Butter Side Up Theatre Company’s Thestival 2025 – 11 April 2025, Lantern Theatre, Sheffield

Review by Artisan Friendly.

Thestival is back and what a brilliant showcase it is for new and upcoming writing, theatre and performance. Since its beginnings in 2013, it’s now been reinvented into a multi-day celebration of musicals, comedy, drama and creative debuts. Butter Side Up Theatre Company are hosting the festival this year and promise two evenings ‘packed with talent and surprises for performers and theatre-lovers alike.’ There is a great air of anticipation around tonight with cameras rolling and the show is a sell out! Director and writer Anthony introduces himself at the bar and I feel very welcome.
Founded in 2016, Butter Side Up began as a small troupe. Since then, they have grown and now have over 50 members. Their aim is to amplify underrepresented voices, champion LGBTQ+ talent, and foster a supportive environment of artistic growth. This was well reflected in the first evening of Thestival, which offered two original one act plays ‘Room To Let’ and ‘Shadows of Suspicion’.
‘Room To Let’ is a comedy vampire horror thriller written and directed by Anthony Garber. It tells the tale of vampire landlady Alice Colmill who lures in innocent tenants with the sole intention of sinking her fangs in them. The piece was full of energy as the cast dodged vampires here, there and everywhere. There was a good use of eerie sound effects during scene changes.
Becky Cleary shone as Alice, delivering just the right amount of mystique and mystery whilst preying on whoever she could get her hands (and fangs) on. There were also some very humorous exchanges between Connor Varley (Jack) and Daniel Okey (Maxwell) as two hapless tenants. They delighted the audience who were extremely supportive of the piece throughout. There was also a copious use of vampire defending garlic, which caused a lot of mirth.  Jamie Wainwright as Charles also stood out for his conviction to the character.
The set was quite minimal and at one point a car was indicated with the use of four chairs, which worked very effectively. Costume was also quite minimal but did involve swishing vampire capes and creepy make up. On the whole, it was a well written, quirky and entertaining piece which was both farcical and fun.
‘Shadows of Suspicion’ is a dark comedy murder mystery written and directed by Liam Jewison and Georgi Tunstall. It tells the story of Penny, who suspects her husband is having an affair. He has disappeared and detective, Harri is brought on board to solve the mystery.
The play complimented ‘Room To Let’ well as it was darker in tone, creating a nice balance. The set was a mishmash of tables and chairs with a birdcage as its centrepiece. The stage was spilt into two and the action switched sides to illustrate different scenes taking place. This was very effective staging and kept the action propelling forward and full of pace. This in turn also helped to keep the storytelling edgy, like a page turner book.
The play was very well performed. Once again Becky Cleary stood out as Penny and was able to show her ability to interpret and find a truth in different characters. Daniel Okey as Harri also shone as he deftly quizzed Penny on husband, Richard’s disappearance. Christy Fitzsimmons (as Jack) stole the scene when trying to get his head around different football terminology. There was great camaraderie between Christy, Robert Place (Richard) and Connor Varley (Sonny) in a scene which the audience were wild for.  There was also a scene between Richard with a bank clerk which got a round of applause.

Throughout the piece there was a character of a parrot, Pedro, who punctuated at various points injecting some bizarre hilarity. Whenever Pedro contributed to the dialogue, the cage lit up in fairy lights to indicate his presence. This was a nice, inventive touch.
It’s very refreshing to see new and original material performed and The Lantern is a great space to showcase it.  Since its debut in 2013, Thestival has blossomed and grown. Long may it continue to access the creativity it displayed tonight!