Thinkhouse

Issue 15

New Young Radicals

One of the most exciting aspects of this year's Dublin Fringe Festival is a strand called Young Radicals. Presented in collaboration with Collapsing Horse, who are known for luring in adult audiences with wide-eyed fantasy shows, Young Radicals is just the opposite. This is theatre made by young people for young people, with adult themes woven through.

Epoch is a visual documentation of the summer of 2018 as recorded by 18-year-old photographer Ayesha Ahmad. Ayesha charts her journey from completing the Leaving Cert to starting a new college in September. And you can get sneak preview by checking out her Instagram here.

“This photographer is a masterful dreamer and a wizard of light. Through the portraits and snapshots she has captured since she was old enough to hold a camera, 18-year-old Ayesha Ahmad invites us into another orbit, another realm.

Epoch is a documentation of change, a coming-of-age; it explores the Summer of 2018 where we see a generation leap into a new phase of their lives, while Ireland as a nation grows into its new skin.”


Fable is a dance theatre show by Human Collective, a really exciting group of street dancers from Tallaght. The cast is made up of young men who are virtuosic in their performance. The show is a retelling of five cautionary tales through dance and is aimed at a young adults.

“An all-male cast of highly physical street dancers dissect modern life, revealing the disease that sits just under the skin. From the unanticipated consequences of new technologies to political conspiracy and manmade horrors and drawing on classic dystopian cinema and cautionary tales, these five short stories don't shy away from the gruesome details.”

The other Young Radicals shows sound just as bold and unpredictable: Loosysmokes is building a huge lighthouse in the gardens of Dublin Castle and performing an aerial-acrobatics show for all ages with The Lightkeepers’ Last Stand; Donal Dineen is doing a DJ set for kids with Tiny Dancer; and Bombinate Theatre is presenting a show for story lovers in Project Arts Centre called Susie and the Story Shredder.


Dave Coffey