Re:play is an annual festival that rounds up the best work from Manchester's smaller stages, and this year's selection is wide open, from lyrical tales of homosexual hobos to surreal domestic fantasias performed by papier-mache puppets.
Matthew Landers's A Dog Called Redemption is a poignant two-hander in which a pair of down-and-outs reach a homoerotic rapprochement in a foetid squat. They make an unlikely couple: the younger man (played by the writer) is a super-tensile drug addict peddling stolen copies of the Big Issue. His companion (Graham Elwell) is a faltering outcast with a fascination for archaisms, whose greatest source of solace is a dictionary.
It's almost inevitable, with characters like these, that there are moments when the situation doesn't appear to be going anywhere. But the rough, rhythmic dialogue conveys a sense of compassion that makes Landers a writer and actor worthy of your attention. Just don't give him any of your spare change.
Shot in the Dark's devised piece, Lost/Found, is a bizarre melange that explores a pile of discarded family snapshots using the medium of rolled-up newspaper. If it sometimes falls prey to the usual physical theatre sins of inchoateness and self-indulgence, it is redeemed by a genuine lump-in-the-throat sequence as an elderly woman expires in expectation of being reunited with her husband, though the moment is spoiled by the appearance of a noisy indie rock band who rather outstay their welcome.
I'm not sure what it means, but the Re:play festival indicates that the Manchester fringe is growing at a prodigious rate, even though some of it could do with cutting.
