Projecting into the future

The Project Arts Centre announced its Autumn season over coffee and vanilla custard danishes at Fitzers in Temple Bar this morning, but they'd didn't need to tempt us in with sweeties. There is no doubt that under Fiach Mac Conghail the centre has gone back to its experimental roots, and its new programme is consistently interesting.When Loose Cannon's production of Thomas Kyd's The Spanish Tragedy comes down Barabbas, the innovative clowning company will present a "well-made play", the Whiteheaded Boy by Lennox Robinson (September 15th to October 4th), directedc by Gerard Stembridge and designed by Sean Hillen. During the first week of Dublin Theatre Festival, Project will stage Parallel Lines by Scotland's Theatre Cryptic (October 6th-11th), which exploits both music and visuals to treat Molly Bloom's soliloquy, a show which won a Fringe First at last year's Edinburgh Festival. In the second week, A Border Worrier by that wonderful Northern stand-up-cum-performance artist, John Byrne (October 13th-18th), promises to open a new window on life on the border, and a complimentary Canadian show called Here Lies Henry by Daniel McIvor runs on the same night.On October 24th for two weeks, Dublin Youth Theatre stage Shakespeare's Pericles, directed by Gerard Stembridge, and then the Enda Walsh's magnificent Disco Pigs comes back to Dublin for two weeks (November 10th-15th), a surreal tale of Cork life which has won frothing and foaming reviews in Edinburgh, and goes up this week at the Bush Theatre, London. Late November sees the excellent Coisceim dance company stage a new work by David Bolger, with new music by the superb saxophonist, Ken Edge, and Bedrock Theatre Company stage Quai Quest by Bernard Marie Koltes in December, a play of which I have never heard, which is exactly as it should be.Phone 01-6712321 for details.