A season of short plays will take to the stage at Hull’s newest theatre on Humber Street starting this Friday.
Every week for four weeks Middle Child will present a new play with two actors, one set and no interval.
Each play is just thirty minutes long and performed twice a day every Friday, Saturday and Sunday until 4 October.
The shows are written by Hull playwrights Tom Wells and Lydia Marchant, alongside London-based poet and writer Zia Ahmed and Kelly Jones, whose Radio 4 drama Security is now available on BBC iPlayer.
Tom Wells’ play Um follows a young lad from Hull who meets a prince at Oxford university, while Lydia Marchant’s Kicks follows two best friends navigating motherhood, years after they made a childhood promise to each other.
In The Water by Zia Ahmed, a couple undergoing therapy together reminisce about what brought them together in the first place, while Kelly Jones’ Legoland explores life in a tower block under threat from developers.
Middle Child artistic director Paul Smith will direct all four plays. He said: “When opening our new theatre earlier this year, one thing that excited us most was the idea of commissioning more writers and bringing more new plays to fruition.
“Middle Child Shorts allows us to do exactly that, by working with some of the best playwrights from Hull and further afield to tell compelling stories in the time it takes to eat a sandwich or drink a coffee.
“We’re so proud to be a part of Humber Street and our Shorts season offers bitesize plays that fit neatly into your trip to the Fruit Market. We hope audiences will make the most of what our neighbours have to offer before enjoying a brand-new piece of writing for just £6 a ticket.”
Middle Child Shorts follows another successful edition of Fresh Ink: Hull Playwriting Festival, which showcased plays by 34 local writers at venues across the Fruit Market in July.
The short plays will take place in the company’s new 65-seater studio theatre at 69 Humber Street, which opened in May with a sell-out run of Isabelle by Hull playwright, Marc Graham.
Tickets for all four shorts are now on sale through the Middle Child website, for just £6 each.
All four writers will also take part in a short Q&A after each Friday night performance, while all Sunday morning shows are relaxed performances.
See middlechildtheatre.co.uk/shorts for more details.
Dates
Um by Tom Wells, 11-13 Sep
The Water by Zia Ahmed, 18-20 Sep
Kicks by Lydia Marchant, 25-27 SepLegoland by Kelly Jones, 2-4 Oct