Spurtle receives theatrical press releases by the bucketload at this time of year. Most of them sound brilliant, few have any outstandingly particular relevance to life as it's lived in this former medieval barony situated just to the north of the city centre.
Imagine our excitement, then, when one such announcement crossed the desk yesterday with the unignorable subject heading:
BOG MAGIC REALISM AND HERESY IN BROUGHTON
In fact, two shows were being touted – both provocative, both starring, written and directed on alternate nights by one-man verbal watefall and Fringe First winner Donal O'Kelly.
Fionnuala is the story of a former Shell PR who is literally spellbound by the mythical Swanwoman Fionnuala of Lir – the sort of thing which happens around here all the time.
Both plays appear at the Hill Street Theatre as part of its solo performance series (Venue 41; Box Office: Tel. 226 0000).
And the biggest Broughton connection of all? O'Kelly is allegedly sleeping here between shows. Hmmm. If you see him, tell us.
In the meantime, Spurtle has prevailed upon what's left of O'Kelly's publicist's conscience and secured 2 free tickets for each show. (Fionnuala is on odd August days - 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 ... and Skeffy on the even ones - 2, 4, 6, 8, 10... Aug. until the 25th.) They're both under an hour running time.
Just send us your name, contact details, and preferred date to spurtle@hotmail.co.uk. The winners will be drawn from a shooglie hat on Tuesday at lunchtime.