Theatre coming up - Cabaret, Pentecost, Dracula and Fast & Loose (4 new plays in 24 hours)

Cabaret has just started its run at The MAC (16 Sep–4 Oct). The MAC’s main theatre space has been transformed into the Kit Kat Klub. [Read the review]

Not content with singing and dancing, the Bruiser Theatre Company production involves and actors playing the music too in the Kit.

Book a seat and a cocktail around one of the club’s tables, or sit back and relax in a traditional theatre seat and be transported back to the decadent but decaying world of 1930s Berlin.

Over at the Lyric, late Belfast playwright Stewart Parker’s last play Pentecost runs from 20 Set – 18 Oct. Back in a QUB symposium marking the 40th anniversary of the Ulster Workers’ Council Strike, actors Adrian Dunbar and Barbara Adair read snippets from the play that uses the strike and the surrounding strife as its backdrop. [Read the review]

(At the same event, Glenn Barr shared his recollections as a strike organizer, including Ian Paisley’s involvement with the union/paramilitary/political group and the story of the day Paisley tried to take his seat.)

Marian has sold her business and takes up tenancy in a repossessed Belfast working-class parlour-house. Her hopes for a safe haven and fresh start are soon shattered when she finds herself bunkered down during the Ulster Workers' Strike with estranged husband Lenny, his muesli-chomping friend Peter, and her best friend Ruth who is fleeing from an abusive husband.

The four have their own personal crises to reconcile before they can carve a new future. They work out their relationships to each other, the world outside and to the past while trying to envisage a future beyond bombs and reprisals. Only Marian is aware of a fifth presence - the ghost of Lily Matthews, the previous occupant.

The Theatre at the Mill at Newtownabbey promises a show that audiences can sink their teeth into. The première of Jonathan Harker and Dracula features Gerald McCarthy (Hollyoaks). The new adaptation of Bram Stoker’s classic gothic masterpiece is directed by Michael Poynor and runs from 18-27 September. Age 12+.

And Accidental Theatre is back for the third year in the Lyric on Saturday 4 October with Fast & Loose. Described as plays for the chronically impatient, four mini-plays are written, rehearsed and performed in a day. Starting at 9pm on Friday evening, four playwrights spend 12 hours crafting their short play, before four directors and cast take over at 9am to rehearse and finally perform the plays that evening in the Naughton Studio at 9pm.

Drama doesn't come any fresher! Tickets only £5 (plus booking fee).