Out and about
FROM drag queens to the coming-out of TV star Eilish O’Carroll (Mrs Brown’s Boys), the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival (May 7-20) has something for everyone. The festival, with 22 shows, is “not for the ghetto,” says artistic director, Brian Merriman. “It’s for the gay and straight community. About 50% of our audience and producers are straight. The festival is an intercultural dialogue. It’s us presenting ourselves as citizens of a pluralist democracy. We’re telling our stories in our own city as part of completing its cultural map. The gay community is our bedrock, but it’s fully understood that we are out in the mainstream.”
The festival, now in its ninth year, was established by Merriman to promote awareness. With a background in musical theatre, he had played Oscar Wilde in an Irish musical, A Chelsea Affair, in 2000. He then completed a master’s degree in equality studies at UCD.
