Anything for a Laugh – One Hour Theatre Company

One Hour Theatre Company presents Anything for a Laugh, by Tom Hall, with Victor Merriman as Marty Downes. Sound design and direction by WeZ Nolan.

Anything for a Laugh is presented as a radio play in a theatrical setting, offering WoWFest audiences a unique collective listening experience.

Marty Downes has never been far from his hometown, Wexford, in the South-East of Ireland, where he lives unostentatiously among people he’s known all his life. He enjoys the predictable rhythms of small-town living and amuses his neighbours in their local pub, The Ibex. Marty can always be relied upon for a funny story or even a song. And then, one evening, without warning, everything changes …

Anything for a Laugh is Tom Hall’s second play for WoWFest; his Bartleby: A Tale of Wall Street, featuring in the online festival in 2021. Tom was born in Vermont, USA, and has lived in Ireland since 1995, following periods in Mexico, where he began writing.

This is Victor Merriman’s third event at WoWFest, following his book launch and reading (2019) and Bartleby: A Tale of Wall Street (2021), in which he directed David Llewelyn. He is Professor of Critical Studies in Drama at Edge Hill University, and a founder-director of One Hour Theatre Company (https://sites.edgehill.ac.uk/ohtc/).

WeZ Nolan is a Creative Industries all-rounder from Wexford Town, whose career spans radio, theatre, live television, film, music and festivals. He is a craft educator currently Programme Leading in Media and Production at Liverpool Screen School, LJMU.

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