DARE TO CREATE
OLDHAM ARTS FESTIVAL
HALLOWTIDE & DARKNESS VISIBLE
BY MARTIN ROCHE
Double bill - 2 plays for the price of 1!
Lyceum Theatre Oldham
WEDNESDAY 27th AUGUST
7:30pm
HALLOWTIDE
Sophie has awoken in some woods. Hallowtide Wood. She has no memory of when, how she came to be there. In the dark, in the middle of nowhere and surrounded by confusion, she is discovered by Georgia who isn’t lost exactly but appears to have lost herself. Cut off in the enforced solitude and isolation of their surroundings, it’s more than the woods which appear to be creating shadows. And it is not long before the lines between reality and recollections begin to blur. What can be believed? Who should be believed? What have they accidentally stumbled into? That is, if they ever did stumble. If it ever was an accident. For some things are never really what they seem. Especially on All Hallows Eve. Especially in Hallowtide Wood.
DARKNESS VISIBLE
Katherine has decided to see a Counsellor to help her with a fear. Her only fear. One which has been with her, haunted her for most of her life. It is a fear many of us have had at one time or another and probably grown out of. But her fear has got worse as she has grown older and she can no longer live with it. She is hoping to be “fixed” by the sessions she has booked with Sarah, her Counsellor, and during her first one, she tells the story, her story; the story of what terrorises her. Can Sarah help her come to terms with her fear? Or is there more to it, more and then she is telling her? Facing your fear is to know it. Knowing your fear is to understand it. But believing it? That could take your fear to a completely different place..
MARTIN ROCHE
Martin has been writing for theatre for over 25 years. He is a member of The Society of Authors.
He has spent his life involved with many charities locally, regionally and nationally and this has provided him the opportunity to use performance and creativity to assist them and to raise money.
In 2009 his work over many years with young people was acknowledged by the Greater Manchester Drama Federation (GMDF) when he was recognised with the Muriel Goodwin Trophy for ‘... an Outstanding Contribution to Youth.’ He is immensely proud to still be the President of the award winning Children’s Amateur Theatre Society (CATS) based in Bolton.
And it was charitable involvements which brought him by accident into writing. What began as an idea for a fundraising concert and a narrative for him to compere it, turned into a story, which evolved into a script and resulted in To Be Frank, a musical play which premiered in 2000.