CityLife

Three Gobby Cows @ Taurus

WITH the recent success of the 24/7 Festival and events like this, it seems as if café theatre - fringe-style events held in places like bars rather than theatres - is finally making welcome inroads in Manchester.

Directed by Victoria Munich and presented downstairs in the lively and imaginative Taurus Bar on Canal Street, Newfound Theatre Company's Three Gobby Cows is a collection of three one-woman shows, presented and performed by three different actresses.

Based on her own experiences growing up in Ireland's Cork City, Louise Twomey's Women's Little Christmas is a bitter-sweet piece that had members of last night's packed audience finally shocked into some tears after their laughter.

Kate Henry's Mucking Fuddle was another dynamically performed and intelligent piece where serious concerns found expression amid the laughter at what initially seemed to be just another chronicle of a Monday morning gone horribly wrong.

Finally, Deborah Brian's Sandra found the desperate and unhappy titular character nonetheless able to ruminate amusingly on the way happy couples shopped together in Sainsbury's and even on the romantic possibilities of Greggs the bakers.

Hugely entertaining and heartfelt, this is a show that puts some of this town's bigger name companies and venues to shame.

Three Gobby Cows continues until Friday, August 20 with an additional lunchtime performance (free ticket with lunch) at 1.15pm on Friday. For box office queries, call 07985-642984.