The Greater Manchester Fringe launched at Fab Cafe this Sunday to great success. The launch event was a raw run-through of two of the plays featured at the festival: Robots of Death and Storm Mine. Though both plays were in a greatly stripped down format, it was clear that both productions have a lot going for them and should be a delight to sci-fi fans who can make the event. Special guests Paul Darrow and Tracy Russel added their own unique magic to the proceedings. The full run of these shows will not feature the special guests, but are being produced by the same team who brought us the Ballad of Halo Jones earlier this year (reviewed here).

The Greater Manchester Fringe will be running throughout July, and more details can be found at www.greatermanchesterfringe.co.uk. The month is packed with all sorts of interesting events, and in addition to full productions of Robots Of Death and Storm Mine (both of which are inspired by the Faction Paradox franchise), Starburst readers may want to check out the Year of the Sex Olympics, a futuristic parody on reality TV, inspired by the original teleplay by Quatermass writer, Nigel Kneale. And for those who prefer their science fiction with more science and less fiction, there’s Together in Electric Dreams, an imagined dinner date between Sir Clive Sinclair and Alan Sugar at the height of the eighties computing boom. Satirical comic Spin Dry will also have its launch party as part of the fringe, and budding illustrators may want to check out their website at spindry.tumblr.com, as they are currently looking for artists.

The Greater Manchester Fringe holds a lot of promise, and if you’re lucky enough to be in Manchester this month, you should certainly check it out.

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