At the Fringe

Identity parade: When Irish Hearts are Prayingaims to look at faith in a country shaken by scandal and crises (Boys School @ Smock Alley Theatre, September 19th-24th).

* Manchán Magan follows Broken Croí/Heart Briste with another play,

Bás Tongue

,  about Ireland and its language. Ever-decreasing circles or fresh insight? (Project Arts Centre, September 19th-24th.)

*

Brian Fleming’s

Gis A Shot of Your Bongos Mister

is an “aural biographical journey” about the first African man in Dublin’s Fatima Mansions (CityArts, September 19th-24th).

* Argentine cousins

Noelia Ruiz & Angel Luis Gonzalez

explore their Irish heritage and the porous boundaries of nationhood in

Better Loved From Afar

(New Theatre, September 20th-24th).

Good bets

*

David O’Doherty

is a wonderful comedian. meaning that Rory Sheridan’s Tales of the Antarctic could be a hilarious take on a fictional hero (Studio Theatre @ Smock Alley Theatre, September 21st-24th).

Fringe Binge

A show a night is easy; over two weeks it’s an endurance event. For a binge, you could commit to all seven hours of THEATREclub’s crowd-sourced year-in-the-life documentary

Twenty Ten

(its six instalments are performed together on September 17th). But for a day of extreme Fringing, attempt this route next Saturday:

9am

See if Fergal McCarthy is stirring on his Liffey island as part of his

No Man’s Land

installation.

10am

Seek out the citywide murals of

I Am Afraid . . .

11am

Peep at the installation

Changing Room

in several Dublin clothes shops.

12pm

Little Bear Big Apple

Project Arts Centre

1pm

Where Do I Start?

Project Arts Centre (10th-17th)

2pm

Heidi and the Bear Pearse Centre (13th-21st)

3.30pm

Luca and the Sunshine

, Smock Alley

4.45pm

Lunch/dinner/nap

6pm

The Wheelchair on My Face,

Bewley’s Café Theatre (14th, 17th, 24th)

7pm FOLLOW,

the Lir (12th-17th) (you’ll need a bike)

8.30pm

Man of Valour

Samuel Beckett Theatre

10pm

The Year of Magical Wanking

Project Arts Centre (10th-17th) (you’ll need a teleporter)

11pm

Absolut Festival Club (you’ll need a defibrillator)

Good bets

* This year’s Fringe darlings could be the solo projects from last year’s favourites, the Company. José Miguel Jiménez directs the Rough Magic Seeds production

Jumping Off the Eart

h and Nyree Yergainharsian explores her Irish-Armenian heritage, oh so archly, with

Where Do I Start?

(both at Project Arts Centre until September 17th).

* For new writing that responds to the times, the

Irish Times Theatre Award

winners Corn Exchange present

Man of Valour,

a physical tour de force that puts resilience into the imagination of an office drone (Samuel Beckett Theatre, September 10th-13th and 15th-24th).

* Gifted performers Nick Lee and Damien Kearney each make their playwriting debuts at Smock Alley Theatre with Lee’s dark fable

Luca and the Sunshine

(September 13th-18th) and Kearney’s Corkonian reminiscence The Flamboyant Bird (14th-18th).

Step into this toilet

* Also involving a bed, Galway’s fast-emerging Waterdonkey Theatre present

Happening

, for which John and Yoko’s sleepy bed-in protest will be installed at the Gresham Hotel for 12 hours on September 18th. Audience members get in for an hour at a time.

* It’s Fringe, so it’s site specific. The much vaunted Veronica Dyas seeks an intimate connection with

In My Bed

, performed, in Fringe tradition, in a car park. With a bed. (September 11th-13th and 15th-18th)

* Taking place in the basement of Kilmainham Gaol, Junk Ensemble’s

Bird with a Boy 

is “a  performance dance installation made from birds, boys and snow” (September 12th-20th).

*

You Can’t Just Leave - There’s Always Something

, by Spilt Gin, involves a meeting point outside Trinity College and then a trip by bus to a house. (September 13th-18th and 20th-23rd)

Fringe with . .

.

A date

The Larder on Parliament Street for a steak early-bird, followed by

All Things Considered,

It’s A Nice Place to Start.

A promising idea, about sending postcards to 300 strangers, it’s also short enough at 50 minutes to avoid awkwardness (September 20th-24th).

A mate

Mama’s Place at Filmbase, for good supper food and delicious wine, followed by Intimacy (Project Arts Centre, right), about the truths that come out when strangers meet (12th-16th)

A group

Milano on Grand Canal Dock is always a solid choice for group eats, and it’s close to the Lir, where satirist Albie Philbin Bowman’s Pope Benedict: Bond Villain runs September 19th-24th.

A philistine

Try Dunne & Crescenzi for food, followed by the action-movie escapism of Man of Valour at the Samuel Beckett Theatre until September 24th.

Your ma

Go to the Clarence for fish and chips at a tenner, plus happy-hour cocktails, then Maeve Fitzgerald in an adaptation of gothic tale

The Yellow Wallpaper

at Smock Alley Theatre (September 18th-24th).

Your da

Porterhouse for food and fancy stout, then up to the International for

Three Men Talking About Things They Kinda Know About

(September 19th-23rd).

Offstage

* Comic musicians

Frisky and Mannish

reconstitute the pop-music canon with

Pop Centre Plus

(Absolut Festival Club, September 14th-16th and 18th-24th).

*

Changing Room

consists of two-minute films viewed through peep holes in various clothes shops. “Gaze at the chaotic nature of the information age,” announces the Fringe programme, rather unsexily.

*

List Operators

do kids’ entertainment at some festivals, but the Fringe people say this is one for the “cool kids”. Either way, the Australian comedians sound very promising; they’re at the Absolut Festival Club all festival.

* Mingling the random entertainment of a good night out with the structure of performance, there are some wild nights on the fringe that deftly slip their art into your drink.

Pop Céili Rockeroke

mash up traditions especially well (Absolut Festival Club, September 17th).

Out there

Fergal McCarthy

is living on an island in the River Liffey for a week for his

No Man’s Land

project. Sure to be a talking point, and an attraction.

Prêt-à-médiatiser

(South Studios, September 16th-17th) Deep breath: “The event showcases a clothing collection that has been made to be documented which consequently struggles to cope with a live scenario. We are invited to observe ritualistic elements of fashion that have been deconstructed and re-staged to highlight the symbiotic relationship between the live and the mediatised,” says the programme.

Corokinesis: the 2nd Experimental Evensong

, at Christ Church (September 24th) “In this free event, dance and music unite with dramatic spirituality to create a completely new form of expression for one special performance only.” That’s some claim.