Well, we’re nearly there. We open at Bury Met tomorrow night at 7.30pm, and I think that we’re ready to show the world the great piece of comedy we’ve constructed over the last two and a half weeks. The rehearsal process has been really great. The actors have been amazing to work with, and particularly receptive to my approach of introducing gameplay into the creation process. We’ve spent the last couple of weeks exploring the world of the play and we’ve made some lovely, comedic discoveries that I hope you’re going to love. We got to the stage of running the whole piece by the end of last week. And then we timed it! It was running at 90 minutes; which was only really a problem because our slot at the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival is for 60mins, with no slack. So, we went back to the drawing board a little and entered a process of defining and refining, and managed to get the text to a point where it’s now running at a consistent 1hour and 4mins, which we can certainly get away with. We had to lose some lovely moments (which will return when we tour the piece in the future), but what we have is a comedy that really hits the spot. The pacing is great - plenty of high-energy sequences, punctuated with some really poignant moments that allows the audience some breathing time. We get in tomorrow at Bury Met - 7.30pm. Then we’re off to The Kings Arms - the home of WriteForTheStage and Studio Salford - for two shows this coming weekend. Saturday is really close to selling out, so do book in advance if you’re planning on coming along on Saturday. Tickets are available here The dates are Thurs 12th July - Bury Met, 7.30pm Sat 14th July - Kings Arms Theatre, 7.30pm Sun 15th July - Kings Arms Theatre, 2pm (The Kings has a TV screen for the World Cup Final, so A Fine Life would be a great warm-up!) Thurs 19th July - Bury Met 7.30pm Tickets are available here.
