The Departure
Run Date: 6/11/23 - 8/11/23.
Venue: The King's Arms, Salford.
Description:
The Departure was a concept created by Artistic Director, Adam Cachia, and Associate Director, Jessica Rose Renshall, to provide a platform to share short plays over the course of a three nights. The plays would range in theme and would also be a platform to connect emerging talent and established ones - this was seen across the board from writers to director to actors!
The evening saw 9 pieces in total performed. Some ranged from short 5 minute monologues to 20 minute pieces. Some were humorous, some were dramatic, but all were unique in their own way.
The Pieces
The Gardener
Description: The Gardener is an extract from a play that explores what it means to own and consume. Can we really own anything when things live and die every day? When and how do we let go of things that we love? A gardener from the Lake District narrates this problem.
Written by Sebastian Gardiner
Cast:
Leah Marks as The Gardener
Directed by Adam Cachia
This is My Stop
Description: Jane has developed a phobia of buses. She’s determined to face her fear but wasn’t expecting a running commentary from her mother, who makes the journey all the more difficult. This is My Stop explores a daughter’s guilt and a mother’s worry as the two women, caught in a generational divide, reflect on recent events and life.
Written by Victoria Buse
Cast:
Fiona Boylan as Jane
Isabel Ford as Julia
Directed by Jess Gough
The Jag' Man
Description: On the night of his 60th birthday, Stevie, finally confronts the ghosts of his past. Jumping from the 1980's to now, Stevie tries to lay to rest the grief of his youth; the height of the AIDS pandemic, guilt, love, and long-lost friends.
Written by Joshua Lee
Cast:
George Bellamy as Stevie
James Sprague as Melvin
John Joyce-O'Keeffe as Older Stevie
Directed by Adam Cachia
Artist Unknown
Description: Do you know everything about your parents? Following their mother’s death, Nick and Grace uncover a shocking secret when they meet to tidy loose ends at the family home
Written by Nicky Denovan
Cast:
Megan Keaveny as Grace
Lewis Pugh as Nick
Directed by Ronan McGrath
The Departure From My Body
Description: A woman sits on her day off, bombarded by texts from her manager, she mindlessly scrolls social media. Another name is trending, a stark reminder of her past.
The Departure From My Body explores celebrity sexual assault allegations and the ensuing social media response, inviting the audience to examine the impact these things have on the victims.
Written by Hannah MacDonald
Cast:
Hannah MacDonald as The Woman
Directed by: Jess Gough
Pack It In
Description: In Pack It In we meet Mark a young man born in the South of England, as he packs up his bedroom getting ready to move, and deliberates over why Heathrow is the worst airport in the world
Written by Will Bee
Cast:
Will Bee as Mark
Directed by Arthur Loades
Dolly DePart'n
Description: Max is a preteen with an unreliable gift for clairvoyance. Syd is a young foster carer with a saviour complex. When Max has a premonition about the death of country queen Dolly Parton, and the next week it comes true, Max begins to trust in his “gift” a little too heavily. After it conjures a premonition about Syd, he knows he needs to do everything he can to keep her safe.
Written by Frankie Lipman
Cast:
Isaac Radmore as Max
Sophie Trueman as Syd
Amy Chung as Leigh
Leah Marks as Psychiatrist
Lauren Willis as Dolly
Directed by Adam Cachia
Conjunction
Description: It doesn't matter what choices you make, so long as you make them.
Written by Nick Maynard
Cast:
Callum Hall as Boy
Directed by Adam Cachia
Cannibals Anonymous
Description: Cannibals Anonymous is a deliciously dark comedy set during a self-help meeting for cannibals.
Written by Joe Henry-Evans
Cast:
Joe Henry-Evans as Brenda Babcock
James Anthony-Boyce as John Pedalo
Leni Murphy as Rita Rimmer
Becky Kershaw as Maria Von Gak
Directed by George Bailey