Dublin Fringe Festival 2025

Variations for Two Disabled Bodies

Bobbi Byrne & Soso Ní Cheallaigh presented by Project Arts Centre

10 – 13 September
Cube, 6.30 pm
€18 / €16

Ever wondered what it would feel like to be in a completely different body? Bobbi and Soso are very alike. Bobbi and Soso are very different. Honest, witty and illuminating, this is a duet with a difference. It’s a rip-roaring tour through the lived experiences and hidden complexities of disability and gender. Join Bobbi and Soso as they explore everything from walking, to falling, to Davina McCall.

At a time when LGBTQIA+ and disability rights are being dismantled, Variations for Two Disabled Bodies is a defiant celebration of disability, the beauty of difference, and the power of friendship.

Commissioned by Project Arts Centre through Europe Beyond Access, co-funded by the European Union. Supported by Dance Ireland.

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BIG
By Alison Spittle

16 – 20 September
Space Upstairs, 9 pm

€20 / €18

A man on the train tells her to sit down and now she’s doing a whole stand up show about it.

Spittle returns to Dublin Fringe Festival after a monumental few years, from appearing on House of Games, Celebrity Gogglebox, and Pointless Celebrities to touring with Fern Brady and Rob Delaney.

In this brand new show Alison confronts misogyny, sexuality, classism, death and M&Ms in a hilarious and often angry show about the change that the last year of her life has imposed upon her.

‘An hour of near faultless material’ ★★★★ Skinny
‘Had the full house rolling in the aisles’ ★★★★ Daily Express
‘There are very few comics doing what Spittle does today, and even fewer doing it well.’  ★★★★★ Irish Times

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Change
Croí Glan

18 – 20 September
Space Upstairs, 6.15 pm
€20 / €18

This is an invocation. This dance performance weaves a powerful call to climate action through movement, music, and diverse bodies in motion. Created by Croí Glan, a disabled led dance company, and inspired by Rebecca Solnit’s Not Too Late, this hope filled performance reimagines the world through resilience, connection, and community. With collaborators from the Environmental Research Institute at UCC, Change is a vibrant celebration of what we’ve lost—and what we can still save.

The clock is ticking. Are you on board for change?

Created in collaboration with scientists from the Environmental Research Institute at UCC, and with diverse performers from diverse lands, this interdisciplinary dance theatre piece draws on the climate impacts experienced by its international and Irish cast, inspired by Rebecca Solnit’s Not Too Late and Christiana Figueres’s The Future We Choose.

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CRAWLER
Jessie Thompson

5 – 10, 10 – 13 September
Cube, 9.15 pm
€18 / €16

Embark on a visceral journey moving through chaos, calm, and shared climax.

Following a string of 5-star reviews, this raw, physical duet from Jessie Thompson and Jason McNamara fuses dance, live drums, and electronic sound.

Together, they navigate shifting power dynamics and unearth raw connection, anchoring their world in a shared experience. Transcending from the guttural to the godlike, they devour space with adrenaline, mind-bending sound, and extreme physicality. Born from Ireland’s street dance scene this performance invites you to witness the foundations of their form, the magic within the unknown.

Jessie draws from her experience as a female artist within Ireland’s male-dominated street dance scene, how music and movement can transform a single moment, and how collaboration can birth celebration and unity.

With a language rooted in hip hop & contemporary dance, and Jason’s raw street performance practice, CRAWLER invites you to witness the essence/foundations of their form—the magic within the unknown.

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17 – 20 September
Cube, 6.30 pm
€18 / €16

May works in a B&B near St Ciaran’s Holy Well. April works in the Aquadom, the world’s largest free-standing aquarium. They have known each other all their lives.

On December 16th 2022, the Aquadom explodes. One million litres of water flood the streets of Berlin. Fifteen hundred fish are killed. May and April try to pick up the pieces.

A play with music about family, fish and broken glass.

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Good With Faces

Oisín Kearney, in association with Pavilion Theatre

6 – 9, 11 – 13 September
Cube, 6.30 & 9.15 pm
€18 / €16

Anne Garrick has tidied her house and bought the good biscuits. But when Liam Hegarty arrives to interview her, will she tell him what’s really going on with her son? A riveting new play about parenting, power, and what it means to care.

A new show from critically acclaimed Director Oisín Kearney (My Left Nut, Lie Low), starring Dearbháile McKinney (Blue Lights, Derry Girls) and Stefan Dunbar (Maze, Rebellion). Produced by award-winning Gina Donnelly (Two Fingers Up, Scaredy Fat, Anthem for Dissatisfaction).

Supported by Pavilion Theatre, Mermaid, An Grianán and Kabosh.

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Octopus Children

FELISPEAKS presented by THISISPOPBABY

5 -7, 11 – 14 September
Space Upstairs, 6.30 & 9.15 pm
€20 / €18

My Nigeria happened in Longford town.

Written by FELISPEAKS, Octopus Children follows Young Felicia coming of age as a queer, ‘Black Irish midlands culchie’ grappling with their identity, led by a wise guide: The Octopus.

Part poetic landscape, part gig theatre, Octopus Children marries FELISPEAKS’ spellbinding spoken word with choreography, music, and stunning visual design.

Directed by Oonagh Murphy, this powerful, premiere invites everyone into the Black and Irish experience, and encourages anyone on the fringes to step forward unapologetically, without retreating their tentacles.

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Pea Dinneen: Raising Her Voice
Presented by Pea Dinneen & Once Off Productions

6 -7, 11 – 14 September
Space Upstairs, 6.30 & 9.15 pm
€20 / €18

A trans fantasia Devised in collaboration with Ronan Phelan and Paul Prior.

How do you raise a voice? How do you get a whole country to hear it?

Well, with 90s pop bangers adapted to fit a playful, subversive personal narrative about transgender liberation in the face of an uncaring system – OBVIOUSLY. Join niche cabaret legend Pea Dinneen and her fabulous band for this world premiere.

This is as much a play about three decades in the history of a nation as it is a vast ongoing vanity project from a disenfranchised millennial hag.

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Shredder
David McGovern

16 – 20 September
Cube, 9.15 pm
€18 / €16

A man with a shredder. He shreds the news. He shreds fascist propaganda. He shreds AI slop. He shreds recipes. He shreds his holiday photos. He shreds your holiday photos. Shredder is an absurd reimagining of our information-heavy society.

Influenced by science-fiction and satire, it’s a retro-futurist world of not just letting go but going off-grid. What do you need in your life? Everything else is going in the shredder.

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TenderWRITE Shorts & Big Plays
TenderWRITE

8 September
Cube, 11am & 2 pm
Free but ticketed

To be TENDER, to show care. WRITE, to mark, on a surface, typically paper, with a pen, pencil or similar implement.

 This series of readings shine a light on fresh stories from exciting new playwrights, all aged 16-24. Come experience life through the eyes of our youngest artists. There is love and desire, anxiety and fear, and a great ability to laugh despite the fact that the world is heating up to a point of explosion.

The three shorts are:
Feel Shit by David Rawle
Scat by Aidan Kelly
Fear Food by Blaithín Seville

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TESTO
Wet Mess presented by Dublin Fringe Festival

9 – 10 September
Space Upstairs, 9 pm
€20 / €18

Wet Mess messifies transitions, testosterone and the edges of drag. Combining movement with prerecorded interviews, expect surreal spectacles, dykey desires, and a choreography of guttural sexuality as Wet Mess pinches at the dull flesh of life where the magical is in the mundane and made-up shit becomes real.

Credits Creator: Wet Mess Production: Lucia Fortune-Ely & Nancy May Roberts, Metal & Water Collaborator and Production Coordinator: Miz Barber Costume Design: Lambdog1066 Sound Design: Baby Set Design: Ruta Irbīte Lighting Design: Joshie Harriette Dramaturg: Travis Alabanza Interviewees/Inspirations: Trans Punk Elder, Baby, Angel, Shrek666, Santi Sorrenti, Danni Spooner, Sue Maclaine, Svar Simpson, Felix Mufti, Ben Vyle, Envy the Queen, Grandma Mess Thanks to: Danni Spooner, Duffy, Eve Stainton, Ursula Martinez, Anthony Simpson-Pike, Jay Miller, Ged, Raze Collective Poster Design: Josh Quinton Trailer: Kunstraum Productions, Stefan Venturi Logo Design: Bora Audio Description: Adedamola Bajomo BSL development: Grace Buckle PR: Joy Parkinson

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