Local talent back on stage

Thursday 26 February 2015

It's home grown talent taking centre stage tonight as local writers, actors, poets and musicians perform their latest work.

Plays Rough is back for the fourth year running with a special programme at the Jersey Opera House Studio.

The line up will see plays by Ben Evans, Lisa Marie White and Leon Fleming as well as previously unperformed poetry by Nicky Mesch and brand new songs from Kevin Pallot.

The programme has been put together by playwrights Leon Fleming and Ben Evans - both two-time winners of the Jersey Arts Trust New Plays Project and founders of Plays Rough. They set it up to give audiences the chance to see original, contemporary and edgy new work - something they didn't think was being done regularly by any other group in Jersey.

Leon said: "I think the reason we’re still going stronger than ever and just about to embark on our fourth year is that we keep things simple; no sets, no costumes, mostly plays are presented script-in-hand. We’re not afraid to try new things though and expand our range; we’ve done co-productions with the Jersey Arts Trust – who have supported our idea from the very beginning – and we occasionally go off-formula and do longer, more polished pieces.

"I think importantly though, we’ve carried on giving local playwrights a reason to write and an outlet for their work; something which currently doesn’t exist anywhere else on the island. Local actors always have something new and exciting and unknown to get their teeth into, and we’ve attempted to give audiences something akin to the kind of edgier, boundary-pushing drama they’d usually have to go over to the UK to see. All for just five pounds, and with the chance to be exposed to the best local poets and the best local musicians as well."

Leon says this, the first event of the season, should have something to suit everyone.

He said: "By producing these programmed events made up of short plays, with a little music and poetry thrown in we work on the idea that audience members may not like everything they see at Plays Rough, but at any given event they will see at least something they like; and whatever it is, it will have been original and will have left them with something they can have an opinion about."

The show starts at 8 pm, tickets cost £5 and you can get them from the Opera House box office on 511115.

(picture courtesy of David Morgan)