A festival of new plays and new theatre-making, of stories, experiments and new ideas will spring to life at the Everyman from Wednesday 11th to Saturday 14th May. Stories From The City will tell tales from the beating heart of the city to the gleaming horizon. There will be the chance to see early workings of new plays-in-progress from Michael Wynne and Jonathan Harvey, there will be a piece created by Liverpool artists responding to the refugee crisis along with inspirational talks and workshops from Dawn Walton and Open Clasp Theatre.
Literary Associate Lindsay Rodden said,“The return of Everyword sees the festival beginning a conversation with the city, one that is integral to the future of the Everyman, placing the stories that matter to our audiences at its heart. The future of our theatres and the way we reflect the people of this city’s experiences and lives on stage begins with our writers.
The festival features work by well-known Liverpool writers like Michael Wynne and Jonathan Harvey, but I’m delighted we’re also showcasing work by new playwrights such as Deborah Morgan and Saphena Aziz, to name but two, and to be nurturing future talent through writing workshops. We’re also turning over the Everyman stage to a host of Liverpool talent who have something urgent to say about the world, creating theatre in response to the refugee crisis”.
On Wednesday 11th May there will be a play reading of Jonathan Harvey’s (Gimme Gimme Gimme, Beautiful Thing, Canary)latest play Our Lady of Blundellsands directed by Artistic Director Gemma Bodinetz. The play follows sisters Sylvie and Garnet who live in a house by the sea. Sylvie’s not left the house for thirty years, spending her day cocooned in a haze of cheap wine and fading memories of her time in the sun – Miss New Brighton 1969, a guest appearance on Z Cars, modelling as the Virgin Mary for a stained glass window. Her boys are coming home for Garnet’s 70th, but Garnet’s just had some bad news. Is it time to reveal that this is a house built on lies?
The Big Brilliant Music Hall Show is the as-yet-untitled new piece by Michael Wynne (The Knocky, My Summer of Love, Being Eileen). On Saturday 14th May Stories From The City will include a reading of scenes and songs from this new work based on the Playhouse’s Music Hall past. Michael Wynne’s play Hope Place delighted record audiences in 2014, and now he is back home again, this time delving into the music and stories of The Star Music Hall. This new show will go behind the scenes of history with a host of Liverpool music hall acts and characters, the onstage magic and the drama in the wings. This work-in-progress hasn’t even been given a title yet but with some of the best-loved music hall songs (Don’t Dilly Dally, The Old Bull and Bush, Waiting at the Church) and some lesser known beauties, you can expect rabble-rousers, tear-jerkers, and most of all a right good knees-up!
Also on Saturday 14th May, a group of Liverpool writers, directors, actors and musicians will create a new piece in response to the refugee crisis in Europe. Every penny of ticket sales goes to the charity Help Refugees, and we’ll also be collecting goods throughout the festival for Asylum Link, who are doing incredible work with asylum seekers and refugees in Liverpool. Titled The Stranger’s Case, it will be created freshly in the coming weeks by the group that includes Saphena Aziz, Esther Dix, Ella Greenhill, Elli Johnson, Mez Ndukwe, Lizzie Nunnery, Lindsay Rodden and Jeff Young. More artists and cast will be announced soon. The theatres feel it is important to represent the refugee crisis on stage and will be filling the piece with stories, poetry and music.
For Liverpool LightNight the festival will create an installation called The Invisible City, a free event for people to drop into throughout the evening, written by Paddy Hughes, Alex Joynes, Raven Maguire, Deborah Morgan, Molly Taylor and Jeff Young. Six voices speak from their mark on the map, telling us their story, arriving at this point in time and space. As the beautiful chaos of the world keeps spinning, six strangers speak so that you might recognise their story. Their city is your city, as it disappears and slips into the night.
Every day during the festival in the Everyman Theatre Bar there will be a Platform event, curated by Paddy Hughes (A Lovely Word). Paddy will host Platform for forty-five minutes each day during the festival, offering five minute slots to anyone who has something to say. He will be inviting writers to come and have their five minutes on the Platform stage, and he also wants to hear from the public. What you say at Platform can be a poem, a monologue, a beautifully crafted plea or a rebel rant, most importantly, it should be about the world right now as you see it, or as you wish it would be.
Shôn Dale-Jones, who will be at the Everyman with The Duke in early May, presents a story-in-progress called Stories From…. He is at the initial stages of wondering how to make a live solo show from a whole load of content he’s collected over the last ten years, inspired by his childhood memories of living in a small market town on the middle of the Isle of Anglesey. The performance is a solo improvisation in which he explores both the process and the presentation of a show he is determined to stage next year.
The festival will also include three workshops from industry leaders. On Thursday 12th May, writer, activist and co-founder of Open Clasp Theatre Company, Catrina McHugh will lead a workshop titled Changing the World One Play At A Time. It will explore and demonstrate Open Clasp’s unique approach and practice collaborating with women on the margins of society to create exciting theatre for social and political change. On Friday 13th May award-winning playwright Chloe Todd Fordham leads a workshop for playwrights on writing practice, source material, inspiration and imagination called Writing What You Know, Writing What You Don’t Know. Finally, on Saturday 14th May, Eclipse Theatre Company Artistic Director Dawn Walton leads a workshop called The personal is political: feeling first, then thinking. Designed to inspire, provoke and challenge in equal measure, this practical workshop and discussion is all about making theatre to forge an emotional connection with the audience, to stir the heart and soul as a catalyst for action and seeing the world anew.
Everyday
Platform
Curated by writer Paddy Hughes
Everyman Theatre Bar, 6.30pm, Wednesday to Saturday, Free
Wednesday 11th May
Our Lady of Blundellsands
By Jonathan Harvey
Play reading directed by Artistic Director Gemma Bodinetz
Everyman Theatre, 8pm, £7
Thursday 12th May
Changing the world one play at a time
With Catrina McHugh
A workshop for all theatre-makers
EV 2 and Theatre Bar, 3pm – 6pm, £5
Stories From…
By Shôn Dale-Jones
A story-in-progress
Everyman Theatre, 8pm, £7
Friday 13th May
Writing What You Know, Writing What You Don’t Know
With Chloe Todd Fordham
A workshop for playwrights,
Everyman Theatre, 3pm – 6pm, £5
The Invisible City
An installation for Liverpool Light Night
Everyman Theatre, 6pm – 9pm, Free
Saturday 14th May
The personal is political: feeling first, then thinking
With Dawn Walton
A workshop for writers and theatre-makers
EV 1, 12noon – 3pm, £5
The Stranger’s Case
Liverpool artists respond to the refugee crisis
Everyman Theatre, 4.30pm, £7
The Big Brilliant Music Hall Show
An as-yet-untitled entertainment by Michael Wynne
A reading of scenes and songs
Everyman Theatre, 8pm, £7.