heavenly being, who was there with Amanda Sullivan, Stephanie Kelly, Robert O'Connor and Christopher Carroll, all of Roundabout Youth Theatre's Performance Lab, which is based in Ballymun, said the company will be staging a multi-media project called Xspired at Project Cube. It will deal with "themes of displacement, disillusionment and consumerism. The story is about six characters whose lives entertwine in the night around the Spire".
Identical twins from Argentina, Facundo and Martin Lombard, limbered up to perform an exuberant hip-hop and tap-dance piece at the party. They will perform their show, Dreamers, at the festival.
"We take a segment of our life to tell about how hard it is for an artist . . . But you have to keep believing in what you do . . . If you don't have a dream, you don't have a life," explained Martin, as Facundo nodded.
The Magnet Entertainment Dublin Fringe Festival 2006 runs from Sat, Sept 9, to Sun, Sept 24. For details, visit www.fringefest.com