Our flagpole theatre festival is back to thrill, entertain and provoke. We’ll be delving into a few productions in our October issue so it’s worth flagging a few that take to the boards in the opening days. While it’s the work of well-known local theatre companies and directors which usually prove the draws, it’s also worth paying deference to lesser-known international shows which have caught the attention of director Willie White. Fantasia in the Project Arts Centre (Sept 28-29) examines imagination in the context of theatre. It is the work of Polish director, filmmaker, and playwright, Anna Karasińska. Mining Stories, also in the Project (Sept 28-30), is a documentary theatre performance based around the fallout of a collapsed dam in Brazil which contained waste from a nearby mine. Multiverse in the Samuel Beckett (Sept 27-29) sees Louis Vanhaverbeke play a multifunctional DJ in a humorous catherine-wheel of song, dance and invention.