Returning to the Lyric for its third year, our latest Fast & Loose project was one of our most successful and challenging to date. Four new mini-plays were written overnight in this twenty-four hour play project. A bold and often breathless experiment in playmaking and inspiring creativity, all housed in the Lyric over twenty-four hours. From 9pm on Friday 3rd October, four playwrights had only 12 hours to craft a new short play each. At 9am the following day four directors and casts had a further 12 hours to rehearse, develop and stage the plays, all premiering that very night in the Lyric's Naughton Studio.
Fast & Loose 2014
Lyric Theatre, Naughton Studio
Saturday 4th October 2014
Chinese Whispers
by Gillian Grattan
Directed by Don McCamphill
Assistant Stage Manager: Min Witts
Cast: Cathy Brennan-Bradley, Elaine Duncan, Tanya Thomson & Fra Gunn
The Bird Cage
by Rob Hollway
Directed by Richard Lavery
Assistant Stage Manager: Noel Griffin
Cast: Hannah Coyle, Mark Byrne & Nichola Bush
Straw Bones
by Megan Armitage
Directed by Claire Lamont
Assistant Stage Manager: John Logan
Cast: Stephen Clarke, Sarah Lyle & Noel McGee
Pineapple
by Ronan Blaney
Directed by J.P. Conaghan
Assistant Stage Manager: Sophie Duffin
Cast: Adam Turns & Chris Grant
Dramaturg & Producer Emily DeDakis
Producer Richard Lavery
Marketing Elizabeth Meehan
Stage Manager Jackie O'Hagan
Deputy Stage Manager Teresa Hill
About the 2014 Writers
GILLIAN GRATTAN is a graduate of University of Ulster. Her plays include Beyond the Forest, Ascension, Lost Weekend, No Room For Sweet, Waiting for Double O, Fish out Of Water, Be My Baby, The Undertakers, Snapshot, Hooked! And Last Orders. Gillian is currently doing a Hdip in TV Arts Production through Irish at Waterford Institute of Technology. Mitching off college for this … very rebellious indeed.
ROB HOLLWAY is tired of knocking his head against the brick wall of the film industry He woke up one day and decided to write for theatre. He loved it so much that he packed in a white collar career, and is currently working with a Belfast theatre company on a play about painted ladies.
MEGAN ARMITAGE hails from Donegal. She began writing as part of a group which devised several pieces at the Gaiety School of Acting. End of the Line was performed at Smock Alley in Dublin and at the Edinburgh and Belfast fringe festivals. Her first full-length play, Subject No.Y, was performed at this year's Pick 'n' Mix festival.
RONAN BLANEY is a part-time teacher and screen-writer. He was selected for Coming Up in 2009 and his film BOY was broadcast on Channel 4 in September 2010. A short film BACK OF BEYOND won a Royal Television Award and was nominated for the European Film Award. A feature-length screenplay BONHOEFFER, starring Jeremy Irons, will be shot in early 2015; another feature DON’T LET GO, to be directed by David Gleeson, is scheduled for production summer 2015. Fast & Loose is his first taste of theatre. Hopefully it won’t be his last.
The 2014 Fast & Loose team
