Celebrating the 150th anniversary of the birth of the poet William Butler Yeats, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, IRISH WEEK 2015’ Fringe Fest presents three performances on the stages of the Gogol Centre, Mayakovsky Theatre and the Theatre Hall Freelabs. The Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2014 saw performances from "Human Child" and "Pondling", while the play "Boys and Girls" won the Dublin Fringe Festival in 2013. All of the plays make their debut in Russia, performed in English with Russian subtitles.

The Fringe Festival opens with the Collapsing Horse Theatre Company’s play, “Human Child”, on stage at the Gogol center on the 16th, 17th and 18th of March at 20.00. Created in 2013, the play explores the theme of the stolen baby, popular in Irish beliefs and fairy tales. Described as PIXAR meets YEATS, the play features a person in the guise of "The Little Prince," who lives in their own world and gradually removes themselves further and further from reality. The girl, soon left without a mother, completely immerses herself in the world of her dreams, and her place in real life seems to be like an insensitive foundling, with no one around; without teachers or classmates and even her father doesn’t notice the change. On the contrary everyone is happy that Lelia has become "normal" and that she obediently goes to school every day, plays "in taxes" and "in the office" in a world where no one is loved and nobody needs anybody. It is surprising that the Irish girl is called Lelia, the same as the Old Slavonic character, a symbol of summer and youth. This fairytale becomes a metaphor for the transition into adulthood, when we forget all the ease and carefree behaviour in a child's life, plunging into a routine and losing the ability to just be happy. Lelia found support in the fight against this insensitive world through two toys in love with each other - Rats Harry and Henry Bear. The entire production is riddled with the talented music of Tom Lane, a graduate of the Royal Academy in London. Coupled with his music and the poetry of Yeats, the scene turns the stage into the home, the school, the fairy-tale forest, and the peak of love. Dan Colley, a young but already well known in Ireland screenwriter and director, wrote and directed the play. Beyond screenwriting and directing, he is one of the leaders of the Fringe Festival in Ireland, he is the founder of the Collapsing Horse Theatre Company, and the curator of the Abbey National Irish Theatre.

From the 17^th to 20^th of March, the play «Boys & Girls» well be shown on the Small Stage of the Mayakovsky Theatre. This play with four actors, is recognised as one of the most successful plays in Ireland in recent years. The play has been nominated for all literary awards in 2013-2014 in Ireland, and received the award for Best Debut Performance at the Fishamble Theatre Awards in 2013 and the award for Best Play in New York in 2014. The play includes two young men, and two young women. They have just one night to share their own stories. It provides an inside look at what matters to young people of around 15-30 years old, without shame or embarrassment to share their long kept secrets; their first sexual experience, the male and female perspective on dating, and what love means. The play will be set over several years, enacting the young life in Dublin; parties, alcohol, first dates and, of course, broken hearts. During the play, the actors’ roles are reversed, symbolising gender the equality and the main essence of the play - a time to feel and understand life while you’re still young.

On the 18^th, 19^th and 20^th March, the monologue «Pondling» by Genevieve Hulme-Beaman, winner the Best Actress Award of the Fringe Festival in Dublin 2014, will be presented in the Theatre Hall Freelabs (opposite the Bulgakov Museum on Bolshaya Sadovaya St., 10). This is the story of a teenager, whose life is seemingly the same as everyone else’s. Madeleine is all that should be in a child – a little bike, a baby doll and she does many chores around the house and farm. There is only one "but" - she doesn’t have a mother. Nobody can teach her how to become a beautiful swan from the ugly duckling. Against this background, unpredictable and sometimes frightening psychoses develop. We are presented with a pretty, naive child who could quite easily take and behead a chicken without any sign of regret. Cheerful and sparkling character monologues reveal the secrets of her loneliness, and the tragedy of deep sadness and loss. This is the story of a young woman who has not yet learned to hide her true face behind a pile of clothes, or words. The performance demonstrates a rare showcase, not only for Russia, but also the world stage, a sample of women's humour and self-irony.

16 – 18 March – Human Child – Gogol Centre 20.00

17 – 20 March – Boys & Girls – Mayakovsky Theatre 19.00

18 – 20 March – Pondling – Freelabs 19.00