Stage 'spectacular' to open Fringe

Drama company Macnas will open the 17th Absolut Fringe Festival with a performance in Dublin in September.

Drama company Macnas will open the 17th Absolut Fringe Festival with a performance in Dublin in September.

Macnas will stage the The wild Hunt and the Sleepwalker – A Nocturnal Ballad featuring a sleepwalking boy explorer who brings the wild hunt to town with blazing, brightly-lit palaeolithic creatures at Collins Barracks, opening on September 11th.

The concept behind this year's festival is a "brave new world" and it includes for the first time Polish Theatre Ireland with their show Chesslaugh Mewash which examines clashing cultures.

The international lineup focuses on Australia and features comedians List Operators and the dance piece I Like This.

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The two-week programme also includes The Yellow Wallpaper staring Maeve Fitzgerald who  won best supporting actress in The Irish Times Theatre Awards  in 2009.

The Corn Exchange offers Man of Valour, a one-man play directed by Annie Ryan.

Composer Tom Lane will direct a production of Experimental Evensong specially designed for the festival, accompanied by the Christ Church Cathedral Choir.

Last year's Spirit of the Fringe Award winners, THEATREclub return with Twenty Ten, chronicling a year in the life of Ireland and the world in 2010 in an epic, six-hour production.

The Lost Fashion History of South William Street will be the subject of a free talk starting with the Powerscourt Townhouse Centre and charting the forgotten past of the street.

On the music front, acclaimed Icelandic electro-pop band FM Belfast, return after last year’s sell-out show.

Also featured is Switch On, a collection of new music curated by Darren McCreesh, focusing mainly on the experimental sounds of electronica. The full programme is available on the Fringe Festival website.