Not content with launching its own clothing label, new Manchester-based queer arts company Rough Boy is also in the middle of casting its first theatre production, Je Suis Charlie, a black comedy that opens at city centre venue 53Two this week (March 28-30).
The company launched this year with a collection of t-shirt designs, for those "who wear their heart on their sleeve and who they are on their chest".
By multi-award-winning writer and director Nick Maynard, Je Suis Charlie is a dark comedy about a satirical cartoonist, Charlie, who hooks up with young guy Mike on a gay dating app, only to discover Mike is a Christian fundamentalist who wants justice for Charlie’s blasphemy.
Nick trained at Manchester School of Theatre and has had work performed at the National Theatre, the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough, and Manchester's Royal Exchange. His play Quaranteen won the V International Young Theatre Play Writing Contest and is due be translated and published in Spanish later this year. He is creative director for Rough Boy.
Je Suis Charlie director Scott le Crass was recently nominated for best creative West End debut at the Stage Awards for his production of Rose, by Martin Sherman, starring Maureen Lipman, who won an Off West End award for best solo performance.
More info and tickets here