CityLife

Not Part Of - a feast of fringe theatre

Spring Awakening - at Salford Arts Theatre

NO fewer than 31 theatrical performances are taking place at this year’s Not Part Of festival, in venues ranging from the Royal Exchange Theatre and Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama to the Salford Arts Theatre, the Great Northern Amphitheatre and even Moss Side Boxing Club. 
 

 In total more than 100 acts performing across 43 venues are involved in this year’s Not Part Of festival and together are expected to attract in excess of 10,000 visitors.
 

Not Part Of is the fringe alternative to Manchester International Festival, with events including a stand up comedy show put together by 14 to 18-year-olds, a huge gathering of Brazilian Maracatu drummers and dancers and a classical arrangement of Manchester pop songs at the Royal Exchange Theatre. 
 

Theatre events include Cornermen, a play in the ring of a Moss Side boxing club starring Shameless actor Ciaran Griffiths, M, a youthful, modern-day spin on Dial M For Murder, Flash Mob Shakespeare and Killing Time – a midsummer-murder themed interactive street theatre performance. 
 

The full line-up can be found via the link right, but next week’s theatre line-up includes: For The Love Or Money? (July 3, 8.45pm, Lass O’Gowrie). A debut play by writer Gerard Jenkins-Omar. Love and money is pitted against one another. Can an old-time crook be toppled by a young gun blazing? And who’ll get the girl?
 

Flash Mob Shakespeare (July 4, 1pm, Great Northern Amphitheatre). Simply turn up to the Great Northern Amphitheatre, pick up your script and perform The Bard when you hear the whistle! From Artificial Light theatre group.
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Happily Ever After? (July 4, 1.30pm, Great Northern Amphitheatre). Free and suitable for all is virtually al there is to be found out about this theatre event. But that’s a good-enough beginning, surely?
 

Spring Awakening. For generations, a small town bourgeois society has always answered to the state. But when three adolescents discover sex and rebellion, can individuals exist in the herd? Sunday, 7:30pm, Salford Arts Theatre.
 

Wife Of Brian (July 6, 7.30pm, John Thaw Studio Theatre) . When the Jones’s can’t afford to keep up with the neighbours, Sheila does hires a hunky gardener called Juan. But has she hired more than she can handle in this tale of perms, dole queues and divorce?
 

40 (July 7, 7.30pm, Ape and Apple, John Dalton Street). Birthdays can mean so much, especially the important ones. To Lucy, forty is more than just a number in this comedy play. Double-bill with The Wait, from Fish Out Of Water.
 

 Rehearsal (July 9, 7.30pm, Taurus Bar, Canal Street; July 16, Ape & Apple, John Dalton Street) Two actors are in the middle of a difficult tour. They meet to rehearse some scenes, but can they overcome their personal differences to get some work done? By Visceral Arts
 

The Waiting Line (Thursday, 8pm, Sand Bar, Grosvenor Street) A lost young woman and a philosophical hobo find themselves on the same weekly train journey. Both seek meaning. Will they find it in each other? From Jellybelly Theatre.