Seven different plays from seven different theatre groups are heading to the Gaiety Theatre for this year’s Easter Festival of Plays.

The long running thespian fest runs from Saturday, April 15 to Friday April 21, and will see six visiting teams, along with one local group, travel from as far afield as Germany to perform.

This year there is much anticipation for the performance by the ’White Cobra’ theatre group, who won last year’s competition and also went on to win the British All Winners Festival. This year they are to premier an original production, entitled ’Dizzy Boo’, which was written especially for them by Brian Wright.

Last year’s runners up were the local group ’The Legion Players’.

This year will see Stephanie Gray perform a solo one hour-plus show, entitled ’The last Obit’.

One of the more ambitious productions, and the one with the largest number of actors and stagehands, will come from the group that has travelled the furthest to get here. The 12-strong cast of the ’University Players’, from Hamburg, will put on a two-part show on Thursday, April 20, exploring the story of Frankenstein, from it’s inception at the hands of Mary Shelley to the re-telling of the fabled tale from the view of the Monster himself.

Lindsay Riordan, from the Easter Festival Committee, believes that for a festival as established as this, gets better year after year.

’It has been going for around 65 years now,’ said Lindsay. ’It is a really strong, proud Manx event.

’Some of the teams of performers are regulars, and some this year are new. The quality of performers and the actors we get is top notch, and the Gaiety is a huge pull for teams from across. People love to come and perform in the Gaiety, and of course people love to come and watch theatre there too.

’We stand out from most other festivals, because we go the extra mile for our visitors and extend good Manx Hospitality. And they love to come here in return.’

Tickets for the festival are available from the Villa marina box Office, priced £13 per show, or a £56 for a season ticket.

The Easter Festival of Plays is organised by the Manx Amateur Drama Federation, with support from the Isle of Man Arts Council.