October 2016 5 9
M
ore or less pulsating since its quiet
birth in 1994, the Dublin ‘Tiger’
Fringe Festival has an unusually
well-defined theatrical remit,
stated in its Memorandum of Asso-
ciation as: “the encouragement and promotion
of the development of new theatre companies,
younger actors and directors and to encourage
more innovative theatre and performance”.
While the Gate is just a little bourgeois and the
Abbey statist and under pressure for its quality
and its perceived overhang of gender bias, the
Fringe exists to “challenge, subvert and invigor
-
ate”, and has been consistently lauded by the
likes of the Irish Times for its fashionable diver-
sity and indeed its quality. This September over
70 Fringe productions erupted across Dublin,
desperate to address the difficulties of complex
contemporary Ireland.
Fringe 2015 focused on celebrating its 21 years
of existence in exuberant style, drunk on musi-
cal acts and the return of the Spiegeltent. In
contrast Fringe 2016 had to sober up after the
hangover the Abbey forced on the world of Irish
theatre. The passage of the Marriage Equality
Referendum and the stirring of Waking the Femi-
nists, both representing formidable political
movements with strong theatrical panache,
escalated the iconoclasm expected of Fringe in
Dublin.
Kris Nelson, Artistic Director of the Festival,
pronounced on International Women’s Day 2016
on the New Politics: “even an indirect, implicit
kind of equality is not enough. It’s important,
now, to be explicit”. This explains much of the
ambit of this Festival whichs styles itself a
“riproaring festival” of the avant-garde. "We're
hosting experiences", says Nelson, a Canadian,
who took over the Fringe in 2013: "We want big
nights out, we want to be taken to places we've
never been before, we want stories that are
bigger than ourselves”.
Inevitably, Village only got to a sample of
productions.
‘Megalomania’, making real for its audience
the slaughter in Syria and provocatively staged
at the Coombe Women and Infants Hospital, and
‘Hostel 16’ starkly playing out the servile and
monotonous daily routine of asylum-seekers in
Direct provision, stuck it to the Irish State’s treat-
ment of refugees and were tone-setting while
‘Eggsistentialism’ attacked judgementalism on
female fertility.
‘RIOT’ which won the award for Production of
the Festival featured a savage riff from Emmet
Kirwan on the state of the nation and imagina-
tion. Panti Bliss, who technically starred,
preached a message of “Activate, Articulate, and
Farrah Fawcett”, vaunting her political and thes-
pian cojones. Whether the message will be
enough for a new Millennium is one question but
Panti’s message is powerful and her reflections
on the power she has now accreted - like Daniel
O’Connell did - are surprisingly subtle.
‘The Aeneid’ by Collapsing Horse
concertinaed the story of Aeneas’
journey to establish Rome and
filtered it through the lives of
a group of storytellers called
Rhapsodes. Maeve
O’Mahony as the actor
Aenen assumed Aeneas'
identity and performed his
story, tragically not her own.
Her single moment of individu
-
ality was eclipsed as books
stacked ever higher and higher in her
arms, their pages falling around the stage,
a visual representation of the burden of
history.
‘Monday: Watch out for the Right’ gave a
European context to political correctness, dem-
onstrating (in distracting, subtitled Portuguese)
how boxing poses the question of whether we
should stay ring-side, or fight. Of course even in
2016 Dublin Fringe not every production had a
right-on message; some were not even overtly
political.
Aoife McAtamney’s ‘Age of Transition’ evoked
an Elysian dream-pop slumber yard filled with
the silent choreography of Berlin dance troupe
Sweetie Sit Down. The conjoining of music and
dance was sumptuous. Dancing automata to
McAtamney’s vocals on a recycled stage,
attempting to harmonise the contemporary
world with the ethereal and challenging notions
of individuality, when the music stopped.
‘BlackCatfishMusketeer’ probed the modern
dating scene, dressing the embodied internet as
a mid-twentieth century secretary and web
pages, gifs and links as filing cabinets. Ulti
-
mately showing that the promise of love still
relies on the exchange of letters.
‘To Hell in a Handbag’, written and performed
by Helen Norton and Jonathan White, breathed
new life into Miss Prism and Reverend Canon
Chasuble of ‘Wilde’s The Importance of Being
Earnest’ through the humorous exploration of
corruptible authority. Humorously positing
Miss Prism and the Rev. Canon Chas-
uble as liars, blackmailers and
thieves.
There was comedy too:
Deirdre O'Kane, Jason
Byrne, Alison Spittle, Al
Porter, Joanne McNally,
Lords of Strut and Foil,
Arms and Hog.
These productions are a
snapshot of the Fringe Festival
2016, a staggering body of 72
works by hundreds of artists, organ-
isers and volunteers.
In the year of steady but none too imaginative
1916 commemorations, the Fringe has cascaded,
avalanched an ocean of new work, most of it
overtly political – no doubt a reaction against
the past, indeed against much of the present. It
is a phenomenonal success in the encourage-
ment of more innovative theatre and
performance.
Fringe 2016 energetically sobered up from last
year’s celebrations, rolled up its sleeves and dug
amongst the empty cans and streamers to raise
up a big filthy mirror.
Dublin Fringe
Festival 2016
Dynamic, diverse and
politically right-on
by Matthew Farrelly
We want big nights
out, we want to be
taken to places
we've never been
before
Panti Fringe

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