Malengin ask for help with Edinburgh Fringe show DEL at 3MT, 30 Aug

It’s not often you hear a theatre company say we’re out of ideas, please help. But that’s the plea that has caught the eye of hundreds of festival-goers at the 2011 Edinburgh Festival.

Enquiring further, curious passers-by were presented with a chair, a typewriter, and a blank sheet of paper. Their instructions? That an award-winning comedy writer was struggling for ideas and needed their input – with the most appealing ideas to be stolen for featured in his show.

Contributions ranged from the obscene to the absurd, the desperate to the inspired. And just one or two did indeed wind up included in the world premiere of DEL, produced by Manchester theatre company Malengin.

The sad and funny and occasionally borderline true story of one man’s rise to success. On his own. Completely.

A fast-paced, five-hand studio show, DEL charts the meteoric rise of a showbiz legend, using an innovative, chopping-and-twisting narrative to peer behind the gloss and polish, revealing the messier truth behind.

The creators of DEL are writers Peter Easterbrook and Jonathan Higgs and their co-performers Mick Cooper, Elinor Dixon and Gareth Williams, with Michael Brady providing light and sound.

DEL is at the Three Minute Theatre in Manchester from 30 August – 1 September.