March 2, 2015, by Gemma Coleman

Well cultured, innit?

Helen and Danny keep themselves to themselves. But the outside world comes crashing into their lives one day when Helen’s brother Liam turns up. Covered in blood.

 

Pretty dramatic intro, I know. But I’m hoping it will have drawn you in and maybe you’ll reach the bottom of this post. We can all dream. It did have me intrigued, though, as the description of one of many of Nottingham New Theatre’s plays, which I went to see last week. What a dead cultured Northern lass I am.

During any open day tour, a handy hint to always have up your sleeve is that the University’s New Theatre is the only entirely student-run theatre in the country. Directed, produced and starring University of Nottingham students, parents and prospective students are always pretty wowed by my pub quiz trivia (though I haven’t yet been to any pub quiz that features such questions).

 

So to add to this fun fact, I thought I’d pay the five- pound student price (no, I don’t work on commission, honestly) and see Orphans, the aforementioned scary sounding play. It involved three actors in one room, so it was a pretty intense ordeal. It focussed on urban crime and the unravelling of a series of cover-ups, dealing with the issue of hate crime (which, funnily enough, is the topic of a research project of mine, so I basically paid for a hardcore revision sesh, at least in my eyes). Awkwardly, one guy in the back kept laughing and I’m pretty sure it wasn’t supposed to be funny, but maybe I misunderstood (that happens quite a lot to me).

 

The actors were incredibly convincing and throughout, all I could think was “How do they have time to learn all these lines and do a degree?” Baffling.

 

A much recommended cheap night and one to leave from feeling pretty smug and cultured. Next stop booking tickets to Edinburgh Fringe- let the saving begin…

 

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