Her name is Sandra

A "moving story of the way people can change in the face of adversity" is how writer Andrea Orton describes her 70-minute play My Name is Sandra, which you can catch (if you hurry) from this Tuesday to Thursday at Salford's Kings Arms pub-theatre.

Jenny and Sandra hated each other at school and years later meet again when Sandra finds herself on Jenny’s cancer ward... 

Drawing on her background in nursing and specialist psychotherapy, Andrea offers a professional and emotional intelligence in her writing. Since 2020 she has been creating vivid, character-driven plays with authenticity and heart.

Andrea studied with one-time Oldham Coliseum artistic director John Retallack on the Oxford Playwriting Course, where she wrote this play - which was shortlisted by London Playwrights for future development and described as “a lovely piece, with a strong message about living life to the full, without regrets.”

The play was published earlier this year as part of a collection of new plays.  

Director Nico Mirallegro was born in Manchester to an Italian father and Anglo-Irish mother and this production is his directorial debut, since he has been better known as an actor and as a maker of music videos since leaving the Manchester School of Acting. Audiences might more obviously recognise the actor-director as a BAFTA-nominated member of the cast of Peter Moffat's 2013 period TV series The Village, in which he played Joe Middleton. Nico is also known for My Mad Fat Diary, as Timothy Evans in Rillington Place and as John Bagguelly in Mike Leigh’s historical drama, Peterloo.

His stage debut was in the new production of The Pass directed by John Tiffany at the Royal Court Theatre London.

More info and tickets here