Not Norman Presents
'A Quick Guide To Ruining Your Life'
by Laura Harper
Directed by Paul Worrall
At The Kings Arms Salford, 2019
Monday 1st July - 7:30pm
Saturday 6th July - 4:00pm
Sunday 7th July - 2:00pm
The curtain opens on Dawn, neatly living in the attic of her own house. To the rest of her friends and family, Dawn has it all; nice house, fast car and a new job out in sunny Dubai. So, what’s with the current living situation? Well, let me ask you this? How far would you go to avoid embarrassment? Dawn’s about to confess all to the world, but not before she confronts some painful home truths, uncovers a heart-breaking infidelity and learns to poop in a bucket!
'Pests' is a production by 12MilesNorth.
25th - 29th of June
7:30 pm
(3pm Matinee - 29th June)
Running Time: 1 hour 20 mins approx.
Age Restriction: 14+
Scenes of heavy drug use and reference to rape.
Tickets £10
Conc. £8
Following a call-to-arms earlier in the year from Simon Naylor of 53two
Theatre, there followed a community meeting of several hundred local
theatre artists and practitioners, who mutually agreed that the Manchester
Fringe scene needs to take itself more seriously and produce high quality
theatre and entertainment, to give it a boost in reputation. This team have
come together to create a piece which they hope will do just that. They
certainly have a promising background with each of them having won awards in their field. Writer Laura Harper has four awards under her belt for her writing. Harper was inspired to write the play after a conversation with friends about the kinds of things they have done to avoid embarrassment. Once she had the premise, she was keen to discuss how this kind of situation fed into the subconscious of the British Working Class. The pressure to succeed, especially for those who left school at sixteen years old and worked their way up through the ranks is a source of both immense pride and stress. If you have any kind of insecurity about your
position in a workforce, it’s even more important to feel that people take you seriously, and that they aren’t laughing at you behind your back. That your reputation remains spotless. So, all the more reason to make them think you’re #livingyourbestlife, be it through your own bravado, word of mouth or the ever-increasing digital minefield that is social media.
Another inspiration for the play came from the autobiography, The Unexpected Joy of Being Sober, by Catherine Gray. Catherine talks candidly about how her drinking habits used to be equally matched to her friends, before alcohol took over her life. Harper was keen to look into the impact of many Brits who work fulltime jobs, frequent the gym and also manage to have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol. It seems to be a national phenomenon, so Harper felt that is was important to talk about this in the play.
The play is an honest and frank exploration of the lengths that we go to when we want to hide from the truth. Literally in this case. Despite being a comedy of almost farcical proportions at times, it is a warm, relatable and poignant story.
Laura Harper - Writer:
Laura Harper is the Winner of The Audience’s Favourite Award at the 24:7 Theatre Festival 2015, Nominated for Best Fringe Production at the 2015 Manchester Theatre Awards, Winner of The Madeline Boden Award for Best New Play at Woking Drama Festival 2017, Winner of the Iron & Fire Award for New Writing at Leatherhead Theatre Festival, and most recently, the North West Winner of the ITI Morecambe Fringe 10 Minute Play Competition.
'A Quick Guide To Ruining Your Life'
A production by Not Norman
At The Kings Arms Salford, 2019
Monday 1st July - 7:30pm
Saturday 6th July - 4:00pm
Sunday 7th July - 2:00pm
Running Time: 45 mins
Tickets: £7
@Not_Norman_ #AQuickGuideToRuiningYourLife