Critics unanimous in 5 star reviews for The Crypt Project: New Depths

We were thrilled at the wonderful response we had to our site-specific show underneath The Lowry. Audience and critics delighted us with their comments.

"2011 was a great year for theatre in the North West," say What's On Stage as they look back at the year and ask their busy reviewers to name the shows that really stand out for them.

Up there with nationally touring productions at the Opera House and The Lowry and top quality shows from the Royal Exchange, Oldham Coliseum and Liverpool Playhouse it's.......

The Crypt Project by Happystorm Theatre!

"I loved being down in the crypt at St Phillips with St Stephen's Church Salford and moving around to meet the characters in each scene. A thought provoking piece that showed talent and understanding of the subject matter." Ruth Lovett

What's On Stage
Looking Back At 2011

Since our debut production 18 months ago when we first received funding from Arts Council England we have produced 3 professional plays and are currently working on our fourth.

We are incredibly grateful to the Arts Council who have funded all 3 previous shows and have just confirmed that they will also be funding our new underground adventure, The Crypt Project: New Depths.

This will mean that we can make it a truly incredible experience. We promise that the production will deserve the support we have been so lucky to receive.

Happystorm's Matthew Ganley has been very busy of late, treading the boards in Joe O'Byrne's new Tales From Paradise Heights play Strawberry Jack, on this week, filming his Christmas episode of Emmerdale and preparing for Much Ado About Nothing at Lancaster Castle.

To add to that he will be appearing alongside actors like Christopher Eccleston, Mackenzie Crook, Juliet Stevenson and Andy Serkis in the brilliant BBC Drama, Accused, written by Jimmy McGovern and Alice Nutter.

We are constantly surprised and delighted by the wealth of young talent coming through our doors and Sophie, 17, is no exception. Very talented, passionate and a pleasure to work with, it's easy to see why Sophie is doing so well in the professional acting world despite being so young.

So far this year she has secured a top agent and is about to begin filming in BBC series Open Doors.

Already having credits the envy of any seaosoned professional we predict a bright future for Sophie, all well deserved.

Our theatrical exploration into addiction, The Crypt Project, has been invited to be part of the international multidisciplinary conference on Performance and Addiction at Kingston University, London in April 2012.

Why do drugs, addicts, and addictions appear so frequently in performance? Why are substances, users and dependency employed as devices in different kinds of narratives, across eras, genres and art forms, borders and identities? How do such works use representation to trouble the problematic term ‘addiction’ and its negative associations with mental illness, criminality, and disorder?

The relationships between artists, artistic movements, artistic products, media discourse and substance use raise questions which need further exploration. Building on Kingston University’s 2008 conference, Addiction and Obsession, this international and multi-disciplinary conference therefore seeks further understanding and articulation of the relationship between addiction and performance.

"Salford's Happystorm Theatre have already hit the headlines for their social realism - with police in riot gear swooping on their last production.

The incident underlines Happystorm's commitment to gritty drama - their next play, The Myth of Escape, is a political drama about isolation and oppression. 'It's laugh out loud funny' says joint founder Susi Wrenshaw, 'but it also makes you think.'

The company hit the road with their first touring production this summer, after less than a year as a Community Interest Company, based in Salford.

Artistic director Matthew Ganley said: 'Salford is one of the most welcoming places we have ever come across. Our source material is taken directly from the lives of the people of Salford and we try and turn that into a high quality production which they can share.' "

"Having dodged a rat I descended deep beneath the bowels of the city into the dank, dark crypt of St Philip with St Stephen church, which is till home to the remains of its patrons.

The smell was overwhelming, the walls crumbling as Susi Wrenshaw of Happystor Theatre chuckled 'Our biggest challenge was working in an underground space which was not designed for the living, let alone as a theatre space!'

As she spoke, fragments of the ceiling started trickling down my back like the sand in an egg timer. The strange setting was for a production of The Crypt Project earlier this year, where twenty people at a time wandered through tunnels on a journey of life which had the subject of addiction at its core, and had been inspired by workshops with the recovering community inn Salford.

The Happystorm people don't make theatre easy for themselves. First a church crypt, and then a cell - in a restaurant?

'Every obstacle is an opportunity for development and improvement' says Susi, adding, 'Well, that's what we keep telling ourselves...' "

By Mike Atherfold

The Courtyard Theatre has announced the longlist for the King's Cross Award for New Writing 2011.

And we are delighted that The Myth of Escape by Rob Johnston is on there!

Not only that, but Rob's other play Einstein's Daughter also features.

Matthew has just enjoyed a well-received run at The Lowry Theatre playing Tony Blair in Come As You Arts North West anti-war play, The Lonely Clouds of Guernica.