The 50th anniversary Dublin Theatre Festival this autumn will be "the greatest celebration of the performing arts the city has ever seen", according to incoming festival director Loughlin Deegan.
Part of the programme for the festival, which runs from September 27th to October 14th, was announced in City Hall yesterday.
Minister for Arts John O'Donoghue pledged once-off additional funding of €200,000 for the 50th anniversary celebrations. The planning committee is chaired jointly by festival chairman Peter Crowley and Gate Theatre director Michael Colgan.
Mr Deegan said this year's festival would have a big impact on the city. Visitors and residents could not but be aware that the city was en fete, he predicted. And demonstrating confidence in the Irish tradition of an Indian summer, he plans free outdoor events and site-specific performances.
The full programme for the festival will be released in July, but the highlights announced yesterday included Olivier Award-winning Hibikifrom Japan's premier Butoh dance company, Sanki Juku, at the Gaiety Theatre.
Laurie Anderson will stage Homeland, a combination of poem and concert which examines the American obsession with security, the relationship of fear and freedom, and the increasing acceptance of violence.
The Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre and the festival are co-presenting a new show, James, Son of James. Having previously presented Giselle and The Bull, this is the company's final instalment of the midlands trilogy, about a man who returns home after 11 years in the Far East.
Druid will present Eugene O'Neill's classic Long Day's Journey into Nightat the Gaiety, while Rough Magic, in association with the Pavilion Theatre in Dún Laoghaire, will produce Christian O'Reilly's new play, Is This About Sex?
The Peacock will stage the Irish premiere of Marina Carr's Woman and Scarecrow.
Further details are available at www.dublintheatrefestival.com