HOME Manchester as announced the programme for its next Re:Play Festival in January, once more bringing the cream of the local fringe scene to a more prominent stage.
Now in its ninth year, Re:Play will present a range of performances at its temporary performance space at Number One First Street, where it recently hosted performances of The Best of BE Festival, The Events and Insomnia. The revived productions were originally seen at 24:7 Theatre Festival, the King's Arms in Salford, Taurus Bar, Joshua Brooks and in a student production from ALRA (North).
There will be four pieces from the last two JB Shorts evenings of 15-minute plays in April and October: Leaky Bacon by Justin Moorhouse, A Great War by James Quinn and Peter Kerry, A Hairline Crack by Jane McNulty and Paradise Island by David Isaac.
From this year's 24:7 Theatre Festival, the "family-friendly" The Tongue Twister by Luke Walker will be revived, as will the collaboration between Rob Johnston in Manchester and Emma Gibson in Canberra on War Stories, which only had a very short run in the Festival.
Jenny May Morgan has turned her series of comic monologues based on the character of aspiring erotica author Pamela DeMenthe into An Evening of Filth and Despair, in which the fictional writer presents her latest‘masterpiece, Sticky Digits.
There will also be a work-in-progress rehearsed reading of Two Spirits by Chris Hoyle, last year’s Pitch Party winner, which traces the journey of three Sioux warriors to Salford to take part in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show in 1887.
As well as the new writing, there will be productions of Harold Pinter's The Dumb Waiter from Ransack Theatre, Tuesday at Tesco's by French playwright Emmanuel Darley translated into English by Matthew Hurt and Sarah Vermande and presented by Tangled Web, Colder Than Here by Laura Wade performed by What A Little Bird Told Me Theatre and Spur of the Moment by Anya Reiss, presented by the students of ALRA (North).
A new feature at Re:Play 2015 is the Re:play Breakthrough Comedian of the Year hosted by Justin Moorhouse, featuring five emerging fringe comedians from the local area.
Re:Play runs from 12 to 24 January 2015 at Number One First Street, Manchester. For more information and a full schedule, see the HOME Manchester web site.
We will be featuring interviews with some of the participants of Re:Play and Festival producer Rebecca Jenner in a forthcoming BTG podcast episode.