Seven to see at Dublin Theatre Festival: Blindboy adaptation, Horse of Jenin, and more...

This year's festival features a mix of interesting plays from Ireland and beyond. Here are some of the highlights

Dublin Theatre Festival: Animals is adapted from the writings of Blindboy, while The Horse of Jenin delves into life in a Palestinian refugee camp.

Tue, 22 Sep, 2026 - 21:30

Alan O’Riordan

Animals, Abbey Theatre, Sept 23-Nov 7: Animals do appear in the short stories of Blindboy Boatclub – a donkey stuffed into a hatchback, feral cats – but all of human life is there too; or, at least, a wild, peculiarly Irish version of it. It's work that's never slow to remind us we are animals, too. Blindboy writes with the loquacious energy of Kevin Barry, and a surrealist bent fans of Pat McCabe or Flann O’Brien might recognise. It’s this energy that Dan Colley has decided to “remix” into a stage show. He has good form here. His reimagining of King Lear, Lost Lear, in 2022 was perhaps the highlight of that festival, while 2019's A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings was inspired by a Gabriel Garcia Marquez story.

Cyclone, Sept 21-Oct 10 (various times), Railway Court, Dublin: ANU Productions have been lifting the lid of Dublin's urban history for a long time now. They've taken audiences into the bowels of forgotten buildings, or repurposed landmarks to suit their storytelling needs, including once turning the Peacock into a Turkish baths and Civil War battleground. This year, Louise Lowe and her team take on the story of one of those Dublin “characters” – but a largely forgotten one: Billy 'The Cyclone' Warren. He was an American boxer who became a familiar, if unrecognised, figure in the city, standing for years outside the GPO every day with an advertising sandwich board. No doubt, this will pack a punch.

4.48 Psychosis Project, Cube, Oct 6-11: The extraordinary final work from Sarah Kane is coupled here by Cork director Tom Creed with one of the most extraordinary stage performers of our time, Marty Rea, in a one-man performance. Kane, who died by suicide in 1999, aged just 28, left behind in this text a searing account of her struggles. The title refers to the time she'd often wake up in the throes of her severe depression, and the play, if it can even be called that, is a poetic howl of despair.

Radio Bette, Gaiety Theatre, Sept 23-27: At its best, the Dublin Theatre Festival offers a chance to see exciting international artists and ensembles. This year, the Goat Exchange arrive from (mostly) New York. A collective that works with films, plays, and classic texts, their last piece was a mashup between Jaws and the central section of Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse. Their production for the Dublin festival hit the headlines for the wrong reasons when Irish star Ruth Negga pulled out. But the show, Radio Bette, goes on. It uses a 1951 radio recording of All About Eve as the starting point for an irreverent, playful piece.

A Moon for the Misbegotten, Gaiety Theatre, Oct 1-4: Druid already scored the theatrical hit of the summer with an inspired and revelatory revival of Dion Boucicault's The Shaughraun. Up next is A Moon for the Misbegotten, Eugene O’Neill’s sequel to A Long Day’s Journey Into Night, itself staged in 2007 by Garry Hynes and co, when it starred the Succession actor James Cromwell. The ever-busy Marty Rea takes the role of James Tyrone Jr, to tell the next chapter in his story, and is joined in a typically strong cast by Eileen Walsh, Lorcan Cranitch, Rory Nolan and Cathal Ryan.

The Horse of Jenin, Smock Alley, Sept 24-26: “Palestine Comedy Club” may sound like a dark joke, but really, it’s a testament to the indomitability of the human spirit. This production from them is a coming-of-age tale, set in Jenin and centring around Alaa Shehada's memories of his life there, and the actual horse statue that was built from scrap by a German artist in 2003, and stood until it was toppled by an Israeli tank in 2023. Shehada delivers the show in an interactive, almost stand-up style, which proved a hit at the Edinburgh Fringe last year. The timeliness has not diminished since.

Meredith, Gate Theatre, Sept 30-Nov 1: The Limerick playwright Erica Murray is having quite a moment, with back-to-back Dublin productions coming this autumn and winter. The Abbey's Christmas show will be her play The Magnificent, but in the meantime, the festival is giving audiences a chance to see what all the fuss is about. Murray's latest, Meredith, is a family drama, with a gathering digging up some secrets. A well-worn scenario perhaps, but it’ll all be in the telling, and the performing. And here, the cast features the ever-watchable Fiona Bell and Niall Buggy. Annabelle Comyn directs.