Is This Thing On? at Shakespeare North Playhouse

This summer our friends at Shakespeare North Playhouse are hosting the Heading North Fringe Festival, a new two-week-long theatre festival previewing some of the shows heading up to Edinburgh Fringe in August. It’s a thrilling programme spanning drama, physical theatre, drag, stand-up and more.

Is This Thing On? is a brand-new devised work – co-produced by Manchester-based So la Flair Theatre and emerging theatre company Missmatch – that previews at the festival.

Prepare to meet bickering flatmates Mary and Liz. One is a musician and the other is a poet. With their friendship reaching boiling point, they battle over integrity, ownership, the spotlight and whose turn it is to buy the toilet roll.

However, one evening – at an open mic night – the two are forced to confront each other over whose right it is to tell someone’s story. Through a witty and dramatic blend of song stand-up, spoken word, rap and storytelling, this clever two-hander explores which is the better expressive medium – songs or poetry.

Written and performed by Megan Keaveny and Ellie Campbell, Is This Thing On? is an electric new piece of devised theatre by Missmatch and So La Flair Theatre. This exciting collaboration marks MissMatch’s debut performance – with the show already being praised as “full of humanity, heart, and humour” by MancMade Productions. Is This Thing On? also marks So La Flair’s return following the huge success of their last show, How To Keep Up With The Kardashians, which received rave reviews and saw them highlighted as a “company worth watching” by the British Theatre Guide.

Running at around 60 minutes, seize the opportunity to watch this witty contemporary performance by a trailblazing collective of radical new theatre-makers.