Triumphant 24:7
LAST year's 24:7 Festival was a pretty well-unqualified success, with many of the shows selling out and having to add extra performances.The Bolton Octagon also took three of the shows for an equally successful run at their theatre later in the year.
So, from an unlikely idea hatched by David Slack and Amanda Hennessy four years ago, the 24:7 Festival has become a vital part of the Manchester theatrical scene.
It's an invigorating celebration of the exceptional range of new writing and performing talent in the north west and this year's festival will run from July 23-29, as a regional platform for playwrights, directors and actors which offers an exciting and diverse programme of new work for audiences to enjoy. This year's festival was announced earlier this week at Pure in The Printworks, in front of guests including local actor John Henshaw (Confessions Of A Diary Secretary; Early Doors).
The performances this year will take place in three different spaces in Pure, which will also offer a Festival Hub, along with the old favourite of the Victoria Suite in the Midland Hotel. You can get full details from the festival website but selections include some returning favourites and many new names.
Bang-Bang! by Sally Lawton (Function Factory Theatre), is a drama about "wanting something so bad you can't think straight", while Boots by David Pattison (Ensemble 52) is "a tragic farce exploring the meaninglessness of existence in ways that are comic, horrifying and absurd" .
Neil A Edwards' Bullet Shaped Heart (Second Nature Theatre Company) addresses the Falklands War, and Cake by Mike Heath (MediaMedea), finds Julian coming out to his parents, with results he doesn't quite expect. Comedy Mouthwash by Trevor Suthers (RealLife Theatre Company) is a set of new comedy sketches, while Concrete Ribbons, from Lesa Dryburgh and Michael Trainor (Pop Empires) finds a desperate couple, trapped in a broken lift discovering theatre for motorists passing their high-rise balcony.
Each To Their Own, by Julia Hogan (Here Today Theatre Company) deals with teenage temptation and secret menace amid the cultural chemistry of a Lancashire milltown, and Eating Out by MEN Theatre Award winner Ross Andrews (Second Nature Theatre Company) is described as "a social comedy", unlike the black drama of Richard Vergette's one-man show, An Englishman's Home (Ensemble 52).
"Living in a pigeon loft, is that the way to deal with losing the love of your life?", is the question posed by Aelish Michael's Flying Solo (Leap Of Faith), while Grave Goods, by Anne Neville (Disordered Speech) finds four bereaved women meeting by accident in the old Southern Cemetery.
Anthony Trevelyan's Harlequin is a drama set on a Friday night in contemporary Manchester, and Holed Up by Christine Marshall (Jelly Shoe) is a comedy drama about two neighbours who have got on each other's nerves for years. MediaMedea's second production in the festival is Job No. 143 by Ian Curley, also a brand-new comedy drama.
The Lullaby Witch, by Mark Griffiths (Rookie Theatre Company) is a drama bringing together a deranged killer of child musical prodigies and a cynical rock journalist. Medea by Euripedes is given an accessible contemporary make-over by Peter McGarry (Eyewitness) and Mind The Gap by Luke Walker (Locus) reminds us that life is not black and white, life is the gap in between. Two women banned from working with children and living in fear are the basis for the disturbing drama Not With That Hand by Annie Fitzmaurice, Paul Hunter and Erika Poole (Two Ladies).
Elizabeth Baines has written The Processing Room (Eye Of the Storm), a drama about three women trapped in a strange waiting room, while Steve Pearce's Rose Cottage (Shrink Wrapped Theatre) is described as "a heart-warming black comedy". It's set in a mortuary. The black comedy touch can also be found in Kevin Cuffe's Slowly, Vignettes, "a comedy about life and how to avoid it".
You can book or get more information from: 247theatrefestival.co.uk.
Published: Fri, 22 June, 2007
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