NEWSLETTER
14 April 2025
THE 22nd FESTIVAL IS ON,
AND YOU ARE WELCOME!
Once again the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival is proud to present a spectacular array of performances. And this time we’re breaking out of the box. Not only are we breaking out of our logo box by starting a week before the traditional May Bank Holiday start, but we’re including a new type of performance: cinema combined with live action! See the information about the new Trash Cinema Club, below.
We’re also introducing a Festival Pass and a VIP Pass, both of which let you see all shows in the Festival while supporting all our performers and the Festival.
On the May Bank Holiday, May 5, you can see FOUR plays for just €45 (two matinee performances at €10 each and two evening shows for only €25). Discounts will be applied automatically when you book online at gaytheatre.ie or you can purchase tickets at the door.
TRASH CINEMA CLUB
STARTS SUNDAY 27 APRIL
Rock Bottom Saloon, an experimental theatre group who embrace unconventional, boundary-pushing projects, introduce “Trash Cinema Club,” an immersive, communal experience that celebrates the subversive, irreverent world of "bad films" or "paracinema." We take a distinctly queer, oppositional stance against mainstream "taste," creating a space where failure, excess, and absurdity are not just embraced but also celebrated as artistic choices.
27 April @8:00 Join us for a celebration of Ed Wood's filmography. Derided as the worst filmmaker of all time and championed as a pioneer of trash, Ed Wood's work is low-budget, chaotic, queer, disruptive and, most of all, entertaining. Featuring a special drag performance by character comedian Goblins Goblins Goblins and tunes frm DJ Kwoo.
4 May @ 8:00 The dolls are calling and they need their grooviest recruits! Join Rock Bottom Saloon and Sasha Shame as they present the inaugural Dolls Pageant, a night to celebrate transness in tandem with the sexploitation genre of trash cinema. Customise your own doll to participate in the pageant and after you lose, console yourself with Russ Meyer's most infamous picture and tunes from DJ Kwoo.
11 May @ 8:00 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. With, you guessed it, tunes from DJ Kwoo!
Trash Cinema Club runs a different programme each Sunday April 27 through May 11. Performances will start at 8:00 each week at the Pearse Centre, 27 Pearse Street, D02 K037. Tickets are €12, and available at the door or at our online box office.
NEW VIP AND FESTIVAL PASSES
NOW AVAILABLE
VIP and Festival passes are available this year! Each pass gives you access to every show, including Trash Cinema Club and the Festival Gala on May 18. Each pass includes additional benefits, detailed on our web site. Support all our performers and the Festival with a 2025 pass.
FESTIVAL PROGRAMME RELEASED
AND THE ONLINE BOX OFFICE OPEN
On Thursday 3 April Izzy Kamikaze, Lifelong Queer Activist, enthralled a crowd at the Dublin Georgian Society as she launched the 22nd Annual Festival. At that time the Festival programme was released and the online box office was opened. In addition to the Trash Cinema Club performances mentioned above, the programme includes eight plays from Canada, Iran, Ireland, the UK, and the US.
Week 1
Monday through Saturday May 5 to 10; Matinees on Monday and Saturday
Stealing Stories Ireland 7:30 pm / 2:30 pm
Oh! I Miss the War UK 7:30 pm / 2:30 pm
Iggy Beamish Destroys Traditional Marriage Canada 9:00 pm / 4:00 pm
The Strange Case of Dr. Dillon UK 9:00 pm / 4:00 pm
Week 2
Monday through Saturday May 12 to 17; Matinees on Saturday only
Typewriters and Paintbrushes Ireland 7:30 pm / 2:30 pm
The Little Black Fish Iran 7:30 pm / 2:30 pm
Homo(sapien) Ireland/UK 9:00 pm / 4:00 pm
It Goes Without Saying USA 9:00 pm / 4:00 pm
Major funding for the International Dublin Gay Theatre Festival comes from
