The Sheffield University Theatre Company (SUTCo) will be returning to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the world’s largest performing arts festival, this summer.
Having last visited the cultural celebration in 2023 with their production of We Are, In Fact, The Problem, the group will take Peace Circle to the Scottish capital in August, following proposals yesterday.
Holding a separate show proposals process to their upcoming semester two slots, the proposals saw three productions go forward for consideration, before being voted on my attendees.
Whilst competition from Darcey Severne and Kirsty Lucas’ Clerical Error and Alicia Fitzwilliams and Abbie Wright’s adaptation of Katherine Mansfield’s Bliss was tough, it was ultimately Lucy Singer’s original script Peace Circle that was successfully selected for the coveted slot, which will be produced over the next semester and into the summer months.
To be directed by Lucy Singer, with Milly Derrick as Production Manager and Jasmine Kaur Lee as Producer with Jess Clayton as Assistant Producer, Peace Circle will tell the story of six people brought together in a form of restorative justice.
Sitting together to discuss a crime, the perpetrator and victim, and their relatives, must seek understanding from one another, with each learning more about themselves as the process evolves.
For most of the production team, this will be their first involvement with a SUTCo show, with Singer, who recently was the Deputy Stage Manager for the record-breaking The Importance of Being Earnest, the exception to this rule, in a win for new talent in the society.
The Edinburgh Fringe Festival is an annual arts, theatre and comedy festival taking place in the Scottish capital for four weeks in August, aiming to bring together new and emerging creative talent, as well as providing a platform for them to showcase their talents to wider audiences.
This will be the first time SUTCo has taken a show to the arts festival since 2023, organising a production to be staged there every other year, alternating with a 24 hour musical, in collaboration with the Sheffield University Performing Arts Society.
As well as taking productions to Fringe, SUTCo is a theatre performance group staging around seven plays each academic year, with a mix of established writing and original scripts from its members.
Their most recent show, a production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, directed by the group’s Treasurer Amaara Qureshi was staged in the Library Theatre from November 20th to 22nd and broke SUTCo’s record for ticket sales, which had existed since 2017.
The play was very widely praised, with societies and reviewers alike praising the professionalism and comedy the production brought, which was reflected by their ticket sales.
The group return to the Drama Studio stage this week with the original Margaret Beaufort: Kingmaker, written by SUTCo member Andrew Hurrell, which focuses on the titular Margaret Beaufort’s efforts to secure the English throne for her son at the end of the War of the Roses.
The production stars returning actress Tilly Harradine, who was widely praised last year for her performance as Nurse in Medea, as the titular Margaret Beaufort, Imogen Kerr as Lord Thomas Stanley, Jamie Egan as Richard III and James Platt as the Duke of Buckingham.
Whilst SUTCo prepares to take to the stage for their final production of 2024, their recent announcement of their 2025 Fringe production has already driven excitement at the prospect of University of Sheffield students performing in Edinburgh once again.
Whilst it is unclear whether any of the unsuccessful productions will put forward their shows for consideration in semester two, the successful team behind Peace Circle will already be making preparations ahead of their now confirmed run in Scotland in August, and the beginning of the production’s journey within SUTCo.
Applications for SUTCo’s semester two productions close on December 6th, with proposals taking place on December 11th & 12th
