EXHIBITION | 4-8, 13-15, 27-30 Jul
Temple Bar: Before The Renaissance
Banquet Hall
Step back in time and discover a very different Temple Bar.
Before it became Dublin’s cultural quarter, Temple Bar was a neighbourhood of traders, workshops, markets, vacant buildings and everyday city life. Through a fascinating collection of historic photographs from the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, this exhibition captures a district on the cusp of transformation.
THEATRE / COMEDY / IMPROVISATION | 13 Jul
Impro Jackpot
Grand Stretch
Main Space
It Could Be You! Potluck theatre that brings the audience into play. A lottery of improv games. Spontaneous performances. And a prize to be won! Once you’ve booked your ticket, you’re already in it to win it!
Hosted by Darren Yorke—award-winning theatre-maker, creative facilitator, and the playmaker behind Grand Stretch. Impro Jackpot can be beginners’ luck. No experience necessary. Just pure, unadulterated play, where risk meets reward in a room full of people willing to take a chance on us. It’s all to play for.
CABARET | 18 Jul
THE EGGS FACTOR
EGG CABARET
Main Space
Have you got the EGGS FACTOR? Welcome to the only reality tv talent show turned dazzling cabaret eggstravaganza. Featuring the finest cabaret stars and special guests in Dublin- no, the WORLD. You better believe you’re in for a night of pure camp feral FUN. It’s a yes from us! It’s giving glitz, it’s giving sob stories, it’s giving DJ Cheryl Cole on the decks.
DANCE | 18 Jul
Cycles
Bare.Feet Bellydance Company
Boys’ School
Every woman. Every phase. Every cycle.
Through powerful ensemble work and expressive storytelling, Bare.Feet Belly Dance Company navigates the spaces between departure and return, stillness and motion, loss and renewal. A performance that invites reflection while leaving room for interpretation.
COMEDY | 23 Jul
Immigrants Ruin This Country LIVE!
Daniel Lukas and James Surgeoner
Banquet Hall
Ireland’s last hope: Five immigrant comedians.
A satirical comedy panel show about Ireland. The Irish government has tasked five immigrants with saving a country in ruins, this show is the result.
THEATRE | 25 Jul
Apocalypse How?
The Doomslayers (Annie Queeries, Donna Fella & Laylah Beattie)
Main Space
After a sold out run at Dublin Fringe Festival 2025, Apocalypse How? makes its triumphant return to Smock Alley.
Come along, release your inhibitions, feel the (acid) rain on your skin and follow our unlikely Queeroes on a journey of self-discovery as they realise that maybe they do have what it takes to survive, thrive and energetically jive their way through Doomsday.
THEATRE | 28 Jul – 1 Aug
Making A Show of Myself
Mary Kate O Flanagan
Boys’ School
Fresh from a critically acclaimed sellout run off-Broadway, nominated for Best Solo Performance by The New York Critics Outer Circle Awards, this is pure distilled theatre. Mary Kate O Flanagan tells six of the tales that made her a Grand Slam Champion Storyteller at The Moth on two continents, while making a case for why understanding how storytelling works will change your life.
IMPROV / MUSICAL THEATRE | 30 Jul
Lost the Plot: An Improvised Musical
Lost Improv
Main Space
Always the world’s newest musical! Every line of dialogue, note on the piano and catchy chorus is fully improvised. Will our hero save the day? Find true love? Face their fears? Run away to join the circus? We don’t know either.
THEATRE | 7 + 8 Aug
Underdog: The Other Other Brontë
Bridging the Gap
Boys’ School
You know their books but do you know the sisters? The fights and friction, the love and loss. Follow Charlotte Brontë as she navigates the rise to fame and glory for her and the Brontë sisters whilst juggling family, ambition and loss.
MUSIC | 20 Aug
‘horses’ EP Launch
Cormac Looby & Pádraig Hughes
Boys’ School
Singer-songwriter Cormac Looby and Galway producer Pádraig Hughes bring their horses EP launch tour to Smock Alley Theatre with support from Róisín Gowen. This collaborative project tackles themes of anxiety, growth and loss with heavy influence from artists like Phoebe Bridgers, Samia and Ben Howard.
MUSICAL THEATRE | 27 – 29 Aug
Temple Bar: The Musical
Molly Mew
Main Space
On one fateful St Patrick’s day, Sonny McNamara is tasked with 7 gigs to play around Temple Bar. Everything that can go wrong will go wrong, however the show must go on.
DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL | 5 – 8, 11 + 12 Sep
Not My Real Accent
Sadhbh McLoughlin
Boys’ School
From Belgian chocolates to hot chicken rolls, after 10 years Sadhbh can finally pronounce her name right. Well, sort of…
DUBLIN FRINGE FESIVAL| 5 – 8, 10 + 12 Sep
Ratling
Genevieve Hulme-Beaman
The Black Box
Jacky keeps her house immaculate, her routine rigid and her diet exclusively Special K Red Berries. When something sinister scuttles its way into the safe haven of her Donegal home, she is rattled to her bones.
DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL | 6 – 9 Sep
Chronically Hopeful
Musici Ireland
Main Space
Blending live music, movement, text and striking visual design, and created by artists living with chronic illness and unseen disability, this immersive performance reveals the hidden, often messy truth behind “I’m fine”.
DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL | 6 + 7, 9 – 11 Sep
MERCURIAL
Rosaleen Cox, Serpentine Productions & 19th Street Productions
Boys’ School
Crocodiles. Colin Farrell’s eyebrows. Welcome to a one night stand gone full-on rogue.
A twisted, darkly comedic two-hander about toxic love and our fear of ending up alone, this sharp, warped and hilarious play asks: how far will we go to feel wanted?
DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL | 6 – 9, 11 Sep
SUPLEX
Jaxbanded Theatre
The Black Box
Meet Danu, a trans woman who picked a terrible name, as she traverses the sissy, cissy world of wrestling, confronts shadows from her past, and tries to excel in the sport she absolutely loves, despite it not loving her back.
DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL | 8 – 12 Sep
DADDY ISSUES
Brigid Leahy | Presented by LemonSoap Productions
Main Space
Abigail is carrying the cloned fetus of Abraham Lincoln.
Joan is carrying the cloned fetus of Michael Collins.
They are making the future, making change, making…reality television. The cameras are rolling.
DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL| 8 – 10, 12 + 13 Sep
Mam and Love and Woo
Liam McCarthy
Boys’ School
Mam is worried her son is spending too much time alone.
So worried in fact, she hasn’t left the house in six weeks either.
Coping with the death of a loved one, their quiet lives are upended when a well-meaning community volunteer barrels into their world.
DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL| 9 – 12 Sep
Dead In Here
Theatre Giovanni
The Black Box
The old world is dying… A group of friends escape to a countryside manor for the weekend.
They dance. They drink. They fight.
They do anything to distract themselves from the absolute state of the world.
But something is listening from below.
DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL | 10 – 12 Sep
The Boxes
Yves Lorrhan & Inner Man Community
Main Space
A raw and honest fusion of dance and physical theatre, directed by Yves Lorrhan, who also performs alongside members of the Inner Man community group. This group is dedicated to exploring male identity and social expectations, and this new work puts their lived experience centre stage.
DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL | 14 Sep
TenderWRITE
Tenderfoot: Plays By & For Young People
Main Space
TenderWRITE invites you to see the world through the eyes of our youngest artists, playwrights aged 16 – 24, illuminating the here and the bang up to now! Stories to shine light on what it’s like to try to hope for a future when the world all around is spinning. Spinning fast. Spinning furiously. Spinning dangerously out of control.
DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL| 14 – 16 Sep
This Genuinely Did Happen
Ryan Carrick
Main Space
Join Ryan Carrick as he sacrifices his pride to make you laugh. His debut show is packed with stories so hilarious, awkward and wild you’d think he’d made them up… but every word is true.
DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL| 15 – 19 Sep
Across The Fence
Thomas Collins
Boys’ School
Jimmy is a Traveller man, Aoife is a young settled girl. Through small conversations, silences and quiet moments, their relationship begins to challenge the divisions between them. As their worlds overlap, questions of prejudice, identity and trust come to the surface.
DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL | 15 – 19 Sep
Please Break My Heart
NAF Dance
The Black Box
Taylor Swift. Shakespeare. Jane Austen. Bridget Jones. All made great art from love and heartbreak. So naturally, the next step is to get your heart broken on purpose for material.
DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL | 16 – 19 Sep
BUTCH
Crithir Productions
Boys’ School
What is a butch lesbian? What do they look like? Why do they love Subarus so much?
Worry not, YD is here to answer all.
Watch her record her latest and greatest video essay, tracing the history of gender non-conformity and highlighting notable gender-benders of the past as she goes.
DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL | 16 – 19 Sep
GRETEL
TAN & JWY
The Black Box
Hansel and Gretel, reimagined for the concrete jungle.
Homes don’t hold. Rules don’t always stick. A sofa appears. A bag must be carried. Two young people navigate a city where survival is learned and protection isn’t guaranteed. Bass travels, the story shifts and the audience begins to question what they believe in.
DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL| 17 – 19 Sep
Johnny Hollywood
John Spillane
Main Space
What do cult classics, family favourites and action-packed thrillers have in common? They all need a John Spillane makeover.
Dublin Fringe Festival award winner John Spillane is remaking his favourite films… and casting himself in the lead!
DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL | 17 – 19 Sep
Welcome to Traumatraum
Speckintime
Main Space
A broken dancer’s body won’t move the way it used to.
A boy’s limp threatens to end his dream of playing football for Ireland.
A banjaxed clown has more bulging discs than a weightlifter.
This trio find themselves trapped in a warped trauma dream, where the only way out is head on.
MUSIC / COMEDY / SPOKEN WORD | 6 + 7 Nov
Thrum
Daniel Kitson
Main Space
There’s a duty to act and there’s a resistance to growth and there’s a new place up the road and there’s a completely redundant volume control. There’s a toilet in Hong Kong and a coffee shop in Melbourne and the passage of light through a building and deliberately making things much more difficult than they actually need to be.
And.
There’s music, more or less throughout, at least two funny voices and upwards of three jokes.