Acting students set to storm Lewisham Fringe Festival

Acting students from the University of Northampton will gain valuable experience treading the boards when they put on three shows at the Lewisham Fringe Festival tomorrow.

Final year undergraduates will travel to south London on Friday 16 November to perform three shows they’ve written and directed themselves, at The London Theatre, in New Cross.

The first performance, Common Noise, follows the story of squatters facing discrimination in Berlin, shortly after the Berlin Wall’s collapse.

It was written by Chris Cutler and Joseph Mattingley.

Joseph said: “It’s taken about a month to get a full draft of the script together after a few discussions over the summer where we got our initial ideas rolling.

“The process has been really enjoyable. It was a little bit frantic at the start because we had to get lines written very quickly for the first draft of the script so that the actors could start working, but it’s been a great experience.”

Joseph added: “It’s been brilliant to see the actors reciting the lines we’ve written. We get a good idea of an actor’s own style and have been tailoring the lines for them, and to see that pay off and the lines executed so well is such a great feeling. You just think, ‘that’s exactly how I imagined it’.

“Everyone’s done a really good job and we are all ready to go. Having the opportunity to take a production to London is something that I’ve always wanted to do and now it’s a reality.”

The second performance is Web of Laws, which is set in the future, as a teacher fights to clear her name in a controversial court case that will be decided by a social media app.

The third show, The Party Is Dead, focuses on an office party gone wrong.

Tickets for the shows can be purchased from We Got Tickets.

Lewisham Fringe Festival is organised by The London Theatre and is dedicated to supporting new writers and performers.