Leicester’s The Y Theatre is boldly holding fourteen plays in forty eight hours with what is billed as ‘the world’s quickest theatre festival’.
14/48 provides audiences with the exciting opportunity to witness seven plays written, rehearsed and performed in just 24 hours. The whistle stop show began Friday May 24th and finishes Saturday May 25th with two performances taking place at 8pm and 10pm.
A new theme is picked the day before with Friday’s show revolving around ‘dangerous cravings’ and Saturday’s theme chosen live by the previous audience as ‘saints and sinners’.
Hailing from the streets of Seattle, the show features seven plays by seven writers and directors starring local performers that include 25 actors and an enthusiastic live band.
At times daring and not for the faint hearted, each play varied in genre from the comedic Bleedin’ Love, written by Wenna Stockdale, detailing the unusual cravings of a pregnant woman in labor to the darkly comedic Mother’s Love, written by Bev Hancock-Smith, in which an ordinary family meal is disturbed by their basement bound son.
The heart-breaking Breath, written by Louise Singleton, provided the festival with a unique commentary on mental health set within a dystopia in which people inhale emotions as a form of mind control. Actresses Jennifer Welwright and Ishi Khan Jackson portrayed the universal feelings of loneliness and laughter realistically which complimented the surreal setting that could have been in danger of alienating the audience. Pears, written by Alex Bliss, also bought a lot of heart as well as laughs with actresses Kirsty Munro and Tonia Campbell’s warring supermarket workers providing perfectly timed comic relief. Their lecherous supermarket manager was played brilliantly by Lawrence Ward who managed portray the Machiavellian villain as both awkwardly funny when appropriate and disturbingly sinister.
Tickets for 14/48 are available from The Y Theatre website: www.ytheatre.co.uk as well as the box office via telephone number 0116 255 6507. Prices: £7 and £5 concessions.
By Sharna Ridge
