Theatre Festival starts with a local play

The Liverpool International Theatre Festival gets underway tomorrow at the Astor Theatre, and the first performance will have a very local feel.

Queens County native

Al Steele plays the title role in Oliver’s Bench, written by local playwright Greg Tutty. The play is the first production to be performed at the Liverpool International Theatre Festival on Oct. 18.

Greg Tutty’s play called Oliver’s Bench will be the opening piece, and is unusual in that the entire play has no spoken lines.

He says four years ago he submitted a different play to LITF, and the feedback he was given said there were too many words. Tutty took that as a challenge and wrote a play with as few words as possible, which eventually evolved into a play with no lines at all.

The inspiration for the play itself came from a walk on the Liverpool waterfront, where Tutty met a person sitting on a bench who clearly did not want him to be in the area. Though he never found out why, the experience stuck with him wrote a play based on that experience.

As of Oct. 16 the play was just about sold out, which hasn’t happened to an LITF performance in over a decade. Tutty says he and the actors taking the stage are excited there is so much interest in the play

Oliver’s Bench will be the first play to be performed after LITF opening ceremonies, starting at 8:30 pm Thursday night.