Miller provides theatre festival highlight

PLAYWRIGHT Arthur Miller’s participation is one of the highlights of the 2003 Dublin Theatre Festival, running from September 29 to October 11.

Married to screen goddess Marilyn Monroe and celebrated for his groundbreaking work, The Crucible, Miller, for whom theatre was an agent of change, will explore politics and theatre.

How far theatre can or should go in involving itself in the politics of the day is the subject of a two-day conference to be held in Liberty Hall. Among the works to be read are Miller’s Resurrection Blues, a scalding parody on political manipulation.

Festival chairman Peter Crowley said the festival was one of the largest for many years, with over 150 performances. The 45th staging of the festival makes it one of the longest- standing of its kind in Europe.

Three major international directors bring distinctive visions of new works. Robert Lepage returns with The Far Side of the Moon; Spanish director Calixto Bieto updates Shakespeare’s Hamlet; while Rina Yerushalmi’s Mythos, featuring a cast of Arab and Jewish Israelis in an amalgamation of ten Greek plays, gets its Irish premiere.

After last year’s success of John B Keane’s Sive, Druid Theatre presents his most mysterious and mystical play, Sharon’s Grave. Directed by Garry Hynes, the cast includes Catherine Walsh, Tom Hickey and David Herlihy.

The Tivoli is home to Hurl, the story of Ireland first multi-ethnic hurling team, and a modern parable about the confusion and comedy of the unfamiliar. Opera Ireland presents a modern opera based on Roddy Doyle’s The Woman Who Walked into Doors. It features 30 musicians in the orchestra, a soprano, an actress and two giant moving video screens.

The Children’s Season returns to The Ark with productions from South Africa, Portugal, The Netherlands and this country. As part of the season, Tommy Tiernan will perform his new show, Tommy Tiernan’s Original Stories for Children.

Among the fringe attractions is The Famous Spiegeltent, a late-night venue for music, comedy and festival performers and patrons, located at Wolfe Tone Park. Since the early 20th century, spiegeltents have been used as mobile dance halls. Marlene Dietrich used such a stage for her 1930’s rendition of Falling in Love Again.