Written and directed by emerging playwright Sam Bates, Sessions (King's Arms, Salford, June 5-7; Buxton Fringe, July 9-12) is Sam's first show under the umbrella of Working Progress Collective, the Midlands-based company he recently founded.
When troublesome youth George Boucher narrowly misses serving time in prison for a violent offence, he is placed with a eanages to slowly peel back George's defences, allowing him the space and freedom to grow.
"Sessions is about toxic masculinity and trauma, which grapples with how trauma lives in the body – and how, when it goes unaddressed, it manifests into our behaviours and habits," Sam explained.
Sam is a writer and actor from Nuneaton, who since 2014 has performed extensively across community theatre, at Buxton Fringe Festival, Edinburgh Festival Fringe and beyond. He graduated from the Manchester School of Theatre last year with a BA (Hons) in Acting.
Company co-founder Beth Pollard is an actor-musician and writer who trained in Applied Theatre at LIPA and graduated with a Masters in International Development Law and Human Rights at the University of Warwick. She has worked on theatre projects across primary schools, secondary schools, non-mainstream educational facilities, pupil referral units, community choirs and youth theatres and on collaborations with Fabula Arts and the Challenge.