The University of Essex Theatre Arts Society return to the Lakeside Theatre for their annual Re:write Festival, an original playwriting competition for Essex students.
Four 20-minute plays are performed to an audience, and then a panel of judges decides a winner…
Age guidance: 14+
How long can you hold a secret?
“The only way to realise The Herald’s destructive potential is to relay this phrase to a large quantity of people… I can’t tell anyone…”
Dead-end bureaucrat Albie Watson stumbles on a phrase that has catastrophic implications if known by many people. Quite literally, the end of the world. However, his attempts to keep silent are continuously thwarted by his annoying co-worker Patrick and the morally dubious AI Harpsichord. Can Albie keep this secret buried until the end of the show?
Written and directed by Andreas Davies, Infosec is a darkly comedic observation at corrupt government, toxic masculinity, and the age-old question… How long can you hold a secret?
Cast:
Show guidance: Nihilism, Harsh Language, War, Existentialism.
What would YOU do to save your village?
A group of friends go on a fantastical adventure to bring hope back home.
Leave the real world behind and join us in a wonderful fantasy land of guild halls, wandering societies, and ancient magic. Could it be any more perfect?
10 years ago, the Golden Fruits that sustained the village’s culture began to rot and Jefferson, the Chief, ventured beyond The Permits in search of a remedy. In the present day, he has still not returned. His two children, Yelda and Emin, and their best friend, Sampson, must now risk it all and go on a thrilling and fantastical adventure in order to find a cure for the trees and bring prosperity back to the village. Along the way, they meet a colourful cast of people, some friends, some foes. However, there are twists and turns around every corner and the answers they find may not be what they seek.
Cast:
Show guidance: Verbal child abuse, Animal death, Violence (including knife crime), Implied sexual activities, Sexual noises, Death, Explicit language
Yet another failed attempt in good amateur theatre
Get the chance to peak behind the curtain with the next moderately average ReWrite show: Zarbopulon 5. Moving the audience away from the stage and into the wings of this production you can see that like the many ReWrite productions that have come before it, this show is writhe with mistakes, mishaps and Girlfriend’s being cast in main roles. This would be all fine and dandy, that’s what we all expect when we watch a TAS production, but with a rough break up, The Workaholic’s misunderstood ingestion of drugs and an alien tentacle sex scene, even for ReWrite’s standards the production was doomed to fail from the beginning. The only saving grace of this production is The Hotshot, a graduate of NYT, you might have heard of it, it stands for National Youth Theatre, he’ll be networking in the foyer after the production.
Watch from the wings as the show slowly falls apart much like The Directors relationship.
Cast:
Show guidance: Drug references, Adult language, Sexual themes, Toxic relationships
An improv battle between two theatre students
While waiting for a theatre class to begin, two students begin discussing the benefits of learning to act by solely studying the theory. They then begin a set of improvised scenes, making them travel far and wild in the realms of social and personal issues. These two students are soon confronted with a wide variety of questions: How does one explain a social construct to a child? How does an actor play a character that they do not identify with? How can an actor make something serious funny? As they embark on this journey, the two students start enjoying themselves, pushing the limits of morality to impress one another.
Cast:
Show guidance: rape, racism, prostitution, misogyny and mention of paedophilia
Members of the audience can photograph or video the performances (without flashes) but only with the express written permission from the relevant production teams and performers.
