This term, some of the third year Drama students have been working on a Directors’ Project, which culminates in them each directing an excerpt from a play. The results of all their hard work are on from the 4th – 12th May in the John Thaw Studio Theatre, Martin Harris Centre – more info below.
Wednesday 4th May, 6pm/Thursday 5th May, 2pm
A View from the Bridge, written by Arthur Miller, directed by Billie Hakansson
Eddie Carbone is a longshoreman and a straightforward man, with a strong sense of decency and honour. For Eddie, it’s a privilege to take in his wife’s cousins, straight off the boar from Italy. But, as his niece begins to fall for one of them, it’s clear that it’s not just, as Eddie claims, that he’s too strange, too sissy, too careless for her, but that something bigger, deeper is wrong, and wrong inside Eddie, in a way he can’t face. Something which threatens the happiness of the whole family.
After the End, written by Dennis Kelly, directed by George Miaris
Louise wakes up with the news that everyone she knows may well be dead. There’s been a nuclear fallout and London is in ruins. Luckily for Louise her kinda crazy ever-paranoid ex-colleague has got a bunker in his back garden and he’s saved her! All they have is each other, a toilet, one bunkbed and a few bars of chocolate. Their relationship is volatile and threatening but they can’t leave this room.
Foxfinder, written by Dawn King, directed by Sam Ebner-Landy
Having failed to fulfil its quota for the winter harvest, Samuel and Joseph Covey’s remote and highly secluded farm falls under the watchful gaze of William Bloor, a ‘foxfinder’. Though initially there to investigate the presence of an animal that threatens the existence of civilisation itself, William’s motives begin to unravel as he struggles to throw off the influential powers of ‘the beast’. A dark and strangely comic parable, Foxfinder explores the notion of collective fear, the ways in which our societies search for scapegoats, and the dramatic, wholly altering presence of an outsider.
Ghost from a Perfect Place, written by Philip Ridley, directed by Rhomey Aras-Payne
Set in a dingy council flat in the east end of London, Travis Flood, a 1960s gangster has returned to his old haunts after 25 years, where he encounters a girl gang, ‘The Disciples’. The Disciples are well known in their area for being violent, criminal and socially disruptive. Led by Rio the oldest of the three girls. The Disciples aren’t afraid to assert their dominance by whatever means necessary, they think they know everything about what it takes to be in a gang, but Travis Flood has returned with a secret that will change everything that Rio thought she knew about herself.
Wednesday 11th May, 6pm/Thursday 12 May, 2pm
Romeo and Juliet, written by William Shakespeare, directed by Michael Honnah
In this modern day adaption of a Shakespearean classic, Romeo and Juliet are searching for something. Looking for some kind of freedom, some kind of excitement, electricity, connection. The world in which they live in has too many constraints over them. Juliet is being coerced into marrying Prince, and Romeo is constantly being told by his close friends to stop looking for love and to stop dreaming. To distract him from this ‘idleness’, Mercutio forces Romeo to go to the Capulet ball with him. In the midst of music, dancing and celebration, the two are introduced to each other and the freedom they are looking for is at the centre of their palm.
The Winterling, written by Jez Butterworth, directed by Beth Hannon
It’s winter on Dartmoor and in a derelict farmhouse West waits for former associates from the city; Wally and Jerry. But Jerry is dead, and Wally brings along his 25 year old stepson Patsy as a replacement. The wine has been poured, he’s put on his suit and the revolver is loaded. This could be his chance to get back in the game: a reunion and a return from exile. But there’s a mysterious girl upstairs, an axe by the door, and the dog is missing. Nothing is quite what it seems and going home will come at a price as West finds himself locked into a deadly game for his own survival.
Pitchfork Disney, written by Philip Ridley, directed by Emma Young
Dark. All dark outside. The year doesn’t matter. Everything is fucking black. But inside the two exist. Twins. Presley. Haley. The world is a twisted spitting snake of a wasteland. But in here, safety. The pair have existed alone, in here, for the past 10 years. No one else is necessary. Parents gone. Mummy and Daddy said they would come back. They lied. Eat. Piss. Sleep. Fuck. Spit. Hold. Like good children. Then the beautiful boy appears. Disney. The snake. Fear erupts as the twin’s nightmare takes human form.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, written by Tom Stoppard, directed by Lily Ashton
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is an absurdist tragicomedy that expands upon the exploits of two minor characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The action of Stoppard’s play takes place mainly in the wings of the performance, exploring the murky offstage and colliding with fragments of the original play. Suspended between action and confusion the two protagonists voice their despair at the progress of events of which – occurring onstage without them in Hamlet – they have no direct knowledge. Their anxiety fuels their fear, which only stultifies them further. Stoppard finds both humour and poignancy in the situation of the ill-fated attendant lords.
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, written by Edward Albee, directed by Tilly Woodhouse
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf is set in the front room of George and Martha’s house on the campus of a small New England university. Nick and Honey walk into their lair after a faculty party. George and Martha are cruel, awful and sometimes violent towards each other but this has become the language of their love and the only way they know how to coexist. When Nick and Honey get introduced to their lifestyle the outcome is explosive and exciting as they get used in George and Martha’s intellectual and dangerous mind-games.
Manchester Drama 