CityLife

A second Hand delight

NOT With That Hand was one of the surprise hits of last year's 24:7 Theatre Festival. At the time we observed that "with its physical theatre elements and flashes of dark humour, this is one of the festival's more challenging, but worthwhile, offerings."

Developed collaboratively between director Paul Hunter (of Told By An Idiot and Bolton Octagon) and performers Annie Fitzmaurice and Erika Poole, it stars the women as former teachers, banned from working with children and living in fear, who've managed to create an alternative reality in which they do teach children.

As their 'lesson' based on Arthur Miller's The Crucible begins to become scarily incarnate, the reasons for their strange situation become disturbingly apparent.

Now this funny, challenging and disturbing play is coming back to the Royal Exchange Studio.

At the end of last year's festival, Manchester-based Fitzmaurice was distraught when she had to turn down the invitation to perform Not With That Hand at the Three Of The Best event at Bolton Octagon, . because it clashed with her filming schedule for Emmerdale, in which she plays DS Karen Williams.

Evaporated

"My disappointment soon evaporated when the call came to take the show to the Royal Exchange Theatre in May," smiles Annie. This was quickly followed by support from Arts Council England for a tour.

Annie came to the attention of The Studio, when she performed a 15 minute excerpt from her new play It's Difficult To Say With Any Certainty, at BLUE5, the Exchange's annual showcase for new work in the north west, last summer.

"It was an idea I had to make a really visual play, inspired by the story of a woman who took her autistic son to the Humber Bridge and jumped. It's sounds gloomy but it's inspired by some of the interesting detail of that story, like the choice to commit suicide in the place where they had had their happiest summer holidays. So in that way, and this may sound strange, it's about the desire to live fully and in the moment. At least I hope that's what it is about!," says Annie.

"BLUE5 was on the same week as 24:7, last year. I had only recently moved to Manchester and was enjoying a really busy time as an actress, but also wanted to embrace the really vibrant theatre scene and to take up the opportunities that are here to make my own work.

"So I was dashing from the 24:7 performances at the Midland Hotel, where my fellow performer and I were sharing a disabled toilet for a dressing room and cleaning up the stage ourselves after each show, and dashing off to the Royal Exchange to perform in BLUE5 where I was delighted to find I had a bed in my dressing room and a fridge with fruit and bubbly water!"

Not With That Hand is at the Royal Exchange Studio from Thursday until May 10.