Three's Company but Theatre's a crowd at Fringe30!

PRESS RELEASE: June 8th 2009

Theatre has always been one of the centrepieces of the Buxton Fringe and this year's 30th anniversary Fringe is jam-packed with talent.

Buxton favourites Three's Company return to their home in Underground Venues with a revival of their Play On Words (with a chance to see the three original members of the group alternating the roles on each performance) and a new radio drama, Adventure Time. Fragile Theatre also return with Butter Side Up and A Woman Of An Uncertain Age. The double-fringe award winners from 2006, Freerange Theatre return with psychological drama, The Cutting, while George Telfer revives his uncanny one-man play portraying John Gielgud.

Some companies aren't content with presenting just one play. Planet Rabbit Productions come to Buxton with three productions, the trainspotting comedy Anorak of Fire, a satirical stab at celebrity culture in Standby On Stage Please and Joyce Grenfell's much-loved monologues George, Don't Do That! Meanwhile, Bath Students Union return with productions of Art and Othello, and Black Box Theatre present Animal Farm, The Tempest and Enid Blyton pastiche, Another Five Go Mad in Buxton.

Amongs the new writing on offer, there's 9:47am, Connect:4's devised theatre based around the 9:11 attacks, Whitebone Productions' darkly comedic Bane and Verano Theatre Company's terrifying Leatherface, the story of one man's obsession with The Texas Chainsaw Massacre.

Combining theatre in many forms, there are new, physical takes on classic tales in Non Stop Cabaret Theatre Company's Faustus and Con Ghiaccio Theatre Company's Grimm's, standnotamazed combine romantic comedy and close-up magic in Love and Other Magic Tricks, while Shot in the Dark Theatre's Why Me? combines physical theatre, puppetry, music and poetry.

Amogst the up-and-coming local talent on offer are Imagine Theatre's production of Philip Ridley's Brokenville and Sketch Theatre Company's Road, both performed at the Community School.

Street theatre is represented once again by The Shakespeare Jukebox, entertaining the crowds outside Buxton Opera House and also by an ambitious promenade production on the streets of Eyam in the Hope Valley, where Don Taylor's drama The Roses of Eyam recreates the tragic events of the Plague of 1665 where they actually took place.

There's theatre for families and young people with Little Pixie Productions with What Became of the Red Shoes and Xtension youth theatre's adaptation of The Wind in the Willows. Meanwhile, the Young Rec Theatre Company take up residence in their Marquee at Poole's Cavern with two new productions: a computer-game adventure, The Darkest Angel and a mythology-based musical comedy, Ye Gods!

This year's Buxton Festival Fringe runs from Wednesday 8 to Saturday 26 July and details of all events are available online now at http://www.buxtonfringe.org.uk. The printed programme events is also now widely available.

The Fringe is hugely grateful to its many supporters including its main sponsor The University of Derby Buxton as well as The Osborne Group, High Peak Borough Council and The Old Hall Hotel.

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