NEWSLETTER
5 May 2025
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
THE 22nd FESTIVAL STARTS NOW!
 
 
Week 1 starts strong with shows from Canada, Ireland, and the United Kingdom. All performances are at the Teachers' Club, 36 Parnell Square West, Dublin D01 T6V6. Bar service available before and after each show, so come early and have a drink! As a reminder, you can see all four shows today or Saturday for just €45! Tickets for all shows will be avilable at the door. We accept cash, cards, or contactlesss payments at the door.
 
 
Stealing Stories
 
Who has the right to tell a story? When Gavin offers to help his writer friend, Robbie, work on a new novel with a queer theme, Robbie is initially reluctant. As a straight cis man he fears he will be accused of appropriation but is reassured by Gavin, a cis gay man, that writers should be able to write anything they like. But when an offer to publish the emerging novel comes, the question of who the story belongs to threatens to tear Gavin and Robbie’s friendship apart.
 
Matinees on Bank Holiday Monday and Saturday at 2:30 pm. All seats 10
Monday-Saturday evenings at 7:30. Seats 15 / 13 conc.
 
Oh! I Miss the War
1967. London, England. Sodomy decriminalized! Sort of. Jack, aging tailor to the chorus boys of the West End, watches the new generation celebrate, and laments that they will never know the outlaw happiness he knew as a youthful rentboy.
2022. Toronto, Canada. Kink night! Sort of. Matt, a service bottom with failing knees, tries to find an erotic connection with puppies and a political connection with pronoun-careful Gen Zeds.
Recalling hankies and Polari, busbies and chaps, rent boys and faeries, tea rooms and back rooms, love and death, they each bring the past to the present and celebrate the future. Sex, pleasure, kink, shame. God. During the Blitz. During the Plague. And after. A hundred year sliver of queer history, work, and hope in less than an hour!
Matinees on Bank Holiday Monday and Saturday at 2:30 pm. All seats 10
Monday-Saturday evenings at 7:30. Seats 15 / 13 conc.
Iggy Beamish Destroys Traditional Marriage
Iggy Beamish makes a dubious living officiating straight weddings while doing everything in his power to avoid the reality of his own gay divorce. Our hero bravely explores the gulf between homo and hetero matrimony—and marriage may never be the same. Now if he can just find a decent place to live, a reliable way to make money, and a way to avoid thinking about the worst mistake he ever made, everything should be golden! Join Iggy on a journey from Toronto’s jubilant queer nightlife scene to its nightmarish real estate market; from gay husbands to heteroflexible hook-ups; from “the happiest day of your life” to rock bottom.
 
Matinees on Bank Holiday Monday and Saturday at 4:00 pm. All seats 10
Monday-Saturday evenings at 9:00. Seats 15 / 13 conc.
The Strange Case of Dr. Dillon
 
From 1915 to 1940, Michael Dillon struggled against a world that insisted he was a girl. The only way he could live a full life was to invent gender affirming care for trans men. Hormone and surgical treatments developed by and for Dillon, in partnership with eminent plastic surgeon Sir Harold Gillies, are now established best practices for the global medical community. Body aligned, he began work on his soul. Heart-break, world travel, and life as a Buddhist monk followed.
 
Follow Michael's journey from his childhood in south England, through his medical training in Dublin and transition, to the Merchant Navy and Buddhist monasteries in India. Michael's autobiography, finished shortly before his death, was discovered by biographer Liz Hodgkinson, who first shared his story in 1989. Dillon's extraordinary life is brought to the stage by an all-trans cast. 
 
Matinees on Bank Holiday Monday and Saturday at 4:00 pm. All seats 10
Monday-Saturday evenings at 9:00. Seats 15 / 13 conc.
 
 
 
 
 
SEE OUR FULL LINEUP OF SHOWS
AND PURCHASE TICKETS ONLINE
 
We have an exciting lineup of 34 performances from April 27 through May 18. Find the full schedule on our website. Most performances are €15 (€13 concs), but matinees on May 5, 10, and 17 are only €10. See two shows on the same night for €25. And, of course, Trash Cinema Club performaces are only €12. Book your tickets now at gaytheatre.ie.
 
 
SUNDAY: TRASH CNEMA CLUB SALUTES JOHN WATES
 
Celebrate the iconic "trash" cinema director John Waters with an immersive night of his subversive works, featuring a special talk by queer academic and artist Martin Kenny, a PhD candidate in Drama & Theatre Studies, who specialises in queer theory and hauntology. Martin, a DruidFUEL Artist for 2025, will delve into the radical aesthetic of Waters’ films and their impact on queer culture and cinematic subversion.
 
 

 
Major funding for the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival comes from