Archives

Below you will find rehearsal photos, tech photos, trailers, synopsis’ and information about all the shows we’ve done in recent years!

If there is a * next to a show this means that an UMDS member wrote this play or this show was a devised piece!

2020/2021

HONEY POT

Due to COVID-19 restrictions during Semester 2 instead of our MIFTA season we launched ‘Honey Pot’ which was a UMDS fund to help our members self-produce their projects with funding & marketing support from us!

You Make Us Hate Our Neighbours

YOU MAKE US HATE OUR NEIGHBOURS BY AMINA BEG *

Writer: Amina Beg
Producer/Dramaturg: Martha Jamieson
Graphic Designer: Zaina Ali
Video Editor: James Baker
Creative Director: Kemi Obasola
Music Composer: Gao The Arsonist

Cast:
Amina Beg

Synopsis: Both written and performed by Amina Beg this project was a series of three episodic spoken word performances, tackling Amina’s complicated relationship with postcolonial and post-Brexit Britain and her response to the Government blaming minorities for the pandemic.

Episode 1 = Tackles the ties between Post-Brexit Britain and Aminas grandmother’s story of India’s Partition from the British Empire.

Britannia (Episode 2) =  ‘Britannia’ focuses on statues in our cities, and what role they play, not only in our country but in the world. In this piece Amina aims to explore what certain statues represent to us and if they reflect our moral values.

The International Supermarket (Episode 3) = This third and final episode is called ‘The International Supermarket’ which is a metaphor Amina uses to unpack the role of the British government in handling the pandemic and how they attempt to pinpoint the blame on minorities for causing the spread of coronavirus. In this final piece, Amina aims to highlight the government’s handling of Hong Kong and how the world silently ostracises Islam.

To watch ‘You Make Us Hate Our Neighbours’: ​​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yw_qNm6vPL0&list=PLed9X5xVm_L87FyNvLkDVET8GKvHccRpQ

THINGS

THINGS – A VIRTUAL COMEDY SKETCH PRODUCTION *

Director/Writer: Jack Holding
Director/Writer: Noah Mathews
Producer: Nell Bevan

Cast:
Em Dryburgh
Keanan Hinchliffe
Lewis Hinds
Jonny Hosking
Richard Johnson
Eleanor Potter
Tillie Quattrone
Emily Wynne-Jones
Tom Williams

Synopsis: Have you ever wondered what your toilet roll thinks of you? Ever wondered what your socks get up to when you’re not around? Well take a look into the lives of your household objects as we bring them to life in ‘THINGS’, a fast paced sketch show that takes you on a wild ride around your own home!

To watch ‘THINGS’: ​​

AUTUMN FRINGE VIRTUAL FESTIVAL

Due to the COVID-19 situation, the Autumn Fringe season in Semester 1 became a weekend virtual festival of shows as opposed to shows being performed on a more weekly basis at various venues. 

Temptation

Legacy

I love you, I love you, I love you

2019/2020

MIFTA SEASON 2020

An Intervention

AN INTERVENTION BY MIKE BARTLETT

Director: Sean McGettigan
AD: Eleanor Hicks
Prod: Heather Harrison

Cast:

A – Ruby Hines
B – Mariella Dyckhoff

Venue: John Thaw Studio Theatre, Martin Harris Centre

Synopsis: A and B spend most of their time arguing, “challenging” each other. But when their attention turns to the British military intervention in Iraq, nerves are touched and a series of events are set in motion. Their friendship begins to fall apart at a time when they need each other the most. This is a touching, funny play about what happens when you hate your best friend.

This is an amateur production by arrangement with Nick Hern Books.

An Area of Outstanding Beauty 

AN AREA OF OUTSTANDING NATURAL BEAUTY BY ELLIOT SCOTT *

Director: Jacob McGoldrick
AD: Elliot Scott
Prod: Hannah McEwen
Designer: Ellie Johnston

Cast:

Joe – Adam Tutt
James – Joe Llewelyn
Josh – Henry Bolden
Pete – Oli King

Venue: The Kings Arms, Salford

Synopsis: An Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty follows the journey of four teenage boys in rural Somerset and explores the impact the greenbelt property development has on their lives. This new writing tackles the erosion of the British countryside and asks what is left for its inhabitants when all that remains of the world they grow up in is a row of semi-detached houses.

NUT

NUT BY DEBBIE TUCKER GREEN

Director: Patience Kanjira
AD: Sophia Hadji-Michael
Producer/Designer: Millie Loveday Inglis

Cast:

Elayne – Ebun Osobu 
Aimee – Millie Jacobs
Trey – Nyah Nish
Devon – Tomas Bakker
Ex Husband – Kwame Owusu
Ex Wife – Patience Kanj

Venue: SU Theatre, UOM Students Union

Synopsis: This touching, emotional and witty play explores grief, jealousy and isolation through the life and mind of it’s protagonist, Elayne.

Three Sisters

THREE SISTERS BY ANTON CHEKHOV

Director: Lauren Ellis-Stretch
AD: Gabby Colvin
Producer: Katie Rooney

Cast:

Sophie Murray
Kate Gabriel
Grainne Flynn
Gary Gannon
Eliza Downes
Kate Ireland
Ella Bond
Billie Harvey-Munro
Nina Jakulin Vavpotic
JoJo Rogers
Isabel Lawther
Emma Hill
Hattie Birchinall

Venue: SU Theatre, UOM Students Union

Synopsis: Chekov’s Three Sisters is one of the most loved, and pondered classic plays of the twentieth century. Lauren reimagined the show setting it in South Pembroke, West Wales.

Gorgon Westley’s Railway Circus

GORGON WESTLEY’S RAILWAY CIRCUS BY TOM THACKER *

Director: Tom Thacker
AD: Raphael Bez-Cryer
Producer: Ted Walliker

Cast:

Euean – Willow Major
Gorgon Westley – Laurie Bayley-Higgins
Cardinal – Hugo Lewkowcz
Howitz – Sofia Armella
Reap Galo – Eloise Russell
Pottermere – Lily Gray
Garrotte – Jack Mitchell
Removal Person/Pianist – Gabriel Lumsden
Herpe – Lenny O’Sullivan
Cyst – Cali Nice
Eins – Giulia Grillo

Venue: The Peer Hat, Northern Quarter

Synopsis: Come! A new world of the decrepit, a home to the unseen damned, beckons for your eye. The Gorgon Westley has much to unveil! Let us hear you scream! Let us hear you howl! Let us hear you cry out! What will you discover when you clamber aboard?

When Euean finds themselves aboard The Gorgon Westley’s travelling circus train, he is pushed to embark onwards: searching for an escape in the annals of darkness, facing against the toxic troupe of performers and attending to his own scarred self that lies underneath…

The Shadows

THE SHADOWS BY LARA BILLER *

Director: Sophia Rosen-Fouladi
AD: Dolly Busby
Producer: Shirley Yang

Cast:

Rupert – Harry Robson
India – Nell Bevan
Esther – Lara Paul
Sam – Cecilia Alfonso-Eaton
Jonny – Frank Wilson-Caines
The Director – Sam Easton

Venue: The Kings Arms, Salford

Synopsis: We all pretend we like standing up and having a voice, if that’s true why do we spend so little of our time doing it? If that’s true, why is it so enticing to sit in the dark, silent and watching…

The Shadows is a play set off stage telling the story of the people in “the shadows,” a name given to a backstage crew as they look after props and try to hold together a Drama Society’s new show. However, as tensions rise between the stage hands and the actors it becomes increasingly clear that not all of the shadows are entirely content with their role behind the curtains. The power dynamics shift and the politics of a nightmare Drama Society invites us to reflect on the opportunities that are available to people from different backgrounds, revealing the corruption that exists in everyday life.

How To Keep Up With The Kardashians

HOW TO KEEP UP WITH THE KARDASHIANS *

Co-Directors: Lucy Laverty and Scarlett Spicer
Producer: PJ Cunningham

Cast:

Rosa Hallam Fryer 
Lae Carbon-Wilson
Montana Rosa Aguelo De Guero Barrera
Imogen Chillington
Eliza Lewis
Eleanor Haigh
Millie Loveday Inglis


Venue: Tribeca Bar, Gay Village


Synopsis: How To Keep Up With The Kardashians is a collectively devised production with the overall aim of unpicking the question of ‘Can you keep up with a Kardashian?’

The production examines body-image, mental health, the harmful effects of advertisements for the ‘perfect body’ and issues of body and race representation in mass media or rather, lack thereof. ‘How To Keep Up With The Kardashians’ is a celebratory rebellion against the templates that women are suffocated with and celebrates that each individual woman has something that no one can keep up with. The play centralises around the female experience of women in the UK; amongst our company we collected around 30 interviews asking a variety of women about their relationship with their bodies, what they think about ‘keeping up’ and how this affects their day to day life. The production takes inspiration from these interviews alongside the personal experiences of those in the company – combatting the unattainable, unrealistic standards western beauty with different people’s truths.

Monster/Monstrum

MONSTER/MONSTRUM *

Co-Directors: Thomas Valerio and Natalie Hillman
Producer: Mae Lankshear
Designer: Amy Townsend


Cast:

Peter Silver
Cathy Wippell
Millie Hope
Adelaide Marshall
Patryce Richter
Angelica Fitz-Maurice
Rory Greig


Venue: Niamos Radical Arts & Centre, Hulme


Synopsis: monster/monstrum is a live art performance about humanity and ferality, beauty and destruction. The performance explores the relationship between humans and beast, creating a space populated by creatures (monstra) that are neither animal nor people, but something both in between and at the same time different. Creatures and audience move freely in the space, different interactions happen in different areas at the same time, one is welcome to explore as much and as little as one wants. No two experiences will be the same. 

Watch some clips of Monster/Monstrum here

Due to Covid restrictions Monstrum was performed for one night only to a select group incuding the MIFTA judges. In place of live performance it was streamed on the Drama Society facebook page which you can view here

Autumn Fringe 2019

The Wolf from the Door

The Wolf from the Door by Rory Mullarkey

Director: Kwame Owusu
AD: Tristan Simpson
Prod: Gabby Colvin
Designer: Maddie Lancaster-Graham

Cast:
Billie Harvey-Munroe
Tom Thacker
Eloise Russell
Phoebe Lerner
Amy Walliker
Alex Macfarlane

Venue: John Thaw Studio Theatre, Martin Harris Centre

Synopsis: The Wolf From the Door is a wild, imaginative, and surreal, nation-wide road trip across Middle England. Together, Lady Catherine and her young protégé Leo enlist every tearoom, hot yoga class and Women’s Institute group on a mission to change the country forever and start a revolution. The play follows them as they meet, and travel between coffee mornings, supermarkets, banks, churches and Parliament – tearing down authority as they go, and stirring up violent resistance.

Teabags in the Sink

Teabags in the Sink by Imogen Chillington *

Director: Alice Eaves
AD: Martha Bennett
Producer: Alkawthar Darwish
Designer: Lerato Mokate

Cast:

Billie – Maddie Webster-Harris
Mum – Olivia Downing
Dad – Monty Ashley
Emily – Josephine Rodgers

Venue: SU Theatre, UOM Students Union

Synopsis: Teabags in the Sink looks at life through the eyes of Billie, a teenager who is feeling the effects of family life and what it means to grapple with the inevitable – adulthood. Parents are a problem; her sister is the only person she can relate to and life is just generally one big ball ache. Hormones are rife and at the end of the day all Billie wants to do is switch off and let the music do the thinking

A Room in Upper Slaughter

A Room in Upper Slaughter by Lara Biller *

Co-Directors: Sofia Armella and Mariella Dyckhoff
Prod: Heather Harrison

Cast:

Greta – May Brittenden
Florence – Daisy Shuttleworth
Mr Ike – Peter Shafran
Ash – Lauren Owen

Venue: SU Theatre, Students Union

Synopsis: A Room In Upper Slaughter takes us to a stale Cotswolds hotel bedroom where two trained assassins wait anxiously for their next target. As the storm grows outside fractions form between the two associates, mainly caused by the insisting calls of an ex-girlfriend. Anxious, unstable and philosophical, Ash and Florence have their seemingly simple mission confronted by personal relationships and unknown truths.

Education, Education, Education

Freshers’ Play – Education, Education, Education by The Wardrobe Ensemble

Director: Eleanor Hicks
AD: Aaron Cliff
Producer: Erin Mitchell
Designer: Amy Townsend

Cast:

Helen – Laura-May Brunk
Tobias – Lenny O’Sullivan
Louise – Joey Ross-Macdonald
Emily – Amber Sparshott
Sue – Maisie Bagley
Paul – Ted Walliker
Tim – Will Berrecloth
Donna – Izzy Read
Ensemble – Rosa Hallam Fryer
Ensemble – Oli King
Ensemble – Oscar Wilson

Venue: SU Theatre, UOM Students Union

Synopsis: Education, Education, Education is set in Wordsworth Comprehensive; a rundown British secondary school in 1997 the day after Tony Blair was elected Prime Minister. Tobias, the new German placement assistant, narrates his first day at the school, commenting on the chaotic nature of a school riding the hopeful New Labour wave. The audience follows him through the school day as it becomes increasingly hectic and unpredictable as teachers struggle to control the GCSE pupils on their last day before study leave.

Mother Tongue

Mother Tongue by Hope Leslie *

Director: Kate Ireland
AD: Hope Leslie
Producer: Shirley Yang

Cast:

Lola – Savannah Acquah Storey
Theresa – Eliza Downes

Venue: Tribeca Bar, Gay Village

Synopsis:

“Black feminism is not white feminism in blackface.”- Audre Lorde

A young Lola is anxious to have her Mother over for dinner as she has some important news to tell her. Theresa, Lola’s Mother, is excited to have dinner at her daughter’s new apartment but is not ready to face the friction that will inevitably come from discovering that Lola’s life path will stray dramatically from her own. This play explores the testing and tender relationship between a mother and daughter and invites the question, “how does a white woman help her child navigate the world as a black woman?”

RIOT ACT

Riot Act by Alexis Gregory

Co-Dir: Lily Gray and Eleanor Potter
Dramaturg: Raphael Bez-Cryer
Producer: Leo Henry

Cast:

Lavinia – Peter Silver
Michael – George Clark
Paul – Adam Tutt

Venue: Tribeca Bar, Gay Village

Synopsis: Riot Act is a powerful and affirming LGBTQ+ verbatim theatre piece. Created from the transcripts of three interviews, it spans almost sixty years of LGBTQ+ history: from a first hand account of the Stonewall riots, to radical drag theatre of the ’70s, and the fierce AIDS activism of the ’90s — it relays the strength and resilience woven into the fabric of the LGBTQ+ community’s history — and the power in knowing it.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button *

Co-Directors: Imogen Hayes and Joseph Conway
Producer: Imogen Chillington

Cast:

Benjamin Button – Laurie Bayley-Higgins
Hildegarde Moncrief, Ensemble – Grace Johnstone
Mr Button – Thomas Valerio
Mrs Button – Mae Lankshear
Roscoe Button, General Moncrief, Ensemble – Neil John
Sylvia, Ensemble – Beatrice Nettuno
Ensemble – Nina Vavpotic
Ensemble – Hannah Blau
Ensemble – Giulia Grillo

Venue: The Kings Arms, Salford

Synopsis: What is it to live backwards?

Imogen Hayes and Joseph Conway’s devised piece explores the life, trials and travails of a man who finds himself ungrowing through life.

How do you raise an old man? How do you love someone aging against you? How do you look at your father as he falls into youth? Following the whirlwind of his life through love, lust, war, scandal and torment, we look at the stark realities of this modern myth. How do you solve The Curious Case of Benjamin Button?