Acting students put on a show at five-day flash fringe festival

Final-year Acting students from the University of Northampton staged their own five-day Flash Fringe Festival last week from Monday 31 March until Friday 4 April.

A total of fourteen student theatre companies performed over the five days at the University of Northampton’s Creative Hub, casting a spotlight on their experimental theatre, original plays and performances in front of a packed audience.

Open to the public and welcoming audience members from across the globe, the festival took place without a hitch thanks to the professional organisation by final-year students on the University’s Event Management course.

One of the performances on display was ‘P.I Peck in ‘The Gutter’’, a detective noir parody with a host of classic characters: Femme Fatale Faye, the Entertainer Eli, hard-boiled Mobster Morgan and “our very own Techie Tyler who is holding the show together with two pieces of electrical wire and a strong opinion on accents,” explains student actor, Katie Weston.

She adds: “Our play of ‘P.I Peck in ‘The Gutter’’ has been a year in the making, and it was great to perform this in front of such a supportive audience. We’ve worked really well as a group, we each pulled our own weight, and it was pretty much a seamless process from concept to stage. Every show improved throughout the week!”

“The initial idea was to create a murder mystery, but we wanted to put a spin on the traditional style,” adds fellow actor, Jackson Fleeton. “After watching a student play last year which had a detective-noir style, I thought it would be fun to try and parody it, because we haven’t really seen that on stage before. With a cast like ours, we had a real opportunity to reflect the archetypes, and be able to create something small and contained, but new and fresh. We were really pleased with the final outcome.”

This year’s Flash Fringe Festival celebrates its 13th anniversary of offering up-and-coming actors of the creative industries a stage to show off their final-year performances. After the Covid pandemic derailed two of the annual festivals, it’s an increasingly valued part of the University of Northampton’s annual celebration of creative talent.

As the curtains drew to a close and the actors took their final bow, the University’s Co-Programme Leader for Acting, Paul Morrison reflected: “I am delighted with the array of talent demonstrated on stage by our students at this year’s Flash Fringe Festival.

“We have seen some fantastic original performances over the years, including work that has formed the basis of students’ first projects when they graduate, and this year’s festival is no exception. I’m extremely grateful to the Events Management team and acting students for the work they have put in to make this year’s festival another wonderful success. This is a truly cross-disciplinary project that shows how collaborative practice, creative-thinking and problem-solving can enhance the student experience and provide a useful testing ground for work after graduation.”

Find out more about studying Acting for Stage and Screen at the University of Northampton.