Tiger Dublin Fringe takes to the tents and trees to mark its 21st birthday

With venues as diverse as tents and trees, the Tiger Dublin Fringe is celebrating its 21st birthday in style in September.

The annual festival has put an old favourite at the heart of its 2015 programme. For the first time since 2009, the Spiegeltent is coming back to Dublin, with Wolfe Tone Square hosting it for the duration.

Top of its bill is Scotch and Soda, an indulgent mix of circus and song from Brisbane-based Company 2, featuring the music of the Crusty Suitcase band. Tony-nominated performance artist Justin Vivian Bond is slotted in for just one show, with musical help from Thomas Bartlett, and the Spiegeltent's classy surroundings will also host Over the Top Wrestling, a mixture of professional mauling and performance, featuring the Gymnasties. The Moth will bring it's storytelling slam competition to the Spiegeltent, and invite audience members to tell their best five-minute yarn on stage.

One of the main talking points of the Fringe is likely to be Kim Noble, whose show You're Not Alone is an often bleak look at male loneliness, that crosses plenty of boundaries for the performer and the audience.

Siren Productions will present Grounded by George Brant. This one-woman play, about an airforce ace whose pregnancy forces her to become a drone pilot, will star Clare Dunne, with Selina Cartmell directing. Ruairi Donovan and Asaf Aharonson will present Ghosts, which looks at notions of love and pornography, while Louise White will present Mother You, a show that is part performance piece, installation and live art experience in a disused commercial space in the city.

Favourites return

Fringe favourites Company SJ will present Beckett in the City: The Women Speak. Bríd Ní Neachtain, Michelle Forbes and Joan Davis will perform Footfalls, Rockaby, Not I and Come and Go, with direction by Sarah Jane Scaife, in the former Coláiste Mhuire on Parnell Square.

Bourgeois & Maurice and David Hoyle will celebrate the joys of the blander side of life in their theatre show Middle of the Road, while composer Nina Perry is working with Crash Ensemble and Adrian Crowley for Stories Through Sound, a mixture of spoken word and live music. Another collaboration comes from dance company Junk Ensemble, who together with Brokentalkers will present It Folds, an ambitious piece that will use a cast of strangers and non-actors.

Those venturing out late at night can take in Loosysmoke’s Behind the Dark in Dublin’s Phoenix Park. This acrobatic spectacle will take place around and above an audience invited to wander through the park deep in night.

As part of its 21st birthday celebrations, the festival is also working with a group of 21-year-olds who will live in an installation, like lab rats who have built their own cage.

The festival also has a strong comedy line-up with shows on the cards from David O'Doherty, Alison Spittle, Al Porter, Katie O'Brien, Abie Philbin Bowman and Conor O'Toole.

The Tiger Dublin Fringe runs from September 7th to 20th. Tickets are now on sale from fringefest.com.