Why are there tiny tents near Dublin’s Dame Street?

Trophy
Barnardo Square, Dame Street
★★★★

Part art installation, part episodic performance, Trophy has a simple premise. In each of nine white tents in Barnardo Square, a storyteller will tell you about a moment in their lives that fundamentally changed them. They then ask a question, which you can answer by writing on a piece of transparent coloured plastic that is then hung in the tent.

Centred on a shared experience of change, the storytellers cover topics from homelessness to addiction to power to cronyism to sexuality to feminism to broken dreams. It’s intimate: not only are the storytellers talking about deeply personal moments of transformation in their own lives, something about the closeness of the tiny tents feels safe from a loud, busy Saturday night on Dame Street, and your fellow “audience” members end up wanting to reveal quite personal experiences of their own.

There’s no pressure to contribute but the questions are thought provoking. Even if you don’t have an answer in the moment, they will stick with you long after you leave your last tent. It’s entertaining, insightful and you can expect to come away feeling very acutely reminded of our shared humanity.

• Runs until Sept 11