No Valentine’s date? Never fear, a far more enticing offer awaits you in Smock Alley Theatre this Tuesday, where the second annual Scene+Heard Festival of New Work will be kicking off for its three-week run. With nearly 90 productions and performances at least twice daily, there will most certainly be something in the programme to suit your taste.
The premise of Scene+Heard is to give theatre makers a space in which to develop and show off their work, which, for emerging artists still struggling to establish themselves in the theatre world, can be an absolute godsend. The shows are about 30 minutes in length and will either be extracts from new plays or the seeds of a newly devised piece of work, ranging from one-woman monologues to fully-cast new musicals. The theme of this year’s festival is “Tales from the Zeitgeist”: stories which capture the current mood and discourse of its time. The theme can be seen across the programme, which includes work looking at mental health, social media, human trafficking and women’s rights (or lack thereof).
To get a taste of the zeitgeist, go see The Birthday Party, Click This or Handling It. For stories on the lighter side, check out What’s cooler than a hipster? A spinster! or go for Brunch Bants with Hannah Mamalis. Trinity students and graduates are sprinkled across the festival, appearing in shows such as Love a la Mode, Dragons Don’t Play Jazz, Owned and How To Be a Superhero amongst many others. Some of the festival’s artists will be hoping to take their work on to the Dublin Fringe and beyond, so hopefully you will get an opportunity to see how work develops and changes between the two festivals. If art of its time is what you’re after, Scene+Heard is the place to be.
Scene+Heard runs from February 14th to March 4th. A full programme can be found here.
