Ransack Theatre find Life Out There
- Robert Beale
- 5 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Life Out There, a new sci-fi drama written by Bruntwood prize-winning playwright Tim Foley, is brought by Ransack Theatre to the Lowry’s Aldridge Studio next month (July1-4), with dates also including The Engine Room in Wigan (July 6-9) and a one-night special at Jodrell Bank Observatory on July 16, when the play will be reimagined as a radio drama beneath star projections in the Space Dome.
Foley’s Electric Rosary, which won the Bruntwood judges’ award, was memorably seen at the Royal Exchange Theatre in 2022, and his two-hander Driftwood was filmed for streaming during a tour in 2023 (it also visited the Lowry last year, on a more extensive UK tour).
Driftwood was co-produced by Wigan-based ThickSkin Theatre, and this new show – described as “sharp, funny and quietly horrifying” and “an epic story for our times” – is co-commissioned through ThickSkin’s supported artist programme. Manchester-based Ransack - a former Manchester Theatre Best Fringe Production award winner - is supported by Thickskin.
Foley's play is set in a barely-working spaceship "far beyond Earth", drifting on a mission most people have already written off. The real scientists are doing the real work back home.
When something goes wrong in space, crew members are forced into a life or death decision, a choice not just about survival, but about what kind of future is worth chasing across the galaxy.
Directed by Ransack's artistic director, Piers Black, the production marks the second collaboration between the company and Tim Foley following Jurassic in 2025.
The cast features (L-R below) Sophie Steer (Miranda in The Tempest at Shakespeare’s Globe), Alastair Michael (Silent Witness, BBC), Samuel Gosrani (Romeo & Juliet, Bristol Old Vic and Hackney Empire) and Brianna Douglas (Noughts and Crosses, Pilot Theatre).
Age guidance is 14+.
More info and tickets here
