2011 Programme | ABSOLUT Fringe 2011

Man of Valour

★★★★★, Irish Examiner From the creative team behind the acclaimed Freefall (Best Play, Best Director, Irish Times Theatre Awards...

Pop Centre Plus

★★★★ entertainment.ie If you’re precious about your pop you’d better steer clear, Frisky and Mannish are going to take your...

BLOW Photo Magazine

Check out BLOW Photo Magazine's ABSOLUT Fringe special editions here: Blow Magazine & ABSOLUT Fringe 2011 A special limited...

All Things Considered it’s a Nice Place to Start

Last month 300 strangers throughout the 32 counties received thank-you cards from us. We wanted to reach out so we wrote to them. Because...

Jumping Off the Earth

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED Space is big. Too damn big. We’ve been trying to measure it though. We’ve got telescopes, spaceships and...

The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik: Deep Sea Explorer

SOLD OUT A tiny tale set in the deepest dark blue sea of a solitary explorer with a heart as big as a whale. Seas have risen, billions...

I Like This

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED Australia’s Chunky Move has earned an enviable reputation for producing a distinct, unpredictable brand of...

The Year of Magical Wanking

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED Neil Watkins has wanked more than is healthy, allegedly. One of Ireland’s most exciting artists and incendiary...

Our Father

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED ★★★★ Irish Theatre Magazine A play about family, loss and moving on. Through rap and...

The Yellow Wallpaper

SOLD OUT ★★★★ Irish Theatre Magazine This might be a ghost story. Worse yet, it might not. The dark corners of the theatre...

Luca & the Sunshine

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED ★★★★★ IRISH THEATRE MAGAZINE: "Skillfully balancing subtlety with emotional punch, John...

Seeing and Dreaming

★★★★ Irish Theatre Magazine Two magically sensitive, visually delicious portraits of life over eighty, told with rhythm,...

Rogue

★★★★ entertainment.ie "a bona fide treasure trove of comedic material" Greetings Audience! Does the creeping stench of...

SWITCHED ON

SWITCHED ON is a series of music events specially curated by Darren McCreesh, where you’ll experience eclectic expressions of ‘the new...

ÜLTRAKUGEL

Twinkranes | Bruno Spoerri (CH)| Anworth Kirk & Demdike Stare (UK) Support: Somadrone, B-Music DJs Irish debut for Swiss electronic...

ARCADIAN SONGBOOK

Serafina Steer (UK) | Katie Kim | Lispector (FR) When not performing with the likes of Patrick Wolf, Serafina Steer writes ethereal and...

Hand Me Down The Moon

You don’t have to let go of your dreams. In a timeless old house on Eustace Street a ten-year old, space-obsessed girl wants you to...

The Bright Side of the Moon

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED As a child, Lucy admired the evil Queen far more than the fairy princess. Who held the keys to the kingdom? Who...

Barroco

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED ★★★★★, Irish Times, 18/09/11 Dave Brubeck's famous jazz compositions, with their irregular,...

Chesslaugh Mewash

...is how to pronounce the name of Polish poet Czesław Miłosz. Reveal the sham. Lift the mask. The writing’s on the wall. On your...

Does Anybody Ever

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED ★★★★, Irish Theatre Magazine Three grown up children are living in a black box. They’re sitting in...

Do You Read Me?

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED We've walked away from the church, we still don’t trust the Dáil and we’re hiding our money under our...

Amy, I want to make you hard

We're Katie and Sinéad. We're friends, well, as friendly as two women can be. Growing up in the country, breaking out, going back, finding...

Paperdolls

SOLD OUT ★★★★ Irish Times Stumble upon a dark pathway, twisting and turning to a hidden world where beautiful and unsettling...

Eternal rising of the Sun

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED ★★★★, Irish Theatre Magazine To err is human, to dance divine. Meet Gina,...

Love Songs For Losers

Rock bottom rules. Life is shit. Staying in tune is optional. Set in a backstreet bar room, this confessional play combines theatre,...

A Lost Opera

Three women in a darkened theatre perform a compellingly illogical dance. As if lightly blown onto stage, with a quick glamorous saunter,...

FM Belfast

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED The glacially cool electro-pop explosion that is FM Belfast are back from Reykjavik after ripping up our...

Three Men Talking About Things They Kinda Know About

★★★★ Irish Times Admit it. our heads are totally wrecked. And we kinda want to talk about it. All of the things that shaped us...

On the edge of things is a fierce beauty

SOLD OUT. RESCHEDULED: Now happening on Sunday September 25th at 7pm at The National Museum of Ireland, Collins Barracks. Tickets...

Last Year

Uncertain of habit, with far-away eyes, who dribbles her food and makes no reply. Is that what you're thinking, is that what you see? Then...

Bás Tongue

Mother Tongue is in the emergency ward; each focal ag cryáil amach for the kiss of life. In this bilingual exploration of the fragile soul...

FOLLOW

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED ★★★★★, Irish Theatre Magazine Shane's parents are deaf. He grew up in a house with doorbell lights...

Happening

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED Five actors occupy a suite in the Dublin Gresham for 12 hours. This is a true story; we’ve seen it on YouTube....

In My Bed

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED ★★★★★ Irish Times, 13/09/11 I have no bed. I’m an adult woman without a bed. I’m making a new one...

Body Electric

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED ★★★★ Irish Theatre Magazine Heart beating. Blood pumping. Lungs filling with air. We are up and...

You Can’t Just Leave — There’s Always Something

Ghosts live a long time. Houses full of drafts and hums, of late night cliques and early showers, of mugs and chips and old wounds. “What...

The Wheelchair On My Face: A look back at a myopic childhood

★★★★ Irish Theatre Magazine "This is perhaps more monologue than show, but – aided by director Gina Moxley – Kelly's...

Dreams of Love

★★★ Irish Theatre Magazine We stage scenes of spectacular love. Scenes of romance downloaded from pop-culture are transposed to...

Floor It

Sound is a physical thing and it touches you softly. Lie on your back, close your eyes and open your ears. You are at the centre of...

Pop Céilí & ROCKEROKE

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED Scrap all the céilís you've (n)ever been to. After a brilliant inaugural season including Electric Picnic,...

Where do I start?

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED ★★★★, Irish Theatre Magazine Nyree is supposed to be Armenian, but she is Irish. An Irish-Armenian has...

Better Loved From Afar

★★★★ entertainment.ie "An intelligent insight into a fascinating slice of our history – you are bound to enjoy losing yourself in...

That’s About The Size of It

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED Niamh says that science is everywhere, even in public parks. She says that we are all composed of atoms;...

Welcome to the Forty Foot

SOLD OUT What do you get if you throw yourself into the Irish Sea 365 days of the year? Famous as a 'men-only bathing area' before being...

Whenever I Get Blown Up I Think Of You

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED How does it feel to have your world blown apart? Britain is booming and Molly moves to London from deepest...

When Irish Hearts are Praying

“Being religious means having an order. Something to live for. It is hope." (17 year-old Irish schoolgirl) In less than a century...

Bird with boy

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED In one buried room, twenty boys are running. Our hands are dirty. A performance dance installation made from...

maKe, i mean

★★★★ Irish Times ★★★★ Irish Theatre Magazine With the delightful possibility that they have nothing in common at all,...

Prêt-à-médiatiser

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED Fashion spectacle extraordinaire, this new production plays with the rhetoric of live performance in a...

Gretta Gunn

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED Exploding  from  the  trenches  to  make  the  ears  race!  Gretta  Gunn brings  a...

Intimacy

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED Our friends reflect who we want to be, our acquaintances who we might become, our families who we were. But...

No Man’s Land

No man is an island… and yet we’ve all had dreams of escaping to one. After the huge success of last year’s LiffeyTown, artist...

David O’Doherty presents: Rory Sheridan’s Tales of the Antarctica

SOLD OUT. Check out our other comedy shows or browse the entire festival programme based on what you're interested in. Lisa Richards...

Autobiographer

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED Melanie Wilson wraps her audience in a tender, poetic and thrilling new work, featuring a bold and...

WILD COMBINATION

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED Spilly Walker | TR-ONE | Angkorwat | David Kitt & Broken Audio Movement (DJ set) Distilling 30 years of...

Twenty Ten

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED ★★★★, Irish Theatre Magazine A lot happened to us in 2010, and now it’s all happening all over...

MaDam

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED Playing is easy for children. But somewhere along the way, we lose touch with this ability. We become very good...

Heidi and the Bear

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED Love me, one last time, as much as you can. A dark psychosexual tale of forbidden love and our capacity to...

Pocket Music

“It will be a triumph. Better than a triumph. It will be a defining moment. It will be a whole new chapter. It will be like a pair of...

DJ Kormac AV Set

Turntablist extraordinaire, scratch master and visual manipulator DJ Kormac plays the last gig of the festival, meaning it’s your last...

Cult

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED ★★★★, Irish Theatre Magazine Five devotees wake up in a remote barn following their cults mass...

WHAT ARE POETS FOR (in a destitute time)?

Ireland is once again demoralised. The blame this time is our own. Old enmities are gone, old stories remain. But have the poets and...

The Flamboyant Bird

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED ★★★★, Irish Theatre Magazine Cork’s so hot the air was bent. Terry’s still dropping from the...

MAN-I-PULATE

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED In the heartlands the heart is huge. A wonderfully chaotic amalgamation of music, dance, juggling and the...

Criminal Queers

★★★★ Irish Theatre Magazine A loose alliance of lovely outlaws raid the literary and cinematic archives and invite you to...

Seekers

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED We bend over backwards. We stretch ourselves, aiming for a well-paid job and a comfortable life. We're...

Pope Benedict: Bond Villain

Pope Benedict has a creepy voice, a priceless art collection and diplomatic immunity. His real name is ‘Ratzinger'. And he heads a...

It’s Your Turn To Change Daddy

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED 1958. Mary and Paddy met. They did everything that couples do; fell in love, got married, had a baby. Then...

My Word is My Bond

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED Tired of the same old group dynamics, six members of a writers’ group and their mentor ditch their attempts at...

Gis a Shot of Your Bongos Mister

★★★★ Irish Theatre Magazine Bala is a celebrity, the first African man in Dublin's Fatima Mansions. Chico falls in love with...

New Play Reading – Shaun Dunne

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED Rough Magic Theatre Company's SEEDS Programme is a pioneering, structured development initiative for emerging...

New Play Reading – Mark Cantan

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED Rough Magic Theatre Company's SEEDS Programme is a pioneering, structured development initiative for emerging...

Little Bear Big Apple

Inspired by the enormously successful runaway smash hits The Book Of Kells and The Argos Catalogue, this delightfully funny and...

The Lost Fashion History of South William Street

Did you know that South William Street has had a thriving fashion community for over a century? It was Dublin’s garment district where...

The Lament for Arthur Cleary by Dermot Bolger

A searing examination of Ireland in the 1980s - its moneylenders, its unemployment, its exhausting and debilitating...

Love Child by Gerry Stembridge

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED Written in response to the famous X case, when a young girl who became pregnant following a rape, was refused...

Down Onto Blue by Pom Boyd

Dissatisfaction is added to old wounds and large quantities of duty-free, as an emigrant daughter's long-awaited return home shatters...

Digging for Fire by Declan Hughes

Seven old friends from the class of '83 get together to talk about old times. But nostalgia is no match for disillusionment, and as the...

Dead Cool DJ Set

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED DEAD COOL (Dj Ronan Leonard) will R.I.P. up a set of records where the main person is no longer on this mortal...

Moths & Rarely Seen Above Ground

THIS SHOW IS NOW FINISHED Kilkenny born multi-instrumentalist Jeremy Hickey (AKA Rarely Seen Above Ground) brings his spectacular live...

Dead Cat Bounce: Bootlegs

After a riotous tour of the world’s comedy and music festivals, this award-winning Irish rock comedy outfit present a hectic and sweaty...

Information Toolbox

ABSOLUT Fringe Club, Fri 16th @9am. €20 per person, €35 for two people from the same organisation. Book your place directly...

COROKINESIS: the 2nd Experimental Evensong

Imagine if sound could move through space in the same way as a dancer’s body. Picture an ancient ritual combined with cutting-edge vocal...

ABSOLUT Fringe Contemporary Performing Arts Symposium

ABSOLUT Fringe is delighted to present some of Ireland’s brightest artists in an animated discussion about their work, what drives them...

I am afraid…

There is a feeling of fear and uncertainty in our country. Some people are afraid of losing their jobs, afraid of not being able to pay...

The Sock Exchange

Dare to darn and claim your free ‘Darning needle for life’ in this mass darning event. Darn your way out of the economic crisis and...

Changing Room

What are you looking at? Embrace your inner voyeur and explore the uneasy relationship between the digital and real worlds. Visit one city...