Derby Theatre’s Departure Lounge Festival will celebrate its fifth birthday with a “bumper” line-up of shows, workshops and talks.
The festival will include previews of shows which will be staged at the Edinburgh Fringe, tried-and-tested performances and a couple of new works-in-progress.
The event begins on Thursday 20 July with East Meets West, a symposium for Midlands-based theatre-makers, from 11AM until 6PM. In the evening, Jane English will present in Derby Theatre Studio 20B which unearths the stories of a demolished building on a council estate in East London. On the main stage, Two Destination Language will stage Declining Solo in which a woman returns to visit her family home and misses the one thing she values most: the father she remembers.
On Friday 21 July, Milk Presents will stage a preview of its show Bullish, inspired by Ovid’s Minotaur, in which “ancient mythology meets modern gender negotiation”.
On Saturday 22 July at 4PM, fanSHEN will preview its Edinburgh show Lists for the End of the World, “a show composed entirely of lists, sourced from all kinds of people in all kinds of places”.
In the Studio at 7.30PM, Derby Theatre’s In Good Company associate artists Flickbook Theatre will present its new play Casket Case, “a show about our fear of death, dying and being dead”.
Sunday 23 July will be a family day. The full programme is available at the Derby Theatre web site.