CityLife

Peribanez comes to Salford

CONGRATULATIONS are very much in order to the organisers of the excitingly ambitious 24:7 theatre festival.

Over the course of the week - including 80 performances of 17 shows at five different and unusual venues - they filled over 50 per cent of the available seats, with nearly 1,500 audience members!

"Not bad at all for a new festival. In fact, it was blooming brilliant," enthuses David Slack, who organised the festival from scratch with co-founder Amanda Hennessy. "We had people squeezing in at the back at the final performances, saying, `We have to see something!'

"This is very encouraging and bodes well for future events," David promises.

In fact, no sooner had they finished this year's festival, when they were given the chance to promote a one-off touring performance of Peribanez, by Lope de Vega.

Studio Salford at the King's Arms, Bloom Street, (home to Jam, Modern Ambergris, O'Leary's Daughters and people'stalking) will play host this Sunday to a company from the 14-18 year olds of St Joseph's Academy, Kilmarnock, who premiered the play in Scotland last November.

Flawless

James Boyle (former Chair of the Scottish Arts Council and current head of the Culture Commission) singled out the production in his review of the year in Scotland on Sunday, describing it as ``flawless''.

The play opens in Ocana, a small rural village, where the local peasants are celebrating the marriage of Peribanez to the beautiful Casilda.

The festivities are interrupted by the arrival of the Commander, who is brought to the newly-weds' home unconscious, having been gored by a bull.

When he regains consciousness, the Commander is instantly smitten with the new bride and vows to make her his by any means at his disposal.

Peribanez from St Joseph's Academy is at the King's Arms, Bloom Street, Salford, Sunday, August 8 at 2pm. é3-é6.