Hush Hush at The Lowry

Hush Hush at The Lowry, Salford, 6 October 2017, free entry

There’s a reason we go to the theatre, rather than saving ourselves the price of a ticket and watching all our drama on TV at home: because it’s live. Unlike TV drama, a pre-made, plastic format, with live theatre almost anything can happen, and every performance is unique. That’s its magic.

With its new series Hush Hush The Lowry is pushing this ‘anything could happen’ idea to its limits. Now, not only could anything happen, but the show you see could be anything at all. That’s because they don’t advertise it advance (even we theatre press people don’t know), so you show up for a totally unpredictable piece of art.

Well, not totally unpredictable, since you know The Lowry is going to have programmed something pretty good. Last time the Hush Hush piece turned out to be Police Cops in Space, a sci-fi/70s police film mash up from The Pretend Men that played to sell out crowds in Edinburgh this year. A clever, quick-fire comedy work, if this next edition of Hush Hush is even half as good it will be well worth it.

Further, the whole thing is relatively risk-free, since it is a ‘Pay What You Decide’ performance – so, if you don’t like it, no need to fork out a pile of fivers. However, if you do enjoy it you can directly reward the performers – which in itself feels rather refreshing.