CityLife

24:7 - The French Lectures @ The Late Room

AFTER its Manchester Evening News Theatre Award-winning debut last year, the ground-breaking 24:7 Theatre Festival is back in town, offering no less than 105 performances of 21 new plays - none of them longer than an hour - in five non-theatre venues over a week.

Some of the region's best acting and playwriting talents are involved in these bite-size chunks of satirical drama, comedy, post-modern tragedy, musical theatre and all points in between.

The French Lectures, for instance, is an adults-only, highly-camp revue show in which Alan French, Colin Carr and Emma Kanis energetically, and often hilariously, mock ageing thesps and earnest young actors alike, offer tips on how to impress your friends by becoming gay, consider the finer points of behaving badly at yoga classes and generally indulge themselves in some good, old-fashioned filth. Not one to take granny to, maybe, but there's plenty more on offer at 24:7 this week and you should make sure you check at least some of it out, at lunchtime or later in the day.

The French Lectures is at The Late Room until Wednesday. 24:7 Theatre Festival continues at Late Room, Life Café, Bedlam and the Midland Hotel, all on Peter Street, until next Sunday. More information from 0845 408 4102 or log on to the website listed below.