Local plays set to feature at Greater Manchester Fringe Festival

The three short Lyceum Theatre plays will be performed as part of Greater Manchester Fringe Festival next month

Local winners of Lyceum Theatre Oldham's first ever One-Act Playwriting competition will see their plays performed on stage during Greater Manchester's biggest Fringe Festival next month. 

The winning script – Twister - was written by retired teacher Ian Gray, who lives in Wigan. 

His play was inspired by material from Amnesty International and explores the effects of enhanced interrogation on the practitioner as well as the victim. 

Using humour and menace in equal measure, Ian’s compelling drama twists and turns, leaving the audience powerfully uncomfortable and challenged. 

Talented winner Ian also has a play being performed by Make It Write as part of Liverpool Fringe this summer.

The second prize goes to locally born and bred Bob Pegg. Researching for another project, he discovered that Charlotte Bronte and Karl Marx were both in Manchester on the same day in 1846. 

His play – The Salutation - imagines a meeting between these two great minds, using historical facts as well as dramatic licence to explore how their conversation may have gone.

Third Prize winner Patricia Cunningham has worked all her life in social. 

Her play - A good man - explores preconceptions about what makes a good rather than a bad man, through an interview between a Probation Officer and John, who is on remand for stabbing someone. 

Appearing at first to be simply an angry young man, the interview reveals his true character, but also a piece of evidence that may be crucial.

PlotFest was an anonymous competition, run by Lyceum Theatre Oldham last year. 

The winners have all had work produced in the past, for local theatre groups, for the BBC and as part of other writing festivals. 

The three short plays will be performed as part of Greater Manchester Fringe Festival on Friday 13 and Saturday July 14, 2018, at 7.30pm.

Tickets are on sale online for only £8.50 from: lyceumtheatre.org.uk