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Growler’s Grotto

Join Growler, the 82-year-old drum banging, shamanic vulva from the Liberties in Dublin in her Grotto, where no one gets left behind and no stone is left unturned as she takes you on a theatrical alchemical journey.

Growler is a sacred clown, walking the knife-edge of heartache and laughter. Using spoken word, song, storytelling and comedy, she confronts taboo topics, including grief and SA.

Her mission in these times is to help us love the ejjit out of ourselves. With a trolly in one hand and a staff in the other, she blazes a path. Her soul is a flame where everyone can warm the cockles of their heart.

“The beauty of Growler is in its roughness, its erratic meandering, its refusal to be one thing or another. It has a sacred chaos of its own, in which Mulrooney thrives.”
The List

Bad News

THE LAB: Artist and Audience Development

Bathe in wine, bathe in milk,
Bathe in horse broth, bathe in silk.
Ice, steam, sauna, spring—
Let your body sizzle and sting.

If you’re a bird: you use dust!
If a snail: a puddle’s a must.
Come one, come all, we must get clean.
Elly the Batheness of Berlin
Invites you to her bathing dream.

Bathing is glorious: water grants daily rebirth, soap frees us from what want to leave behind. Elly the Batheness of Berlin is enamored with it—in tubs, hammams, mountain springs or saunas; with a sponge, a brush, hands or a stone.

All bathers are welcome to this work-in-progress lecture-performance exploring:
What is a bath? What is bathing? A historical, a cultural, a social, an artistic and an American bath; and even bathing across species!

Bathing has deep waters—with topics like PURITY, FERTILITY, (RE)BIRTH, HYGIENE, OLFACTION, MODESTY and the FEMALE DOMAIN. Elly the Batheness of Berlin is going deep into bathing lore and invites you to join.

In 2026, bad ideas are great again!

Followed by a post-performance discussion

omfg hamlet do i look like i care

William Shakespeare and the Bechdel Test

How much agency do female characters have in works of fiction? In 1986, US-American cartoonist Alison Bechdel provided a simple set of rules for figuring this out: the Bechdel test. Are there at least two female characters in the work? Do they speak to each other? About something other than men?

In all of William Shakespeare’s thirty-six plays, there is exactly one overlooked scene in a mostly overlooked play (Richard II) where two women converse.

With this in mind, omfg hamlet do i look like i care questions the supposed universality of Shakespeare’s themes. Combining Shakespearean language with modern dialogue and original text by creator/actor Kay Marie, the production investigates what happens when women are finally allowed the stage — and the conversation — all to themselves.

Two powerhouse performers take on a multitude of roles, including queens, noblewomen, podcast hosts, karaoke singers, dancers and professional bowlers. A male actor appears in a deliberately sidelined supporting role, used purely as a narrative device. What begins as an absurdly comic interview between two clueless influencers soon spirals into a chaotic, heartfelt, and surprisingly tender journey through female experience — both real and imagined.

A Suffocating Choking Feeling

Would you lie for likes?

A Suffocating Choking Feeling is a razor-sharp, satirical deep-dive into the warped world of Insta-“truth”, where fact and fiction blur and what wins is having a story worth telling.

Inspired by Australian con artist Belle Gibson (the subject of Netflix’s Apple Cider Vinegar & BBC’s Bad Influencer), who lied about having cancer to earn likes as a wellness influencer, this award-winning explosive solo show smashes together live theater with interactive social media experiments, inviting you to scroll, troll and cancel Simone Hamilton.

A Suffocating Choking Feeling plays with the boundaries of truth and ethics, testing audiences’ willingness to believe.

“Not shying away from the provocative”– The Guardian
“A notorious collision between social media and the truth” – The Age
“TomYumSim walk the fine line between madness and truth” – ★★★★ The Plus Ones
Winner of the Australian Green Room Award for best experimental and contemporary performance.

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Where Ye From?

By Growler

Meet Growler, the 82-year-old drum banging, shamanic vulva from the Liberties in Dublin.

Wise as witches with a tongue like a lash and a heart of gold, she will take you on an alchemical theatrical journey.

Using storytelling, song, spoken word and comedy, her mission is to give voice to the voiceless and to transmute the shite out of the female collective trauma.

The performance on November 9th will inaugurate Growler’s Sofa Sessions and feature visiting musician Damien Dempsey and Berlin-based Wallis Bird in a one-night-only event called Songs From the Holywell!

This promises to be a very special night of storytelling, song and conversation between kindred spirits.

“The beauty of Growler is in its roughness, its erratic meandering, its refusal to be one thing or another. It has a sacred chaos of its own, in which Mulrooney thrives.”
The List

Rhythm in Sediment

The very first performance of new work-in-progress by Anna Lublina, followed by a post-performance discussion.

This research seeks to access ancestral knowledge through synchronization: a process of syncing one’s body rhythms with the rhythms of other people, objects or environments. Emerging from archival research on different forms of shared Jewish-Muslim rhythm—Uzbeki Shashmaqam music, prayer, agricultural practices, etc.— we explore tap dance, extended vocal techniques and live mixing to embody specific rhythms and synchronize with the worlds they emerge from.

How do these rhythms from historical moments of Muslim-Jewish conviviality generate different physicalities, states, tensions or intelligences in our bodies? What can these convivial rhythms teach us in a time marked by separation and violence?

This research has been funded by the Ottilie Roederstein Stipendiem from the Hessian Ministry of Science, Research, Art and Culture, Frankfurt Kulturamt and Giessen Kulturamt.

Anna is a current LABA Berlin Fellow, participating in the 2024 Muslim—Jewish creative study and exchange program called “Mar’a’yeh: A Night’s Journey”. This event is part of a month-long (ending 8.12) exhibition at Künstlerhaus Bethanien, details of which can be found here. For other upcoming LABA Berlin events and more information, please visit www.laba.berlin and follow (@lababerlin) on Instagram.

Colonizing The Skies

The very first presentation of new work-in-progress by Noémi Ola Berkowitz, followed by a post-performance discussion.

The sky has long been a place of comfort, spirituality, looking upward, and fantasy. But the colonization that marks the rise of empires and nations on land now threatens our atmosphere. The unique combination of technology and ancient stories in the skies above prompted Noémi (who presented new work-in-progress in our 2017 Expo Festival) to gaze upward for this next theatrical project.

With Dena Abay, Djibril Sall and Pamela Moraga

SLUT: A Love Story

SLUT: A Love Story is a vibrant manifesto of joy, feminism and sexual exploration. Through the lens of her own life, performer and self-identified slut, Anne Marina Fidler courageously navigates the impacts of heartbreak, sex work and technology on this identity. Employing storytelling, dance and audience participation, Fidler crafts a compelling narrative that is both humorous and sincere.

Drawing from her own rich and charmed sexual history, Fidler invites audiences to participate in a narrative that celebrates the complexities of sex as part of our fully realized selves, while still acknowledging the collective trauma and shame that patriarchy places on sexuality.

In SLUT, Fidler challenges the conventional narrative surrounding casual sex and demands that the patriarchal scripts of hook-up culture be re-written.

Utilizing her background as a cabaret performer, Fidler employs both comedic flair and emotional depth to critically engage with delicate topics.  She celebrates the power of sex while refusing to elevate it to sacrosanct divinity, aiming to liberate audiences from the constraints of patriarchal ideology and internalized misogyny.

Where Ye From?

by Growler

Meet Growler, the 82-year-old drum banging, shamanic vulva from the Liberties in Dublin.

Wise as witches with a tongue like a lash and a heart of gold, she will take you on an alchemical theatrical journey.

Using storytelling, song, spoken word and comedy, her mission is to give voice to the voiceless and to transmute the shite out of the female collective trauma.

“The beauty of Growler is in its roughness, its erratic meandering, its refusal to be one thing or another. It has a sacred chaos of its own, in which Mulrooney thrives.”
The List

The Examination

by Brokentalkers

“I’d like the people to know I’m not an animal. Did I cause harm? Yes. Should I be punished? Of course. But do I deserve my human rights? Absolutely I do.”

The Examination is the award-winning production by Brokentalkers exploring mental health and human rights in the prison system, performed by Brokentalkers’ Gary Keegan and stand-up comedian and former prisoner Willie White.

Featuring Brokentalkers’ distinctive blend of biography, socio-political discourse and breathtaking theatricality, The Examination draws on historical research and testimony from current and former prisoners. With powerful imagery and a visceral soundscape, The Examination is an uncompromising and revelatory interrogation of an aspect of society too often ignored.

The Examination is the outcome of a 12-month research period that saw Brokentalkers’ directors Gary Keegan and Feidlim Cannon hold theater workshops and interviews with life sentence prisoners and former prisoners in various settings including Mountjoy Prison and PACE Training and Education Services. They have also drawn on wider historical analysis undertaken by Associate Professor Catherine Cox (UCD) and Professor Hilary Marland.

Best Production – Irish Times Theatre Awards 2020

Best Soundscape (Denis Clohessy) – Irish Times Theatre Awards 2020

Best Production – Dublin Fringe Festival 2019

Best Performer (Willie White) – Dublin Fringe Festival 2019

⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Superbly slippery piece of theatre” – The Stage
⭐⭐⭐⭐ “No easy escapes in Brokentalkers’ sly, provocative play” – The Irish Times
⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Again and again, ‘The Examination’ pulls the rug out from under you” – Fest

Brokentalkers was founded in 2001 by Feidlim Cannon and Gary Keegan after graduating from De Montfort University in Leicester. For over a decade, Brokentalkers have been making formally ambitious work that defies categorization and have built a reputation as one of Ireland’s most innovative and original theater companies.
Their working method is founded on a collaborative process that draws on the skills and experiences of a large and diverse group of contributors from different disciplines and backgrounds. Some are professional artists, performers, designers and writers, while others are people who do not usually work in the theater but who brings an authenticity to the work that is compelling.
They make work that responds to the contemporary world, using elements such as original writing, dance, classic texts, film, interviews, found materials and music to represent that world in performance.
Their recent work includes The Boy Who Never Was (Dublin Theatre Festival 2022), MASTERCLASS (Winner: The Scotsman Fringe First Award 2022, premiered at Project Arts Centre as part of Dublin Fringe Festival 2021), The Examination (premiered at Project Arts Centre 2019), Woman Undone (premiered at Project Arts Centre & Mermaid Arts Centre 2018, followed by a national tour in 2019 & 2020), The Circus Animals’ Desertion (Dublin Theatre Festival 2016), This Beach (Munich Kammerspiele, Dublin Fringe Festival 2016, followed by a national tour in 2017), Have I No Mouth (Dublin Fringe Festival 2012, followed by a national & international tour; winner of the Total Theatre Award, Edinburgh 2013) and The Blue Boy (Grand Prix winner, Kontakt Festival, Torun, Poland, 2014).
Brokentalkers have presented their work worldwide in over twenty countries.
Photos: Luca Truffarelli