Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival

Various venues, Dublin. Until Oct 16 01-6778899 dublintheatrefestival.com

It’s showtime. For just over two weeks every year, it feels like all the theatre in the world gravitates towards Dublin to mingle and converse, to provoke and inspire.

This year's programme reflects not only outgoing director Loughlin Deegan's personality (warm, inquisitive, impassioned, playful) but also five years of change for Ireland and theatre. You see a legacy in the participation of Irish artists who are as risk-taking as they are well-established: Rough Magic and Arthur Riordan adapting Peer Gyntfor an Irish context; Colm Tóibín writing Testamentfor Landmark; and Michael Keegan Dolan's Fabulous Beast stretching its muscles with the trad-music driven Rian).

There's also the ascendency of Brokentalkers, THEATREclub, Anu and THISISPOPBABY, all integral to the programme. No less tantalising is the Abbey's offering – a significant co-production with the Royal National Theatre on Juno and the Paycock(starring Sinead Cusack and Ciarán Hinds, left) and 16 Possible Glimpses, Marina Carr's episodic biography of Chekhov.

It would be wrong to think everyone here has raised their game to match international jewels from Germany’s She She Pop, Belgium’s les ballets C de la B, or Ivo van Hove’s Toneelgroup Amsterdam. But that’s only because this theatre festival, in the scope of its consideration and ambition, changed the game for them.