CityLife

24:7 Festival winners perform again

Amanda Hennessy and David Slack, 24:7 Festival directors

BY GENERAL acclaim, this year’s 24:7 Theatre Festival was of an unbelievably high standard.

But anyone who didn’t get to see the productions have another chance to catch them with see ‘Three of the Best From 24:7’ next week at Bolton’s Octagon Theatre.

All three of the productions – As We Forgive Them, Lub You and 5.30 – received gongs awards at the first ever 24:7 Festival Week Audience Awards.

As We Forgive Them won the accolade for favourite production, Eve Steele won favourite actress for her portrayal of a two-year-old boy in Lub You and Peter Ash won favourite actor for his role as the psychotic Rob in 5.30.

“We were inundated with applications for the festival this year and had to increase the quota of participants from 16 to 21 as the writing was of such high quality. But each of these productions rightly deserves a place in the festival spin off,” says festival director David Slack.

As We Forgive Them, written by and starring Richard Vergette, tells the story of an American Congressman who controversially saves his daughter’s murderer from the death penalty in order to educate the man on his wrong-doings.

Richard, who recently recently auditioned for the Royal Shakespeare Company, enthuses that he’s: “Just thrilled that my play is being included in Three of the Best. I watched both other plays during festival week, as did my fellow actor Joe Sims, and we’re honoured to be in such excellent company.

“I’m still buzzing from the festival and now really excited about performing again and taking it forward.”

Lub You, written by and starring Eve Steele, tells the story of two-year-old Charlie, whose world is turned upside down by the birth of his baby brother. Since becoming a mother herself, Eve has developed her own perspective on what life is like from a baby’s point of view, she says, and this play is the result of the chaos that ensued, putting the audience in the mind of a two-year-old.

Psycho girlfriend

Eve has been an actress for the past 15 years, most famously in Coronation Street where she played Curly Watt’s psycho girlfriend who met a grisly end in a freezer!

5:30, by Alistair MacDowell, is set on a train, which is where aggressive, manic Rob meets quiet and reserved Tim. The play charts the unlikely friendship between the pair, who unexpectedly bond over childhood hopes and dreams and regret.

The story is based on a true episode when Alistair was accosted by a fellow train passenger who divulged his whole life story, world opinions and thoughts to him. Three Of the Best From 24:7 is at the Octagon, Bolton, from Wednesday until September 18 at 7pm. It features 5:30, Lub You and As We Forgive Them, running each evening in that order.

Then on Saturday, September 19, from 10am-6pm there’s a special Investigate event, chaired by Martin Thomasson, Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at the University of Bolton and co-writer (with Les Smith) of M.E.N. Theatre Award-winning And Did Those Feet. 5:30, Lub You and As We Forgive Them will be performed in a day-long event that gives time for analysis and discussion between each play with the writers, directors and cast asking - where do the playwrights go from here and how would the audience like to see them move forward?