“That anticipation, when the lights go down and the hush descends – that is the best bit.”
Willie White is in his last few months as Artistic Director and Chief Executive of Dublin Theatre Festival, but there’s no sign of a dip in the reverence he holds for live theatre when we speak in early September. In fact, there’s no sign of a dip in anything he does; we meet on a Tuesday, and he tells me that a primary concern is completing the festival’s Arts Council application before the end of the week.
Today, though, his focus is on this year’s festival, happening across 18 days (26 September-13 October) and in 20 venues running from Blanchardstown to Dún Laoghaire, and from Tallaght to Ballymun. The festival is international in scope, diverse in programming, and it’s not difficult to get caught up in the evident love he has for the work that is being showcased. I first ask what overarching themes he intends the festival to address.
“The accent in general is on trying to find contemporary projects, works that look and feel like they could only be made today, made by both emerging and established artists”. He’s keen to stress that this doesn’t just refer to Irish playwrights and theatre-makers – the festival has an international reach, with works programmed from the UK, continental Europe, and North America, alongside works that speak to global issues.
Among these is Things Hidden Since the Foundation of the World (10-12 October), the story of an Iranian dissident and singer who was disappeared in 1990s Germany which White calls “an exploration of the Internet, and how we know what we know”, and is part-true crime podcast, part-performance, and part-lecture. He is also excited by the prospect of DARKMATTER (1-2 October) by Dutch artist Cherish Menzo, and keen to see it reach a new audience, as a dance piece that challenges colonial mindsets.
Noting the support in Ireland for the Palestinian cause, he speaks about A Knock on the Roof (9-12 October)¸ a solo show starring and written by Khawla Ibraheem, a Palestinian artist living in the occupied Golan Heights. The explanation of the title is jarring, yet retrospectively obvious: “The idea is that when the Israeli Defence Forces are going to bomb you, they send a small one first – a warning bomb, a “knock on the roof”, so called”. He calls it a “personal account of a pretty grim situation”, but assures me that it retains a solid core of humour.
White speaks about Benji Reed’s Find Your Eyes (10-12 October) in an awestruck tone, both excited and impressed, in a way it’s hard to imagine he does often. “It’s just gorgeous, it’s stunning,” he tells me, shaking his head. “It’s a beautiful, affecting hip-hop theatre piece”. While he acknowledges that “any description I give won’t do it justice”, his way of speaking about it is endorsement enough, and should be for anyone interested in photography, dance, music, and theatre, with the performance containing element of each.
The festival retains a strong Irish core, though, with productions from and speaking to multiple generations – late works by Brian Friel and Tom Murphy, Molly Sweeney (1-6 October) and The House (26 September-6 October) ensure that canonical writers are represented, but there is also Mark O’Rowe’s new play, Reunion (8-13 October), which is brutal, funny, contemporary, and will be relatable to anyone who’s ever had a family dinner argument spiral violently out of control. From Belfast’s Lyric Theatre, Owen McCafferty’s Agreement (27 September-13 October) recreates the final negotiations and signing of the Good Friday Agreement, with real-life politicians including Bertie Ahern, Tony Blair, Mo Mowlam, and David Trimble featuring as characters.
White is believable when he says that he’s not thinking about what he’ll be doing in autumn 2025, and it’s clear that for him, leaving the festival in the best shape possible is his priority. The key to Dublin’s continuing success as an international theatre city, he says, is making the scene look and feel more like the city already does, at its best – multicultural, vibrant, and assertive in how outward-looking it is.
“If you look at a theatre programme, you think, what’s that, who’s that, what are they doing? What do the images look like, who’s on stage? What are they talking about? The audiences are there, artists bring them with them, and it’s our job to find and develop and support these artists”.
To this end, he’s keen to impress some initiatives the festival runs each year to encourage audiences and artists to get involved – 10 for €10 allocates a certain number of tickets for under-30s, artists, arts workers and unwaged people; All In aims to bring people from diverse backgrounds to experience live theatre; and there are programmes in place to seek greater collaboration with the four suburban venues, to help ensure that the festival isn’t regarded as a city centre-exclusive event.
Dublin Theatre Festival is 20 days of some of the most challenging, groundbreaking, and mesmerising national and international work that we get a chance to see. The glory of theatre, as White says, is the anticipation that anything can happen onstage – “That anticipation, when the lights go down and the hush descends – that is the best bit”.
This year, give yourself the chance to get that feeling; you never know where it will take you.
Words: Ciaran Leinster
Image Credits:
Reunion by Mark O’Rowe, image by Kris Askey
Willie White by Ruth Medjber
Find Your Eyes by Benji Reed – image by Oluwatosin Daniju
The Jesus Trilogy by JM Coetzee adapted by Eoghan Quinn and Annabelle Comyn by Once Off Productions
Dublin Theatre Festival takes place throughout the city from Thursday September 26th – Sunday October 13th. Tickets and info: dublintheatrefestival.ie
Further Reading…
Our preview of Dublin Theatre Festival 2024 is here.
