h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It is time once again for something simultaneously exciting and scary that crops up in my life from time to time: production week for a theatre show that I'm involved in.

My recent experience as an actor has made me familiar with the whole production week ritual of technical rehearsals, sorting out the lighting, the sound and the cues, the dress rehearsal and the days of the shows. But this is a bit different in many ways. It's a play that I feel particularly strongly about: so much so that I advocated it when my University theatre group was choosing this semester's shows, and volunteered my services as assistant director. It's called 'Welcome To Paradise', and it's a viciously funny satire by a local Bradford writer set in a parallel (but oddly familiar) reality in which excesses of drink, drugs and sex are legally compulsory. You *have* to do your share of drinking, drugging and shagging, or a nasty bunch of thugs called the Credit Police will pay you a visit. The play was performed for the first time at another Bradford theatre in 2003. I saw it and loved it then, but I truly feel that our production is on course to take what was already a great play to new heights.

In my unfamiliar role as co-director, I have played a large part in choosing the incidental music for the show; and I am now very proud of our highly eclectic soundtrack. How many shows can there be in which a Nine Inch Nails track is immediately followed by a children's choir singing 'Halfway Down The Stairs'? We also have music by The Beatles, Aphex Twin, David Bowie, Air, Elvis Costello, Green Day and Buzzcocks among others. And we have great performances of a very witty script that says a lot about peer pressure and the cruelty of enforced conformity. There is social comment and there is very funny sex comedy; I am hoping that I won't get in trouble over the unusual use that is made of a Dostoevsky I borrowed from the Uni library. There is also an acting contribution from me; but I won't have to feel nervous about that next weekend, because it's already been recorded. I appear on a screen as a sinister announcer, making some rather unusual public service announcements. One of my announcements has a distinctly Hitchhiker flavour: 'You are in a theatre. You are sitting down. This is not the interior of a large and oddly well-furnished fish. Hold on to that thought...'

All of this can be yours for the absurd bargain price of £4.50 (£3 concessions) if you can make it to the Theatre In The Mill, Bradford University, for 7:30pm next Friday or Saturday (May 19 & 20). Don't come if you're under 16 or very conservative in your tastes, as there are a few words and a couple of extremely funny scenes of a sexual nature. But to everyone else - be there or, very likely, be somewhere less interesting!

honey

I don't suppose you could film it and smuggle out a copy.

sounds great! pity I'm so far away

Sorry - Only just spotted this one - Hope all went well?

£4.50 does sound cheap, especially for a show with so much musical and technical content. Our group www.kads.org.uk has just gone up to £5.00 and people still feel it's a good value night out.