Lee seeks some fringe benefits

ACTOR, writer and director Lee D Barnes is taking his play to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival this summer. Pauline Hawkins on his plans to fund the venture. Picture: Charles Round.

A REVIVING Yorkshire brew provided Halifax actor Lee D Barnes with a TV screen break and some cash to devote to his true love. The advertisement for Yorkshire Tea featured Lee and an actress canoodling before deciding to postpone their cuddling for a cuppa.

But it was neither the tea not the TV exposure that Lee craved – rather, he wanted the money from the acting job to help further his career as a writer and director of cutting-edge theatre.

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Lee, 29, has begun to realise his dream. After his work was performed at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2008, he is making his way north again in August with his new play, InBetween. It chronicles the descent of a young man into madness in an original and thought-provoking way, using black humour and intelligent word play to leave audiences stunned by its bleakness and raw emotion.

Lee is the creative director of In House Writer theatre company, based in Halifax, which is a collective pool of the town’s finest raw talent and uses both students from Calderdale College and professional actors to create, says Lee, a “unique theatrical experience”.

InBetween will have its world premiere at the 2011 Edinburgh Fringe Festival with a two-week run at a top venue, where the theatre company is set to make a name in the professional circuit.”

Again, his plans demand financial input. And with one eye on the festival, he and his team are preparing to stage a theatrical experience in which 24 actors have 24 hours to devise a one-hour performance at the Victoria Theatre in Halifax at 7pm on Wednesday, July 6.

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Lee says: “This show will test these actors both mentally and physically. The actors will sleep, eat and breathe the Victoria Theatre’s main stage.

“They will enter the theatre at 7pm on Tuesday, July 5, and at that point the clock ticks down. For 24 hours the actors will be put to the test with a series of intense workshops. They will work on scriptwriting, devising, vocal projection, movement, character acting, relaxation techniques and more.”

Called 24 Hour Crash – will they perform to the best of their ability, or will they crash? – proceeds from the finished production will go towards the cost of In House Writer’s Edinburgh venture. Lee adds: “24 Hour Crash is an event not to be missed. With more and more theatres facing closure every day across the UK, now is the time to come together and help.”

The writer, a passionate anti-racism campaigner, added the initial D into his name so as not to be confused with former British National Party spokesman Lee Barnes.

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The impassioned monologue Today Another was written by Lee D Barnes. He performs the five-minute piece in a number of voices, ranging from an British Asian to a Right-wing sympathiser. It is available to view on http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6K5hvLEbQzI

Tickets for 24 Hour Crash, £4. Theatre box office: 01422 351158.