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Dateline:
20th June, 2007
24:7 Theatre Festival Launch
Last night in the dark underground caverns of Pure night club in the
Printworks, Manchester's fourth 24:7 Theatre Festival for new writing,
which will take place in the last week of July, was officially launched.
Festival co-director David Slack announced that there will be 21 plays
performed in four venues over seven days from 23rd to 29th July, and
confessed that the brochures were only printed an hour before the launch.
Festival chairman John Henshaw—known to millions as the barman
in the TV sit com Early Doors amongst other roles—spoke
of the wonderful opportunities offered by the festival to new writers
and performers, which he contrasted with his own earlier experiences
when there were no decent venues available in which to perform new work
and the Arts Council did not even help out with the cost of publicity
and marketing.
This year's four venues are the Victoria Suite in the Midland Hotel,
which has been used for the past two years, and three different spaces
in the festival's new partner Pure: Blue, Funktion and Round.
Over the last three years, 24:7 has built up a growing reputation for
giving opportunities to writers and performers and for unearthing fresh
new talent.
The productions are:
- Bang-Bang! by Sally Lawton: at the Horse and Hound, encounter
tipsy girls looking for more than a freebie, the slobby darts team
and the owners who want more than life, plus a gang looking for a
pub to rob.
- Boots by David Pattison: three characters search for a secure
standpoint from which to evaluate their situation.
- Bullet Shaped Heart by Neil A Edwards: as the Falklands
war shifts from tabloid fantasy to brutal reality, two paratroopers
find refuge in a derelict house.
- Cake by Mike Heath: Julian comes out to his parents and
doesn't get the response he'd hoped for, while their competitive neighbours
arrive with news of their son's engagement—but did Jim see what
he thought he saw in the garage?
- Comedy Mouthwash by Trevor Suthers: Manchester's top comedy
performers present a set of new comedy sketches.
- Concrete Ribbons by Lesa Dryburgh and Michael Trainor: a
broken lift and an undelivered wedding cake lead a desperate couple
to the bizarre discovery that they can stage three second performances
to flyover motorists passing their high-rise balcony.
- Each To Their Own by Julia Hogan: teenage temptation and
secret menace, cultural chemistry and chilling undercurrents in a
Lancashire mill town.
- Eating Out by Ross Andrews: a social comedy exploring friendship,
charity and sacrifice.
- An Englishman's Home by Richard Vergette: the sole occupant
of a crumbling mansion, home from prison, pours himself another drink
and invites you to hear his story.
- Flying Solo by Aelish Michael: when Libby takes up residence
in her late husband's pigeon loft, she causes concern to her son and
her friend and is forced to choose between fight and flight.
- Grave Goods by Anne Neville: a recently bereaved woman comes
to a city cemetery searching for reconciliation and meets three other
women on the same search, ready to talk, sing and dance with the dead.
- Harlequin by Anthony Trevelyan: a man is kidnapped in Manchester
and while his captors wait for instructions to decide his fate, the
man begins to talk for his life.
- Holed Up by Christine Marshall: when your neighbour has
grated on you since infant school and now you're both drawing a pension,
being forced to spend the night on a settee together could be the
stuff of nightmares.
- Job #143 by Ian Curley: Alfie is kidnapped and thrown into
a cell and is soon joined by another hooded victim, but why are they
here and who is behind it?
- The Lullaby Witch by Mark Griffiths: a cynical rock journalist
investigates a deranged killer who stalks child musical prodigies
and ends up endangering the life of her best friend.
- Medea by Euripides, adapted by Peter McGarry: a contemporary
version of Euripides's classic play that shows Medea damned to travel
perpetually through the ages to justify her crime.
- Mind The Gap by Luke Walker: when the lights go down we
wait in darkness for the actors to lie their way into our affections,
but what happens if the lights don't come back up again?
- Not With That Hand by Annie Fitzmaurice, Paul Hunter and
Erika Poole: two women, banned from working with children and living
in fear, become missionaries and set off for the 'third world'—without
leaving their living room.
- The Processing Room by Elizabeth Baines: three women lost
in a hospital become trapped in a mysterious waiting room.
- Rose Cottage by Steve Pearce: brought together on their
fag break, Carla would rather not speak to her husband, Bernice just
wants someone to speak to, Agnieska doesn't speak English and the
corpses cannot speak at all.
- Slowly, Vignettes by Kevin Cuffe: Bessie has ways of passing
the time; games and memories are not enough for Frank, but does he
have the courage to take action?
David Chadderton
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