2nd Dublin Gay Theatre Festival

All Tickets may be purchased from the Central Ticket Bureau (Telephone
01 8721122 in Ireland) or via their website (booking charge)

‘NAKED WILL’ presented by Biscuits for Breakfast   (Premiere)
Tuesday, 3^rd May – Saturday, 7^th May (by Blair Fell,  Director: Sharon Sexton)
Andrews Lane Theatre at 8.15pm.  Tickets 12 euro
Oscar Wilde’s short story ‘The Portrait of Mr W.H.’ reveals the enigmatic identity of Shakespeare’s muse to actually be a pretty-boy actor by the name of Willie Hughes. Wilde suffered a severe backlash for his views on Shakespeare’s true sexuality and was scorned for distorting the face of the one who was more temperate than a summer’s day, from a beautiful young women, to that of a teenage boy!  Now Biscuits for Breakfast have decided to team up with Mr Wilde to join in on the infamous debate of ‘Mr William Shakespeare’s sexuality’. This promises to be, at the very least, a unique and entertaining production, especially if the reviews from last year are anything to go by!

‘TORCH SONG TRILOGY’ a Dark Horse Productions adaptation   (Comedy)
Monday, 9^th May – Saturday, 14^th May (by Harvey Fierstein,Adapted & Directed:Robin Keogh)
Andrews Lane Theatre at 8.15pm. Tickets 12 euro
We are all familiar with the movie ‘Torch Song Trilogy’.  Set in New York in the 70’s, Arnold’s trials and tribulations on his journey to find love in his life and respect in his Jewish family background, have brought tears and laughter to over a generation of gay people.  Glowing in his career as a Drag Queen, his experiences of bi-sexual lovers, meeting Mr Right, fatherhood through adoption and basically finding himself in gay bars, backrooms and lonely beds, all add up to a wonderful journey of discovery.  The recently formed Queer Theatre Workshop now present a new adaptation – It’s not the 1970’s, it’s not New York, it’s not Jewish tradition and it’s not out of reach.   It’s NOW – it’s DUBLIN – it’s Catholic Guilt and it’s all for YOU!

‘THE LOVE DOCTOR’ presented by Wonderland Productions   (Premiere)
Tuesday, 3^rd May – Saturday, 7^th May ( by Moliere)  Directed by Alice Coghlan
T@36 Teachers Club – International Shorts at 8pm + 3pm Saturday. Tickets 12 euro.(2 plays)
Wonderland Productions debut at The Festival is pure entertainment, a famous French farce, with all the decadence of the pre-revolutionary love doctors themselves.  Expect big white wigs, coquettish sighs, soubrettes and cross dressing lovers, as Moliere’s heroine Lucinde falls mortally ill with an undiagnosed disease, love.  Song, dance, spectacle with a funky soundtrack by the up and coming Irish composer Anna Rice, will show you just how much naughty fun can be had in one act.

‘SAY SORRY’ presented by Slice of Life Productions, London     (Premiere)
Tuesday, 3^rd May – Saturday, 7^th May (Written and Directed by Alex Baker)
T@36 Teachers Club – International Shorts at 8pm + 3pm Saturday. Tickets 12 euro (2 plays)
Three men – Three outlooks – Three temperaments – One Living Space!
‘Say Sorry’ is an uncompromising major new play that exposes society’s big little secret – domestic abuse in gay relationships.  Christian is Mr Average, or is he?  He has a good job and a nice home, which he shares with his best straight friend, Colin.  All that is missing is the man of his dreams.  Then he meets Steven, a complex soul with a thick veneer that hides a heart of gold who soon moves in with them.  A happy ending should be on the cards, but with three different men living together cracks soon begin to surface, quickly followed by jealousy, threats, and ultimately, terrible violence … Before long it’s too late to Say Sorry. 

‘… AND THEN THERE WAS ME’ presented by Three Wise Women
Monday, 9^th May – Wednesday, 11^th May (by Verity-Alicia Mavenawitz, Director: Nuala Kelly)
T@36 Teachers Club – Irish Shorts at 8pm.  Tickets 10 euro (2 plays)
“…and then there was me” is a play about a young girl’s struggle with drugs, sex and shaggy perms!  She is going out with Joe but its Bell she loves and even though her family try to support her and understand her, she doesn’t seem to understand herself.   So, when the shame of who you are is great, when the understanding and sympathy of others is ignored, when drugs, drink and nightlife are your only solace … something has to give, or in her case, take.  A story that is hilarious, moving and at times downright sad but for the most part it is a story about “growing up” in more ways than one.

‘SELF-OBSESSED TRAGEDY OF ED MALONE’ presented by BYOB, Cork
Monday, 9^th May – Wednesday, 11^th May (by Ed Malone, Director: Brian Desmond)
T@36 Teachers Club – Irish Shorts at 8pm.  Tickets 10 euro (2 plays)
The Be Your Own Banana Theatre Company’s production of ‘The Self-Obsessed Tragedy of Ed Malone’ is a biopic, solo performance, written and performed by Edward Malone, a Cork-born actor, writer and comedian.  The play is a darkly comic, eccentrically performed, manic display of urban story-telling.  A unique twist on modern, working-class life, the play charts Malone’s story through a series of bizarre reminiscences and deranged rants about modern life.  His failed romantic endeavours, his experiences as a homosexual-wannabe, his mammy and his daddy, his one job ever, and his failure to handle his drink, all from a central character who clearly watches too many episodes of ‘Home & Away’ for his own good!

‘CITIZENSHIP’ presented by Crooked House Theatre Company, Kildare
Thursday, 12^th May – Saturday, 14^th May (by Mark Ravenhill, Director: Peter Hussey)
T@36 Teachers Club – Irish Shorts at 8pm + 3pm Saturday.  Tickets 10 euro (2 plays)
A teenage boy, Tom, keeps having a recurring dream, in which he is kissing a shadowy figure.  The only problem is that he can’t tell if the person is a woman or a man.  This bittersweet comedy about growing up, follows Tom’s journey as he tries to discover his sexual orientation. His favourite teacher is unable to offer advice due to ‘school policy’, so Tom decides to experiment on his own.  First he tries with his closest male friend Gary, who declines Tom’s advances – then he tries with his closest female friend Amy, who becomes pregnant. Tom soon finds himself involved with an older young man but still feels strongly attached to Amy and their child. In the end, Tom must decide for himself what he truly wants. Citizenship, by Mark Ravenhill, began its life as a play reading in The George last year to great acclaim by this young dynamic company.

‘DON’T DIE WONDERING’ presented by DAYMS   (World Premiere)
Thursday, 12^th May – Saturday, 14^th May (by Emma Donoghue, Director: Philippa Alford)
T@36 Teachers Club – Irish Shorts at 8pm + 3pm Saturday.  Tickets 10 euro (2 plays)
This one-act comedy is about an irreverent emigrant Saoirse Allen who comes home to her small Irish town and takes a job as a chef.  When she is fired for being a lesbian, she stages a one-woman picket to get her job back, and the policeman who is most reluctantly assigned to protect her turns out to be an old school friend ….  ‘Don’t Die Wondering’ was broadcast in a different form on BBC Radio 4 – this is the world premiere of the stage version.
N.B. On Thurs. 12^th May,  the Opening Night of Emma Donoghue’s play ‘Don’t Die Wondering’, Dr Eibhear Walshe will deliver a short talk entitled ‘Oscar’s Shadow – Wilde and 20^th Century Irish Theatre’.

‘SIMPLY SONDHEIM’ presented by Music Theatre Ireland   (Musical)
Thursday, 5^th May – Saturday, 7^th May (Musical Director: David Wray, Director: Alan Kinsella)
Cobalt Café, North Great Georges Street, at 8.45pm.  Tickets 12 euro
For four decades Stephen Sondheim has been revolutionizing the Broadway musical.  His name be-speaks theatrical excitement and applause.  He is one of the singularly gifted within the ranks of the Broadway musical elite and has been described as “without question, the best Broadway lyricist past or present”.  Sondheim’s work has won him many accolades including Tony, Grammy, and Academy awards together with a Pulitzer Prize for Drama.  ‘Simply Sondheim’ is a revue celebrating the music and lyrics of Stephen Sondheim brought to life by an ‘international’ company of singers from New York, London and Dublin.

‘SINGING OUT TOO!’ by Brian Merriman and DAYMS   (Late Night Review)
Friday, 13^th May – Saturday, 14^th May (Author/Director: Brian Merriman, Musical Dir: David Wray)
Cobalt Café, North Great Georges Street, at 11pm.  Tickets 10 euro
‘Singing Out Too!’ is a late night cabaret revue starring Brian Merriman, David Wray and guests from DAYMS The Musical Workshop.  It is a musical glance at coming out, being out and staying out, utilising the works of gay composers, lyricists and artists. Spanning the well known and the not so well known musical works of the 20^th century, Brian and his guests will bring us on a memorable ‘singing out tour’ in a night of some pathos and lots of comedy. Building on the success of last year’s ‘Singing Out’, this late night revue – a gay tour of musical theatre – starts at 11pm for just two nights only.

‘A CURE FOR HOMOSEXUALITY’ presented by Neil Watkins   (Comedy)
Wednesday, 4^th May – Saturday, 14th May (by Neil Watkins, Director: John O’Brien)
Centre Stage Café, Parliament Street, at 8pm/5pm matinee & 10pm.  Tickets 12 euro
‘A Cure For Homosexuality’ is an “every-gay” play.  A one man show with some songs and strip tease - at times comic - at others dark - and at others touching.  “Alternative Miss Ireland” Watkins looks to history and its treatment of gay men and imagines what could happen if liberalisation of homosexuality were to take a step backwards.  It is a nightmare vision of the future where the President of America does away with democracy, re-elects himself for a third term and sets about ridding the world once and for all of “faggots”.  An hilarious comedy …Gerry Colgan I.T.

‘NEW BOY’ presented by The Actors Circle, London   (Premiere)
Monday, 9^th May – Saturday, 14^th May (by William Sutcliffe, Director: Mark Pollard)
The Project Theatre, East Essex Street, at 8.15pm.  Tickets 14/10 euro

‘New Boy’ is a sparkling coming of age comedy-drama set in the 1980’s – “stand up virgin schoolboys” as it were!  The story centres on gawky seventeen year old Mark who is anxious to get his sex life jump-started.  When the ‘new boy’ Barry (the face of an angel, the body of a god – and the name of a plasterer) begins classes at Mark’s all boys school, the two quickly become fast friends.  This new relationship allows Mark the opportunity to experience his hormonal aspirations vicariously through Barry’s exploits as Barry has no problems seducing members of the opposite sex – be it the students of the neighbouring girls school, or members of the faculty!  Through it all, the two boys develop a very close bond that could ultimately change the course of their lives.

‘GALA NIGHT’ presented by the Dublin Gay Theatre Festival
Sunday, 15^th May (Directed by Brian Merriman)
Temple Bar Music Centre at 8pm.  Tickets 12 euro
The final event of the Second International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival is a night devoted to celebrating gay theatre.  This Gala Night of celebration will feature music, drama, dance, poetry, song and theatre – with segments from all the festival’s major productions together with performances from several special guest artists including Tony Flynn, Mark O’Halloran and Mark Power.

‘DECADENCE’ presented by Spike Productions   (Black Comedy)
Tuesday, 3^rd May – Saturday, 7^th May (by Stephen Berkoff, Director: Alan Kinsella)
The Focus Theatre, Pembroke Place, at 8pm.  Tickets 12/10 euro (2 plays)
It’s the 1980’s and Steve is having a debauched affair with socialite Helen, leaving his wealthy Cheam housewife Sybil to plot his destruction with private dick, Les.  Using Berkoff’s unique language and style, ‘Decadence’ is a hilarious expose of the social hierarchy as experienced by representatives from the aristocracy and the working class.  ‘Decadence’ is still “as funny, sexy, vulgar and shocking as when it was first presented” and begs the question, have things changed much in 20 years?

‘HARLEQUIN’S LESSON IN LOVE’ by Spellbound Theatre Company
Tuesday, 3^rd May – Saturday, 7^th May (by Pierre Marivaux, Director: Caroline Staunton)
The Focus Theatre, Pembroke Place, at 8pm.  Tickets 12/10 euro (2 plays)
Following a sell-out run at the ESB Dublin Fringe Festival, Spellbound return with a lively production of Marivaux’s tale of magic, persecution, tyranny and – above all – love!  We look at the duplicitous nature of love; the purity of the emotion, but the lies, deceit and charades that surround life’s most delicious experience.

‘BEING MISS ROSS’ by Aidan Harney   (Play Reading)
 Sunday, 8^th May.  One Performance only.  Afternoon Matinee at 3pm.
The George, South Great Georges Street,  Admission Free
Diana Ross comes to Dublin!  When the oldest gay café in the city is threatened with closure, the owner and a band of loyal customers get together to stage a Motown fundraiser.  Drama, tragedy and feather boas … and the rehearsals haven’t even started yet.  A comedy featuring the music of Diana Ross. And Paninis!
Following the Play Reading, there will be an Open Forum Discussion “Writing For Gay Theatre” at which several of the ‘Festival authors’ will attend.

LINKS

Dublin International Gay Theatre Festival website
Central Ticket Bureau’s secure website

29 April  2005