OFF THE BLOCK 3 - What am I going to write?

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Off the Block returns this Friday at South Street Arts Centre, Reading. Organised by the tremendous company Reading Between the Lines it is an evening that contains four pieces of work that have been written in that week. These pieces have been rehearsed on the Friday, all lines learnt and performed in a blind joyous panic that evening.

I won the opportunity to take part two years ago with my 2 minute short "On Hold" that you can read here...

Following that I had a day to write a 20 minute piece based on the starting point "Four people raising their glasses" I came up with "The Stranger" which was a brilliantly directed (by Hal Chambers) horror portmanteau about a Stranger granting three friends their deepest desires - which might not be things that that they would admit to...

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"Chris Lambert's play was undoubtedly the darkest of the lot, involving three friends who meet a strange man in a bar and are promised their deepest desires - money, fame and friendship.

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Exploring the ideas that we don't know what we really want, and most of our deepest desires remain buried for a reason, the play left audiences with plenty to think about." - Reading Post - April 27th 2012

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I learnt an enormous amount from the experience. I was very pleased with the end result but felt sorry for the actors having to get their tongues around my verbosity in just a few hours... so I promised a bit more economy and...

...the following year I was given the starting point of "Under the duvet" and somehow came up with a sitcom about Jesus Christ called "Mr C." in which he gets into an argument with door-to-door evangelists.

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"The packed audience roared with laughter at Chris Lambert's play, which saw the devilishly good situation comedy of door-to-door preachers coming face-to-face with a man who claimed he was Jesus risen from the dead, in a nonchalant and casual manner. With a deliciously fresh and contemporary script, the four actors each cleverly held their own in playing contrasting characters, in particular Alexander McWilliam's portrayal of an unsuspecting and outspoken new preacher." - Reading Post - May 26 2013

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So I await with bated breath for the stimulus this week.

If you would like to attend the show then you can get tickets here. 

It is always a very exciting evening with excellent professional actors spending a day learning the words of four writers...

Join us!