Vintage Corrie at the Lass O'Gowrie

LIVE CORONATION STREET, RUSSELL T. DAVIES' MIDNIGHT, MR. B THE GENTLEMAN RHYMER, HALO JONES, NEIL MORRISSEY, THE WEIR and a celebration of the life and works of JACK ROSENTHAL (including the chance to savour his inaugural Play for Today script 'HOT FAT', for the first time since 1974!), are just some of the highlights that make up this year’s amazing Lassfest!

Building on our unenviable reputation as a one venue fringe, the newly minted Midwinter Lassfest covering an eye-popping range of genres, including comedy, live music, new writing and adaptations, revivals, ale tasting, literature events and geek culture. But drama, quite rightly is at the heart of our programme and, for the first time ever, we'll be making full use of the ground floor of the pub as an evocative, standing set. You'll see the Lass transformed into a luxury space liner, a 50th century ghetto, sixties Weatherfield and an Irish pub, dripping with suspense and secrets.

Dominating two weeks of programming is our tribute to the late JACK ROSENTHAL - one of the north's greatest literary sons and author of classics like the BAFTA award winning Bar Mitzvah Boy, The Evacuees and Spend, Spend, Spend - about the football pools winner, Viv Nicholson. He also wrote The Knowledge, a film about London taxi-drivers which has become a classic for cabbies-in-training and created London's Burning as a one-off drama in 1986, as well as penning an incredible 129 episodes of Coronation Street during the 1960's.

Fittingly, we are pround to present three epsiodes of Jack's CORONATION STREET from 1968. We are hugely grateful to ITV and Jack's family for allowing us to stage these episodes and can't wait for you to see them! These brand new, full cast dramatisations will take place in the ground floor of the Lass making them a totally immersive and dramatic presentation. The first two episodes (#777 and #778) cover the wedding of DENNIS TANNER and JENNY SUTTON and includes a host of well loved characters including ENA SHARPLES, MINNIE CALDWELL, ELSIE TANNER, ANNIE and JACK WALKER and ALBERT TATLOCK.

Complementing these two classic slices of sixties writing, is a new adaptation of CORONATION STREET episode 788 - also from 1968 which centres on THE OGDENS with STAN OGDEN treating HILDA to a slap up, Chinese meal. This is comedy and drama at its' finest, trust us. With a new brand new cast brought together by the legendary JUNE WEST, Casting Director for over 15 years of Coronation Street and the BAFTA award winning Road to Coronation Street and directed by theatre stalweart HELEN PARRY, this is not to be missed.

Complementing these witty northern treasures is HOT FAT - a full cast play exploring Jack Rosenthal‘s wry comic drama of friendships and deals made (and broken) in a men’s sauna. With this being Jack's first work Play for Today in 1974, and with the tapes have long since been wiped by the BBC, this a rare opportunity to enjoy never since performed classic slice of TV drama, powerfully reimagined for the stage by Director DAVE MACREEDY.

Anyone fancy a ghost sotry in a pub? Presented in a real bar for the very first time, join us for Conor McPherson’s THE WEIR - a powerful tale of a barman, three men, a woman and their tales of life, loss lore and love. Other drama premieres include ‘SINFUL' by Carly Tarett – a clever twist on the seven deadly sins, ‘EVERYMAN’ by Brian Gorman - a surreal biopic of the late Patrick McGoohan, ‘WE TOOK THAT AND PARTIED' by Rebekkah Harrison, a bittersweet northern tale of two former friend who jack it all in to follow Take That on tour and 'THINKING OUT LOUD' – a collection of shorts, also by Rebekkah.

It wouldn’t be a Lassfest without oodles of geek culture in the form of our famous pubcons and this year we have a series of crackers. First up is a brand new, Rebellion authorised adaptation of 'THE BALLAD OF HALO JONES'. Halo and her friends live on the Hoop - a repository for the unemployed in the 50th century, but she won’t be beaten. She dreams of getting out and becomes a legend in the process. Join us for a brand new, full cast production of Books one and two the 50th century girl next door, created by Alan Moore and Ian Gibson and originally presented in 2000AD in the 80‘s.

We're also thrilled to present a brand new full cast adaptation of 'RUSSELL T. DAVIES' MIDNIGHT' - an amazing exercise in pychological terror following a group of strangers marooned on a land buggy in the mysterious dimaond mountains of a poisoned landscape. We're also looking forward to ‘BASE UNDER SIEGE’ - A Doctor Who improvised episode, whereby the audience suggests the title for a NEW Doctor Who episode, complete with new monsters and a new Doctor and the Comedysportz team deliver it! last, but not least we have our dedicated retro video gaming weekender – 'THE HOMEBREW VIDEO GAMING WEEKENDER', celebrating the cream of 80’s video-gaming and culture. Expect Commodores, Spectrums, Megadrives, competitions, talks from industry pros, live coding, exclusive themed burlesque and comedy .

Literature makes a welcome return this year in the form of our an exclusive showcase with genre publishers HIRST BOOKS, whereby we bring you readings and Q&A’s with some of the imprint's best and brightest writing talents. Stay tuned for the final lineup, but we promise a few suprises!

We've not forgotten live music either. Expect regulars GADZOOKS, DIVING DUCK BLUES, OPEN MIC, UNION DAVE'S JAM (big and little) and THEMED KARAOKE to be joined by 'Men Behaving Badly's and ale connoisseur NEIL MORRISEY for an evening of proper tunes and ale tasting on Saturday, January 21st.

Completing the line-up is a rich seam of Edinburgh stalwarts and exclusive comedy sets. Talents on display include the high priest of chap-hop MR. B THE GENTLEMAN RHYMER, Edinburgh legends DANNY PENSIVE, Channel 4 and SAS comedy’s PETER SLATER and MICK SERGEANT, improv from COMEDYSPORTZ, Cirque du Lass Champion JULIE JONES and Manchester stalwarts COLIN MANFORD and LEWIS CHARLESWORTH.

The Midwinter Lassfest will run for every day between the 2nd and 29th January. We believe strongly in an art without risk ethos, with performers either paid direct by the Lass O’Gowrie or we simply provide the space for free, leaving artistes with all takings.

Tickets are available on the door or via www.wegottickets.co.uk by searching for the Lass O'Gowrie or following the links over at www.lassfest.co.uk. Please note, priority will be given to online advance orders and with our limited capacity, once they're gone - they're gone.
For more information, contact us at;

The Lass O'Gowrie
36 Charles Street
Manchester
M1 7DB

Tel: 0161 2736932
E: info@thelass.co.uk
W: www.lassfest.co.uk
W: www.thelass.co.uk
F: Lass O'Gowrie
T: @thelassogowrie

Published: 9-Dec-2011: (979)