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Oscar Wilde consciously invented himself, a 'prototype post modern hero'. He lived his homosexuality openly at a time when it was scarcely possible to acknowledge publicly its existence. Wilde paid the price for this. His trial for gross indecency and subsequent imprisonment secured his downfall. In 1900 he died friendless and penniless in Paris. Performed by Ribcage Theatre Company.
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Funeral Games
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Joe Orton's satirical, farcical, black comedy on the subject of Christian charity, with more than a hint of religious hypocrisy. Deliciously wicked in its use of dialogue, plot and setting, the grotesque characters encounter murder, a body part - and a Dundee cake tin! Chaos ensues! Performed by Common End Theatre Company, a company made up of a group of northern based actors with a very impressive list of theatre and tv credits.
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The first play written by British dramatist Shelagh Delaney, written when she was just 18. It was originally intended as a novel, but she turned it into a play because she hoped to revitalise British theatre and to address the social issues that she felt were not being presented at the time. Hard hitting and thought provoking. Performed by Ribcage Theatre Company.
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Especially the Latter Part - The Life and Death of Kenneth Halliwell
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In 1967, Kenneth Halliwell murdered his lover, the playwright Joe Orton, in a frenzied hammer attack, he then took his own life with a fatal overdose of sleeping pills. It was the culmination of a 16 year relationship that had seen Orton transformed into a nobody into one of the most feted writers of his era - and Halliwell, once dominant in Orton's life, to a marginalised figure, alternately overlooked and despised by Orton's new celebrity friends. Performed by Theatre in Reaction.
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| Two presents a certain irony in that it follows the lives of fourteen people in a northern pub. It demonstrates Jim Cartwright's move into a minimalistic dramatic method. The play illustrates the petty torture, broken promises and comforts of being a couple. Here it was transplanted in the working environment of a successful nightclub. Morbidly portrayed yet reaching the heights of hilarity. Performed by Double Bluff Theatre Company. |
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The Woman Who Cooked Her Husband
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Kenneth and Hilary have been married nearly 20 years, but as middle age encroaches Kenneth finds himself in the arms of another woman. At first, Laura seems to represent everything that is missing from Kenneth's life with Hilary, but his little fling spirals into a world of lies and deceit. Told through a series of flashbacks it brings a new meaning to the old adage, "the way to a man's heart is through his stomach." Performed by Double Bluff Theatre Company.
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Someone Who'll Watch Over Me
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Written by Irish dramatist Frank McGuinness. The play focuses on the trials and tribulations of an Irishman, an Englishman and an American who are kidnapped and held hostage by unseen Arabs in the Middle east. As the three men strive for survival they also strive to overcome their personal and nationalistic differences. Related to this is each individual's attempt to maintain sanity under the watchful eye of both captors and supposed comrades. Performed by Open Door Theatre Company.
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A delicate double love story like they don't make them anymore. It has the bittersweet atmosphere of a French Film, and like a film the story is told in a series of intriguingly interconnected flashbacks. Written by author and actress Evelyn de la Chenelière and translated from the French version by the accomplished playwright Rona Monro. Performed by Ribcage Theatre Company
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One Night With You/Cat and Mouse
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A Bernie Crosthwaite double bill featuring two short plays from the author and playwright. In One Night With You, Gavin has always had a fling for sexy neighbour Francesca. When they meet by chance in a sleazy hotel he hopes to grab the last chance of happiness. But Gavin is married. Does sex become different when you have to pay for it? In Cat and Mouse two characters from different worlds meet one night on a windswept moor. Tiffany likes to shag and shop while Rose believes in womens' rights. Can they ever find common ground?
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Captain Murderer and the Morecambe Mermaid
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A pitch-black musical comedy, created by long-time collaborators John Barber and Lisa Howard, aka Captain Mermaid Theatre Company. This play presents a collision of Maritime myth with a little-known shocker from Charles Dickens, exploring the real, hard lives of historical fairground freaks, trafficked and exploited by their masters, feared and discriminated against by the people who come to stare.
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A double bill produced by Red Redemption, two plays by Sheffield writers with local themes: Flood by Alice Collins takes place on the night of the flood while Jenny waits for her husband to come home - he's late and why hasn't he phoned? In Gill Buttery's Missing People the time is now. Waclaw, a veteran free Polish airman from World War 2 reminisces about his escape to England from a German labour camp.
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In the dressing rooms of Drury Lane, two girls perfect the art of seduction. With beauty and Naked Ambition they transform themselves into paragons of pleasure and ascend to the highest elechons of society in Regency England. The play explores the lives and works of famous, infamous or successful women who have somehow been all but forgotten by the passage of time. Performed by Lucky Fin Productions as part of a national tour of the UK.
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| | In Doris Day two young women graduates join the Metropolitan Police. Daisy and Anna have little in common. But they develop a mutual dependency that shelters behind rough bravado. The false face they present to the world may deceive their colleagues but also hides their own hopes and fears. The dialogue is sharp, coarse at times, echoing the male dominated world into which they are trying to fit. Wriiten by E.V. Crowe the play forms part of a collection, Charged, about women in the justice system. It was developed by writers working with women touched by the system and performed at the Soho Theatre in London to enthusiastic audiences. This production was performed by Ribcage Theatre Company and starred Stephanie Chloe Simpson and Balinda Wilkinson. Another production of Doris Day was staged at the same time at the Edinburgh Festival.
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| | William Shakespeare's Macbeth is the tale of how one man's thirst for power can inevitably lead to the destruction of self and everything that he should be seeking to protect. This marked the first Shakespeare play to be shown as part of Theatre at Dempseys. The classic tale was presented by Double Bluff Theatre Productions and brought a new angle to the play. Four characters played all the parts: Keith Bailey, Yvonne Dempsey, Kathleen Jordan and Gillian Langley. One audience member made the following comment: "Drama at its best... magical moments, and there was lots of that, and that's what theatre is about for me."
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Welcome to the Fabulous Jenny Vegas
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| Starring the multi talented, award winning (TV quick's Unemployed Mum of the Year) Jenny Vegas as she embarked upon a really big tour to promote her new single, novel and fitness DVD. She was delighted to have Penny Capper, Steve Haythorne and Duggie Maguire as her entourage but would like to point out that her talent is all her own. More aspirations of Hollyoaks than Hollywood!
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