There are two good things about September. Getting the Guide to Evening Classes, looking through it and laughing at the thought of getting up off the couch every Wednesday for months, and The Dublin Theatre Festival which is just as entertaining and much better for your brain.

There really is something for everyone in this year’s line up; I’ve had a look and here is just a highlight of the lezbalicious goodies on offer.

Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea – Project Cube, Sept 25 to 27

This wickedly wonderful show is winning hearts, and awards, wherever it goes. Writer and diretor Suzanne Andrade seamlessly blends cabaret, silent movies and live performance building on superbly crafted visuals. The performers interact with images projected onto a large upstage screen, inserting themselves into books, falling from tall buildings, disappearing into grasses. Quirky and beautiful.

Hedda Gabler – Gate Theatre, Sept 25 to Oct 11

If you’ve been walking around Dublin, there is no doubt that the poster for this one (left) has made an impression. Hedda Gabler is on you shouldn’t miss. This is serious theatre, not in the ponderous Beckett sense, but in the dramatic sense. For starters it was written by Henrik Ibsen, who is regarded by many as the father of modern drama, second has been adapted for this production by the one and only Brian Friel, Irish playwright and theatrical genius, and third the character of Hedda is one of the greatest female roles in theatre.

The play tells the story of the titular woman who we must decide is either a heroine or a villain; does she play with people’s feelings innocently or is she just bored with her lot and entertaining herself? She has, more recently, been seen as a single-minded feminist. You decide.

The Year of Magical Thinking – Gaeity Theatre, Sept 30 to Oct 4

What would you do if your partner died and your daughter was seriously ill? Fall apart? Dig in and get on with it? A bit of both probably. Joan Didion, political essayist and renowned journalist, did what she knew best – she documented it. The result is a book, The Year of Magical Thinking, that has quite literally changed people’s lives, giving people a vocabulary to speak about loss. It is an honest, warts-and-all exploration of a hellish year in the woman’s life, a study of how to survive when all around you is unrecognisable.

It wasn’t long before a one-woman show was on stage. The hottest ticket in town, this is two treats in one. Not only do we get a powerful show but it’s Didion’s friend (and theatre royalty) Vanessa Redgrave (above) who’s in the hot seat. (Lesbians will remember her as the character in the first story of If These Walls Could Talk 2).

Happy Days – Abbey Theatre, Oct 2 to 11

Samuel Beckett does the Fonze? Nope, don’t expect to see Joanie and Chachi in the Abbey. This is much more serious stuff, even if Beckett did consider it a comedy. Out actress Fiona Shaw (left) plays a woman on the edge. Actually, she’s buried waste-deep in a barren landscape as she chats away seemingly oblivious to her lot. She is the eternal optimist, gaily nattering to her husband. The reasons for her optimism are, however, decreasing, and se has to deal with the reality of life.

For a full rundown of the Dublin Theatre Festival and to buy tickets, click here.

All links open in new windows. Also, the images here are used in good faith and without intending any infringement, if they should be removed, just let me know.

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