Meet the Artist - Joe O'Byrne
As well as being an artist at FaMAS Art Studio and Galleries, Joe O'Byrne is also an award-winning writer/director/actor and producer operating out of his studio. Some of you may have been in his studio on floor 3, which looks like a cross between a gothic Aladdin's Cave and a mad man's bric-a-brac shop! His writing output is described by critics and audiences as 'Stephen King meets Jimmy McGovern.'
Three of his plays are on in the region this month, and another is on in July, plays that have an army of fans from tours all around the U.K.
Several of us from FaMAS are looking forwards to seeing The Bench very soon at The Octagon! Why not join us?
The Bench: A Tale from Paradise Heights.
It’s haunted. The bench in the park. The one by the war memorial.
Over twelve months, sixteen lives intertwine around a graffiti scarred bench. A thief, a fake clairvoyant, a homeless man, two burglars, a street sweeper, two war veterans, an artist, a widow, a drug dealer, a real clairvoyant, a loan shark, an angel, and a ghost — they have all sat here at least once this year. Love, loss, laughter, and terror all pass across the aged wood of that bench.
Some people are afraid of ghosts, but it’s the living that can do the real damage; and before the year is out one of them will be murdered here…
The Bench is haunting, enchanting, hilarious, and at times terrifying; it is a deeply human tale from the world of Paradise Heights.Octagon Theatre Bolton Thursday 28th to Saturday 30th May, 8pm, and Sat Matinee 3:00pm.