FourPlay

Discover some of the Crescent's fresh new directing talent - four new directors, four short or one-act plays over a fortnight. This is bite-sized theatre with a buffet of productions to choose from!

After last year's highly successful introduction of the format, 2008 sees a return to the idea. Come back later in the year for more details.

The Bald Prima Donna by Eugene Ionesco

30th June, 2nd, 4th & 5th July at 7.45 (with The Lesson)

The Smiths are a traditional family from London, who have invited another family, the Martins, over for a visit. Their married guests, Mr and Mrs Martin, are certain that they have met somewhere before. They are joined later by the Smiths' maid, Mary, who reveals that she is Sherlock Holmes, and the local fire chief, who is also a friend and confuses everyone by bobby-knocking at the door. Who is responsible for this misunderstanding?

The two families engage in meaningless banter, telling stories and relating nonsensical poems as the play explores the futility as well as the lack of meaningful communication in modern society.

The Street Cleaner - by Jefferson Collins

28th June, 1st & 3rd July at 7.45; 5th July at 2.45 (with 100)

Two friends reunite after six years apart, but have they changed irreparably? As they journey through their pasts, will they find a common future? Or has time and ambition intervened to make their differences unsurpassable.

100 by Neil Monaghan, Diene Petterie and Christopher Heimann

28th June, 1st & 3rd July at 7.45; 5th July at 2.45 (with The Street Cleaner)

Imagine that you must choose one single memory from your life and capture it with a magical camera… That choosing this memory is your only way of passing through to eternity and that all other memories will be erased forever.

The Lesson by Eugene Ionesco

30th June, 2nd, 4th & 5th July at 7.45 (with The Bald Prima Donna)

A professor awaits a fresh pupil's arrival, brushing off the maid's warnings of the dark things that may come of yet another lesson... But as the pupil's limitations become evident, the professor's frustration grows, and the day's lesson takes its foreshadowed, perilous turn. This potent "Comic Drama" has the power to frighten and delight as only Absurdist plays can.

Tickets: £10 for each pair of plays (Concessions £9)