Live Performances and Screenings
Friday 10 June, 6pm–7.30pm installation, 8pm–9pm filmed performance screenings
Installation
BA (Hons) Drama and Contemporary Performance
Created and performed by newly formed collective Bitterroot (Jake Rayner-Blair and Chris Richards), this installation is a development of their first production, If it's to Break, using duration and attempt to expand their ideas. Combining live performance with visual arts and immersive sound design, the installation tackles the act of creation, and the meeting point between the live and the recorded.
Holden Gallery Film Room.
Tuesday 14 June, 5pm
If it's to Break
BA (Hons) Drama and Contemporary Performance
Devised and performed by Bitterroot (Jake Rayner Blair and Chris Richards), If it's to Break is a dark atmospheric performance exploring self-acceptance and failure in art. Drawing inspiration from Samuel Beckett, Jerzy Grotowski and Cassils, and driven by body-based work with an original sound score composed by Chris Richards, this performance asks the ancient question, 'what does it mean to make art?'
Holden Gallery Film Room.
Wednesday 15 June, 5pm
What a Clown
BA (Hons) Drama and Contemporary Performance
Created and performed by Maxx Orrell, What a Clown explores their unique family history as a fifth generation clown. Covering their relationship with the clown that started it all, Charlie Parsons, Maxx will show you Charlie’s full bag of tricks, tell tales of Charlie’s exploits as well as exploring the side to Charlie that was hidden from the public eye. Images from the Blackpool Postcard Archive.
CONTENT WARNING: Contains themes of addiction, mental ill-health and depression.
Holden Gallery Film Room.
Thursday 16 June, 5pm
Val’s Haunted Discotheque
BA (Hons) Drama and Contemporary Performance
Expanding on a piece debuted in 2021, this piece offers a deconstruction of horror strategies and representations, framed as a discotheque. Inspired by theatre company imitating the dog and the work of renowned film Professor Carol J. Clover, Val’s Haunted Discotheque explores the gendered violence enacted against women in the real world and on the silver screen. CONTENT WARNING: Contains excerpts and descriptions of graphic horror films.
Holden Gallery Film Room.
Friday 17 June, 5pm
All the things I lied about by Katie Bonna
BA (Hons) Acting
Directed and performed by Amy Dewsnip, this is a TED talk on the science of lying. Only that's not quite true. TED haven't actually commissioned one - yet. From duping her sister into drinking her own urine, to confessions of repeated infidelity, Fringe First winner Katie Bonna unpicks her history to confront humanity's obsessions with telling fibs. 'Would the world be a better place if we were all honest?’
Holden Gallery Film Room.
Showreel Screenings
Presented by the Manchester School of Theatre, in the Holden Gallery Film Room, this showreel of filmed performances runs throughout the Degree Show except during, and two hours prior to, the live performances listed above.
BA (Hons) Acting
A series of professionally created short films directed by Graeme Hawley and Elianne Hawley, and filmed and edited David Reiverson and Jonathan Hart.
- Unknown Friend by Laura Atherton, performed by Jack Rawstron and Oliver Taylor
- Path Controllers by Laura Atherton, performed by Elizabeth Meadows and Amy Dewsnip
- Battles by Laura Atherton, performed by Elizabeth Meadows and John Smullen
- Out of Order by Katherine Hunter, performed by Jess Perillo and Mia Gibson
- Orm by Katherine Hunter, performed by Catherine Attwood and Heather Campbell-Ferguson
- Eighteen Letters by Julia Sumsion, performed by Jonny Vernon and Jimmy Roberts
- The Meeting by Julia Sumsion, performed by Jonny Vernon, Claudia Whitby-Tillott and Jimmy Roberts
- Street Triage by Julia Sumsion, performed by Mark Emmons and William Meek
BA (Hons) Drama and Contemporary Performance
Stockpile (edited highlights)
by Here Lies a Dragonfly
Inspired by the work of Hester Chillingworth, Forced Entertainment and Reckless Sleepers, Here Lies a Dragonfly presents Stockpile – a performance exploring connection in the face of Sisyphean tasks. Created and presented by Jess Edwards, Chris Richards, Alicia Fretter, Jake Rayner Blair, Maxx Orrell, Abi Sallery, Lorna Scott, Valentina Vettore, Rebecca Horswill and Amy Melia.
The Drama School (edited highlights)
A mockumentary about a fictional drama school. Written and performed by Amanda Astall, Ciara McNicholas, Melissa Mcclay, Owen Skinner and Ryan Skerrow. Camera operated by Tayler Roughley, sound by Maz Elgonemy and Jess Edwards, edited by Owen Skinner.
Cleansed by Sarah Kane (edited highlights)
Cleansed takes place in an institution designed to rid society of its undesirables, where the psychopathic Tinker tests the bonds of love and fidelity. Directed by Connor Goodwin and Anisa Zaraj, performed by Anisa Zaraj, Alysha Wilkinson, Kasandra Amanowska, Sonny Spencer, Chloe Ball and Grace Collins, designed by Maria Khan.
CONTENT WARNING: Contains strong language, depictions of sexual assault, blood, drugs and drug addiction, rape, graphic scenes of violence, suicide, strobe and flashing lighting.
NOT SUITABLE FOR PEOPLE UNDER 16.