CityLife

Assassins aim for a hit

YOU don't have to be MAD to join them, but oh... stop it!  MAD is actually the acronym for Moston Active Drama, a community drama group established in 1996.

Since then, and with a tiny fraction of the sort of financial support that some other, higher profile, groups receive, they've put on more than 25 plays in venues ranging from tin huts, local church halls, schools and social clubs to more conventional theatres such as the Middleton Civic Hall, the Green Room, the Zion Centre in Hulme and the Contact Theatre.
Now, in one of their bolder ventures, their latest production, Smiling Assassins, is heading for the Royal Exchange's Studio Theatre, although not before local Moston people have had the first opportunity to see it.

"Basically, Moston Active Drama came together back in 1996," remembers MAD man Rob Lees, "because we, by which I mean Richard Grossick, now of North City Arts, and myself, felt that, historically, there had been a real lack of artistic resources in the north of Manchester.

"Traditionally, people from areas in the north like Moston, by and large, hadn't gone to the theatre in the city centre that much. Nonetheless, there was a wealth of artistic talent that needed to be channelled in some way.

"What we weren't interested in doing was going into the amateur dramatics area - after all, who needs to see another church hall production of Oklahoma? What we were concerned to do was to give north Manchester a voice, to celebrate the area by making stories that local people could feel part of.

"Another key part of our approach comes from the fact that the area doesn't really have a performance venue, so we have to take theatre to the people. After all, why should they necessarily have to go to the theatre, why shouldn't it be the other way around?

Spaces

"So we're constantly looking for new spaces to perform in, such as the John Willy Lees Social Club in Moston, which is where we are premiering Smiling Assassins."

That particular production is, like all their other productions to date, devised, written and performed by the constantly changing members of the group.

"Each one of our productions, as well as being very much north Manchester-driven, is always devised by its cast," explains Rob. "We also feel like we always need to seize the moment, to reinvent ourselves constantly and keep it modern. We don't build up a repertoire in the conventional sense because there is a turnover in group members.''

Smiling Assassins is, he says, "like a local, updated version of The Full Monty" in which a group of men run one of two pubs on an estate which the rival landlord wants to take over. The only way to stop him is for them to open an `Alternative' Males Escort Agency, offering "skanky blokes for posh birds".

"Actually, contrary to what I said, this is a play we're keen on taking to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival next year," says Rob. "At one point we were thinking of making a documentary "making of" film alongside this production, we had so much trouble getting it together one way or another.

But the important thing is that we, as a group, got through it and that's what is key about Moston Active Drama, that it really is a joint community effort. This is the sort of production where one of the actors also designed the set and his son is doing the sound, because it really means something to them and the community. Today Moston, tomorrow the world!"

Smiling Assassins from Moston Active Drama is at the Royal Exchange Studio from next Thursday until August 15. It will also be at The Met, Bury, on September 10 and 11.