AFTER the inaugural Thirty Little Plays About Life, here comes Thirty Little Plays About Love And Death, the results of the spring term's adult theatre workshops run by actor Michael Lambourne at York Theatre Royal.

Now that the theatre is closed for its eight-month £4.1 million redevelopment capital funding project, the workshop performances will take place at Riding Lights' Friargate Theatre on Monday and Tuesday at 8pm.

Scripted by a wide range of northern writers expressly for the 30 workshop members, Thirty Little Plays is a show "for those who like their theatre swift, sharp and exciting", built around "new five-minute micro plays based on lust, life, laughter and loss", offering the burgeoning actors hundreds of possibilities.

This term's workshop rehearsals have been running from February to March 23 in preparation for the brace of performances, with some new faces joining existing members in the adult theatre group.

"I had 70 to 80 submissions of short plays, took 30 to 40 to read through and then the actors chose which ones they wanted to be in, and it's not always comedy as the texts are so diverse," says Michael.

"As an exercise for actors developing their skills, the key exercise is pace and commanding the audience's attention from the start, rather like they would have to in an audition. The more I do of these performance projects, the more I realise that pace and energy is essential.

"The performance also becomes more dangerous, which is more exciting. It teeters into going slightly over the speed limit, where you're testing the boundaries, seeing what will excite me and what will excite the audience, going out in a blaze of glory."

Romance is not dead in Thirty Little Plays About Love And Death, but then a multitude of attitudes to life can be found in these vignettes.

"Because you haven't got just one story, you will have lots to think about in this show, with differing attitudes to love, death or just getting a story across in a really short space of time," says Michael.

"You might have preconceived ideas of a character when they enter the stage and within four minutes they have completely changed, but that is how it should be in theatre, otherwise what is the point of it? That applies to both the dialogue and the playing of it."

What advice does Michael give his workshop participants on the art of performing?

"My basis comes from the physicality of performance, though I start from the textual angle of understanding the dialogue before doing that," he says. "You have to concentrate on the text first before you can become physically comfortable doing it."

A spirit of generosity rather than selfishness should prevail too.

"As an actor, I think you should always want to make every actor look better than you, and if everyone does the same, magic happens.

"That's what a play is: 'playing'. The best storytellers bring you in by playing with you, playing with your emotions, your wish to have fun. Even in the darkest stories, it is playing with being scared."

Tickets are still available for Monday on 01904 623568 or 01904 655317 but Tuesday's show has sold out.

P.S. There will in fact be Twenty Five Little Plays but the original title remains in place.