‘24 Hour Plays’
In late May 2011 I was asked to join the team for 24 Hour Plays at the Bath Theatre Royal, produced in association with Roughhouse Theatre and the Theatre Royal's Engage Programme and performed in their Ustinov Theatre. For those that haven't come across the 24 Hour Plays concept before, here's an idea of what it's all about:
"Six writers, six directors and a pool of actors meet for the first time on a Friday night. By the Saturday night, they will have written, directed, rehearsed and performed six brand new pieces of theatre."
In what has been described as the greatest theatrical adrenaline rush, the Ustinov Studio invites you to join them in the ultimate creative leap of faith!
A leap of faith it was, but one that paid off - a wonderful day where I enjoyed the freedom of creating something entirely new with a group of strangers, knowing that later that night it would be performed to a packed house. My group were assigned an extraordinary piece of writing by Simon Harvey Williams, which took as it's premise a group of people meeting together in the living room of an elderly man as the 'end of the world' swiftly approaches. In amongst a motley crew of believers and sceptics, my character Siobhan is revealed as a writer, attending the meeting undercover to research her forthcoming book...
Cast:
Christopher Grimes, Emer Heatley, Stephen McGonigle, Emma Scolding, Sarah Tempest, Dorothy Barker, Gerard Cooke, Martyn Jessop, Angela Giddings,
Stephanie Weston, Lucinda Holloway, Moira Hunt, Justin Palmer, Elly Salisbury, Jordan Whyte, Holly Gilbert, Robert Harper, Hannah Nicholas, Nic Rauh, Eoin Slattery,
Tony Giddings, Malcolm Hamilton, Matt Hocken, Anna Westlake, Sarah Winter, Emily Lockwood, Oliver Millingham, Joe Spurgeon, Laura Wickham, Louise Wright
Directors:
Ian McGlynn, Chris Loveless, Andy Burden, Sam Berger, Anna Girvan, Hannah Drake
Writers:
Katherine Mitchell, Adrian Harris, Carrie Rhys Davies, David Lane, Simon Harvey Williams, Gill Kirk
Project Director:
Shane Morgan
Producer:
Jill Bennett
www.theatreroyal.org.uk
www.roughhousetheatre.com
"...'The 24 Hour Plays' had the spunky, adrenaline-rich verve of a 1970s punk album, a hothouse quality that reviving a Chekhov or a Calderon can
never really have...the quality of work here, from writers, directors and actors was astonishing...rounding the night off with suitable aplomb, Simon Harvey Williams's
'Reckoning' took the topical subject of a predicted apocalypse as four variously credulous or incredulous people gathered in the house of an unlikely 'prophet'...an ambitious
night of remarkably honed and broad-ranging theatre, brought from page to stage with terrifying speed by equally heroic teams of directors and actors...the sheer energy and
derring-do of all involved was palpable: a reminder of how exhilarating theatre at its rawest can be."
Tom Philips, Venue