Hope Street Theatre date for The Comeback Special

Liverpool writer Ian Salmon’s The Comeback Special is, well, making a come back to the stage with a four-night run at the Hope Street Theatre this September.

Salmon entered the script anonymously in the inaugural Liverpool Hope Playwriting Prize three years ago, winning a highly commended accolade from the judges (one being me).

The show, a dark comedy about an ordinary scally with an extraordinary gift, was given its first outing at the Cornerstone Festival at Liverpool Hope University last year.

Now it’s being staged at the Hope Street Theatre, directed by Mike Dickinson and with Callum Downes, Ton Highton and Ian Avery reprising their roles as Robbie, Karl….and Elvis respectively.

Speaking about the birth of the play, Salmon says: “I had no idea if I could write comedy. I knew I could write a play - I had one under my belt; a piece that had moved from monologue to one act play.

“But comedy is personal. What’s funny to me may not be funny to you. The question was: ‘what do I find funny enough to write at least 90 pages on?’

“The answer was, for me at least, ‘what if there was a psychic who could only see really poor-quality ghosts?’ Which became ‘what if there was a psychic who could only see the ghost of Elvis?’ But not the real Elvis, but an Elvis impersonator from Blackpool.

“And this became the story of an orphan scally with a fondness for, let’s call them herbal cigarettes, who has an ability that he’s been hiding and some friends who vary between sweet, dangerous and a bit thick.”

Salmon’s other plays include Those Two Weeks and Venus Rising.

The Comeback Special is at the Hope Street Theatre from September 5-8. Tickets from the website HERE