The Guide: Dublin Fringe Festival, Gilbert O’Sullivan and more acts to see, shows to book and ones to catch before they end

Going strong since 1995, Dublin Fringe Festival continues apace with yet another crammed programme of what it does best: championing “artistic risk, ambition and excellence across art forms” to “enthral and embolden audiences”. What this means is a profusion of performers who place risk and discovery above all else and who deliver something for everyone, from theatre, comedy, circus and dance to cabaret, spoken word and club nights. Highlights? Far too many to list, but try your best to check out Fermented Dreams, featuring the singer Jess Kav (Bewley’s Cafe Theatre, Monday-Saturday, September 9th-14th).
It’s impossible to escape country music these days, be it Willie Nelson’s legacy country, Shania Twain’s country-pop, Lucinda Williams’s alternative country or Gillian Welch’s whatever-you-want-to-call-it country. To this list you can add Morgan Wallen, who has been tipping his hat to classic country music styles in the past 10 years with mainstream, chart-topping songs such as Whiskey Glasses, Chasin’ You, Thinkin’ Bout Me, You Proof and Last Night. His local newspaper, the Nashville Tennesseean, gets it right: “You can’t stop Morgan Wallen – you can only hope to contain him.”
Jonas Brothers, popularised from 2005 through numerous appearances on the Disney Channel have graduated from teenage boy band covering songs by Busted to thirtysomethings delivering soft pop/yacht rock about growing up, parenthood and relationships. Kevin, Joe and Nick are plugging their latest record, last year′s The Album, and these dates have been rescheduled from June to kick-start the European leg of the band’s world tour.
Gilbert O’Sullivan has long since been removed from the Guilty Pleasures box, with several of his 1970s songs rightly praised as pop classics. Nothing Rhymed, We Will, Alone Again (Naturally) and Clair may be his best known, but the Waterford-born songwriter’s more recent albums (notably 2018′s self-titled work and 2022′s Driven) feature songs that easily match those heyday hits. O’Sullivan returns to Ireland in November and December for a sequence of sold-out shows in his native Waterford (Theatre Royal, November 26th-29th and December 9th and 10th).
When musicians reach a certain age, their outlook on the world could well be used as an album title. So when Arab Strap decided to call their latest record, I’m Totally Fine with It … Don’t Give a Fuck Anymore, a sense of resignation in the face of life’s adversities was duly delivered. Expect more of the same at these shows from the Scottish band’s core members, Aidan Moffat and Malcolm Middleton, two flinty fiftysomething blokes who deftly present what Uncut magazine describes as “withering scorn sweetened by self-aware, bruise-black humour”.
The rise and rise of Kyla Cobbler, the Barcelona-based Co Cork comedian, is a lesson to anyone who thinks changing careers after a certain age might not be an option. Having grown a fan base during Covid with her video posts on Instagram (she now has almost 160,000 followers), the thirtysomething is now headlining sizeable venues around Ireland, including an upgrade to her Dublin show (from Liberty Hall to the newly opened Ambassador Theatre). Catch her while you can.
Across two days and two venues in two cities, the Irish Chamber Orchestra pays its respects to Mozart with a programme directed by Katherine Hunka, who has been its leader since 2002. The programme includes Divertimento K 136 (which Mozart composed in 1772 in Salzburg), Moz-Art à la Haydn (composed in 1977 by Russia’s Alfred Schnittke, and which “quotes” Mozart’s 1788 composition Symphony in G minor KV 550), and Tchaikovsky’s Serenade for Strings (the composer’s beautiful emulation of Mozart’s compositional style).
New and recent sculptural and installation pieces by five Ireland-based artists form the basis of this group exhibition. All of the artists – Fiona Kerbey, Christopher McMullan, Joanne Reid, Katherine Sankey and Emily Waszak – are emerging and mid-career, and have previously exhibited in Ireland, internationally or both.
Voiceover artist and recording engineer Darryl spends his days creating ads for radio and his nights writing and recording his one-man play. Following a car accident, however, fact and fiction combine when Darryl starts to have magical realist encounters with statues of deceased celebrities and historical figures. The Cork actor Shane Casey writes and stars.
Lady Gregory in America, National Opera House, Wexford, October 20th-30th, wexfordopera.com
Nas, 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin, November 13th, ticketmaster.ie
Blossoms, The Academy, Dublin, November 16th, ticketmaster.ie
Oasis, Croke Park, Dublin, August 16th and 17th, 2025, ticketmaster.ie