Tiger Dublin Fringe has announced some early festival highlights in advance of the event which takes place this September.

Tiger Dublin Fringe has been described as the country’s ‘most exciting festival for new faces, brand new performances and cutting edge shows, and an important platform for daring new voices in the performing arts universe’.

This year’s festival takes place over a fortnight, from 10th to 25th September. As always, the festival is hosted in a multitude of venues throughout the city, including The Spiegletent, which this year will be located in Merrion Square, the heart of Georgian Dublin.

Sponsored by Tiger Beer for a third consecutive year, the Tiger Dublin Fringe wants to whet our collective cultural appetites with the announcement of some highlights of the 2016 festival, which include:-

RIOT – THISISPOPBABY
Spiegeltent (14 – 25 September)

Celebrating ten years of explosive events, THISISPOPBABY present their most entertaining show yet; a glittering roulette of the brilliant, brazen and bizarre.

Expect a heady mix of wild theatre, banging jigs, slapstick comedy and jaw-dropping circus. Infusing the magic of the beloved Spiegeltent with the energy of the dance floor, it’s your big night out, but with a dazzling twist.

Features an all-star Irish cast including Emmet Kirwan (Dublin Oldschool), The Queen of Ireland Panti Bliss, electro-pop Irish dance duo Up & Over It, street performance world champions The Lords of Strut, Megan Riordan (Once, The Musical) and more. Music by award-winning music-maker Alma Kelliher.

HOT BROWN HONEY
Spiegeltent (10 – 16 September)

Serving up an audacious platter of dance, poetry, comedy, circus, striptease and song, HOT BROWN HONEY make big noise with their fierceness – defiantly shattering preconceptions in an explosion of colour, culture and controversy.

Fighting the power never tasted so sweet!

THE AENEID – COLLAPSING HORSE THEATRE
Smock Alley Theatre (14 – 24 September)

This is a new world premiere of The Aeneid, based on the ancient epic poem that tells the story of the people who left a burning Troy to create the city of Rome. Within it lies the foundation myth of the Roman people from which they derived their identity, and the Emperor Augustus established his divine authority.

Bringing the world of this old but familiar tale to life with their super-charged clever brand of indelible theatrical magic and imagination – this is a not to be missed theatre show combining artistic disciplines, making for a truly entertaining night out.

AGE OF TRANSITION
Abbey Theatre – Peacock Stage (10 – 16 September)

Dance continues to take up the vanguard of the Fringe programme and this year the brilliant Aoife McAtamney brings her new work, AGE OF TRANSITION, where her growing talents emerge. Choreographer, dancer and songwriter McAtamney premiers a soulful feast of contemporary dance, music and visual arts.

Following standout Fringe performances including a cameo with Justin Vivian Bond in 2015 and the remarkable dance installation series The Fourteenth Visit at the RHA in 2014 – celebrating community and its key role in self-actualisation, this show will feature original songs in collaboration with musician Michael Gallen and choreography by Berlin’s brightest dance troupe, Sweetie Sit Down.

OVERRIDE
Projects Arts Centre (Upstairs) (9 – 17 September)

Sophie Motley (WillFredd Theatre) returns to the festival, directing the Irish premiere of Belfast playwright, Stacey Gregg’s OVERRIDE – a conflicting love story in a world of body augmentations, inflated class aspirations and dreams of a flawless life.

Developed under the guidance of researcher and medical practitioner Dr Barry Lyons (TCD’s Schools of Philosophy and Medicine, founder of Shame and Medicine work group), it will be presented by White Label – a collective of independent theatre artists, established in Dublin in 2014 to redesign the Irish creative landscape through multidisciplinary projects.

THIS BEACH
Project Arts Centre (Upstairs) (10 – 17 September)

Brokentalkers bring THIS BEACH to Tiger Dublin Fringe 2016, presented as part of EUROPOLY with the Goethe-Institut. THIS BEACH is made in response to the current refugee crisis gripping Europe today and the notion of sovereignty of one people over a piece of land; and the lengths people will go to create barriers to entry to their dominion.

Set around a European family who are the owners of a beach which has been ‘in their family’ for generations. The family celebrate a wedding, a union between two sides; each of whom can offer something to the other. Security, prosperity, progeny. During the wedding celebration a stranger arrives on the shore of their beach and the family must decide how to deal with this stranger.

Volunteer applications for this year’s festival open later this month, offering thrilling opportunities to get involved in box office, production, the Spiegeltent and much more.  Applicants can email Volunteer Coordinator Paul Donnelly for further details.

This is just a taster of what to expect at this year’s TIGER DUBLIN FRINGE, which runs city-wide from 10th to 25th September. The full programme will be available from mid-July.

All photos courtesy Tiger Dublin Fringe