Six Lips Theatre by name, and now six plays in six months is the all-female York company’s aim.
Set up by former York St John University students Roxanna Klimaszewska, Anna Rose James and Hannah Wallace – hence Six Lips – the young company will kick off their high-speed project by presenting Hooked, a new play by Anna and performance artist Matt Harper, at Bar Lane Studios, Bar Lane, York, tonight and tomorrow.
“The play is a scrapbook romance assembled with loving kisses and knowing looks by Anna and Matt and will reunite Six Lips with our old home,” says co-founder Roxanna, whose company had a year’s internship at the studios.
“In this solo show, Anna will play She, our heroine, who recognises vital traits of mutually fulfilling relationships and barters her case with the audience in a cheeky, endearing retaliation against current ideals of the ultimate in human attraction.”
Should you be wondering what qualifies as the “ultimate in human attraction”, let Matt, the play’s writer and director, answer: “Carrying superhuman secrets like leopards with cubs in their mouth, they walk among us unnoticed, appearing to be just the same as every other woman.
“Before you know it, it’s too late; their toothbrush is magically next to yours and in the blink of an eye they have cleared a wardrobe shelf for their belongings. Their senses are heightened, emotions supersonic and responses lightning fast and thunder filled. These are no ordinary women; these are the Girlfriends Past.”
Tickets for tonight’s 7.30pm performance and tomorrow’s 2.30pm and 7.30pm shows can be booked on sale on 01904 623568, or online at yorktheatreoyal.co.uk
“Doused in a healthy dose of Anna’s usual ironic cheek and offset by Matt’s painfully sexy comic writing, this is a one-woman show not to miss,” says Roxanna.
Coming next in Six Lips’ six-pack of shows will be Close, the company’s first full-length play to be written in-house, conceived by Roxanna and brought to fruition in collaboration with Anna.
Centred around Marianne, a woman of indeterminate age who is bedroom-bound by anxiety, this Victorian English Gothic drama Close takes an intimate look at the effects of social isolation on the closest of relationships.
Directed by Hannah, the production will see the company further expanding beyond its female-only beginnings.
Gemma Sharp, so impressive as Beatrice in York Shakespeare Project’s summer staging of Much Ado About Nothing, will lead Hannah’s cast as Marianne, supported by Anna Rogers as Emma, Stuart Adams as Henry, Malcolm Poole as the Doctor and Roxanna Klimaszewska as (a different) Beatrice.
Accompanying Hannah in the production team are set designer Jess Mather, make-up designer Chloe Furze and costume designer Catherine Chapman, while Sarah Knowles is in charge of props and accessories and Karl Jenkins provides the music.
Close will be previewed at Friargate Theatre, Lower Friargate, from October 23 to 28 at 7.30pm nightly, plus a Saturday matinee at 2.30pm, in preparation for a regional tour in early 2012.
Tickets are on sale on 01904 613000 or ridinglights.org
Watch this space for announcements of the rest of Six Lips’ Six In Six season.
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