In Formation

Details of second Formation Festival

The second Formation Festival, organised by Annexe Arts Hub, has been announced for Assembly Roxy, with 17 different productions being staged over six days.

The festival will run from Saturday 7 July to Thursday 12 2018, with four productions from the Annexe Repertory Theatre joined by new productions and shows from Edinburgh-based companies in preview for this year’s fringe.

Festival director David McFarlane told Æ: “Formation festival is about giving the next generation of actors, directors and companies a space to really shine.

“We have put together a varied and diverse programme of shows so there should be something for everyone – in fact with 17 shows there will be two or three something’s for everyone!”



Annexe Repertory Theatre is a company for people 16-25 years old dedicated to developing their talent. It will be staging three world premieres of new scripts as well as a production of Genet’s The Maids directed by Kolbrun Bjort Sigfusdottir.

The new scripts are Care by Cameron Forbes, which will be directed by Emily Ingram; Cowards Anonymous by Josh Overton to be directed by Tyler Mortimer and Mr And Mrs She by Hollie Glossop, directed by Sofia Nakou.

opportunity

The company add: This is an opportunity for us to support the local theatre community and for them to be seen by a wider public. Some are testing material ahead of the Fringe, others are offering a rare opportunity for Edinburgh audiences to catch their touring work and some are making their world premieres with their very first shows to date.

Publicity image for The Maids. Pic Annexe Arts Hub

Edinburgh-based companies presenting work in preview ahead of the fringe include Some Kind of Theatre with their take on Twelfth Night, which will also feature in a Shakespeare on the Sofa tour prior to the fringe, visiting people’s living rooms. Pandorum Theatre is previewing Sex, Drugs and a Cup of Tea, a fast-paced modern farce with a dark core about student life.

The WW1 Wardrobe Project from Immersive Response will allow its audience to meet and hear from characters involved in the WWI war effort. In Straight Outa Saughton by Kate Dixon, Moving Parts Theatre portray to ex-cons performing as drag duo Queens of the Scheme – and trans issues are to the for in 147Hz Can’t Pass from Activising for Change.

Ash Pryce will be doing a special edition warm-up of his How to be a Psychic Conman show prior to its fringe run. Although it is hardly a preview, as he is currently on extensive tour.

Not a preview, the excellent RFT is staging the Scottish premiere of Loring Mandel’s Conspiracy for two nights only. This dramatises the Wannsee conference of January 1942 during which, in the space of 90 minutes, 15 men sketched out the programme of mass murder which sent six million Jews to the gas chambers.

comic celebration

In (Can This Be) Home from Brite Theatre, playwright and performer Kolbrun Bjort Sigfusdottir examines the immigrant experience of the EU referendum while flautist and composer Tom Oakes plays the tunes his travels as a musician have inspired.

The Pub Corner Poets from Hull stage their 2017 fringe hit Sad Little Man by Josh Overton and directed by Tyler Mortimer for one night only, while they are giving Overton’s Cocaine Rat Cage a two night outing.

Theatre Imperative revives Philip Rainford’s Ladies Day Out, set in a private box at a prestigious race course, is a comic celebration of women’s solidarity, independence and love of mayhem.

Somewhat different in tone, spoken word artist Paul Case has the official premiere of his first solo storytelling show – Dead White Anarchists, which is set in Paris, 1892, a city being torn apart by bombings and police crackdowns where a young anarchist prepares for his war against the State.

And finally Glasgow’s Tandem Writing Collective return to Edinburgh with five new short pieces which they will be performing script-in-hand at a free event on Monday night.

Listing

All performances take place at the Assembly Roxy, 2 Roxburgh Place, EH8 9SU.

Tags: Activising for Change, Annexe Repertory Theatre, Ash Pryce, Assembly Roxy, Brite Theatre, David McFarlane, Formation Festival, Immersive Response, Made In Edinburgh, Moving Parts Theatre, News, Pandorum Theatre, Production News, Some Kind of Theatre, Theatre Imperative