24:7 Theatre Festival reveals its 2015 programme

Feature by News Team | 11 Jun 2015

Back at the start of the year, it looked like 24:7 wasn’t going to happen; after losing its regular funding, Manchester’s always vital festival of new theatre-making looked in jeopardy. Praise be, then, for the successful crowd-funding campaign and additional support from the Arts Council and Manchester City Council that allows this 12th edition to go ahead.

The programme for the festival launched tonight at Manchester's Comedy Store, and it’s a stripped down affair, taking place over a weekend after ten successful years of presenting week-long festivals.

In the five play programme you’ll find James Harker’s black comedy Gary: A Love Story, described as “a tender, caustic play about brotherly love, brotherly hate and a criminal justice system that kills the young for sport,” and the brilliantly titled Madness Sweet Madness, from Georgina Tremayne, which we’re informed is a drama about personal space, private grief, public interventions, breaking hearts and, cryptically, broken eggs.  

We’re also intrigued by the premise of James Kerr’s The Plant, which centres on two protagonists who find themselves mysteriously imprisoned and start doing the only thing they can do: tell stories to each other. It’s described as “a darkly comic exploration of society, Bulgarian morning whisky, bureaucracy, and the stories that make up our everyday lives.”

Also taking the form of two people trapped in close quarters is We are the Multitude, from writer Laura Harper. In this case, a pair, described as “victims of their own intensely irritating personalities,” become trapped in their office after it's occupied by angry demonstrators. It’s a situation that might resonate with anyone who’s wandered around Manchester City Centre in the last few months and witnessed the protests by rough sleepers looking for a bit of humanity from Manchester businesses and institutions.

Last year’s most innovative play was the family-friendly The Tongue Twister, and this year’s production aimed at younger audiences, The Butterfly’s Adventure, written by the Scallywags Devising Collective, sounds similarly inventive. The setting is a sunny meadow deep within a forest, where caterpillars dream of fluttering through the summer sky. As anyone who's read The Very Hungry Caterpillar might guess, our crawling heroes are about to go on a big adventure.

24:7 Theatre Festival takes place Fri 24 to Sun 26 July in and around the Martin Harris Centre for Music and Drama, part of the University of Manchester, just off Oxford Road. For the full programme and listings, including 24:7's various theatre workshops, go to 247theatrefestival.co.uk.


More from The Skinny:


24:7 Theatre Festival: Ten Years, Ten Plays, Ten Questions

Jackie Hagan on her new show, Some People Have Too Many Legs

http://247theatrefestival.co.uk