Are you ready for a summer of theatre, comedy, music and a whole lot more…because for two weeks it’s all coming to Liverpool, in the form of the first ever Liverpool Fringe Festival. The festival will consist of 47 different acts, performing in a range of different venues, mainly in the Hope Street area, including venues like the Casa, 81 Renshaw Street and Blackburne House.
The forty-seven acts taking part in the festival are wide and varied from the world of theatre, comedy and music, including Edinburgh comedy stand-up s and sketch previews, children’s shows, political theatre, new writing from local writers, cabaret and physical theatre.
Acts come from as locally as L1, and further afield, including Italian performer Roberta Laguardia, who’ll be performing monologues from well known Italian political dramatists Franca Rame and Dario Fo at The Casa.
Post-Brexit Britain appears to be inspiring a range of political drama from Liverpool and North-West based writers. The Casa will feature a number of political works, including playwright Jemma Buntin’s play Hurt, which tells the story of 15 year-old John, who turns to far-right radicalisation after falling into a lonely abyss and a devised piece by Liverpool based theatre company Potentially Brilliant called Refugee, about the struggle of being a refugee. The festival will also feature Salford based playwright Rob Johnston’s play In a Land Much Like Ours, a political play written in 2013, but has seen its political elements come even more into focus in recent times.
The festival will also feature shows that will be taking a lighter look at the politics of our modern world. Newcastle based comedian Rahul Koli nominee for the Brighton Fringe Festival and Top tip for the Ediburgh Fringe with B.B.C. Radio 4, The Huffington Post and The Skinny, brings his comic take on the past year and Edinburgh preview show Chubby Brown to the festival.
Closer to home, local based writer Michael Howl brings his both hilarious and tear jerking story More Scouse Saddam to the festival, telling the true story of a group of Scouse builder who went to work on Sadham Hussain’s palace and ended up being taken hostage.
This is just a snippet of events taking place during the 2017 Liverpool Fringe Festival, the whole programme can be viewed at their website. www.liverpoolfringe.co.uk. The festival runs from the, 17th June-2nd July, 2017 at number of venues around Liverpool.