With everything feeling a bit heavy and unpredictable in the world right now, escaping into the theatre is just what we need. That brings us to Out of the Blue at the Greater Manchester Fringe 2026. Set in the near future of 2029, this light sci-fi story explores a scary alien invasion. Strange blue flowers are taking over, and they threaten to destroy the Earth completely. It is a story that feels surprisingly close to home when we think about our own chaotic world today.
This show comes to us from Coed Celyn Productions, a brilliant Welsh production company based in Mold. The Empty Space was a great setting for their work. As a larger style theatre, it gave the cast plenty of room to bring this apocalyptic story to life. You could feel a wonderful buzz of local creative energy from the moment you walked through the doors and took your seat.
This was Fiona R Maher’s second time writing and directing. With such a complicated show in a larger venue, she did really well to bring it all together, with wonderfully atmospheric music by Steve Lincoln helping set the mood throughout.
The actors give it their absolute all on stage. Kate Coldron as Sian brings fantastic energy to the role of a student scientist who is quietly dealing with the painful grief of losing her family. Shobi McLean as Maya is brilliant as another student trying her best to hold things together while living with Bipolar disorder. Her storyline hints that her medication might actually be the key to saving humanity. Meanwhile, Guy Hepworth as Gareth plays a tense, suspicious security guard who might secretly be an infected agent working for the alien invaders.
The staging was set up like an improvised chemistry lab, which worked really well for the plot. TV screens showed the invasion unfolding around the world to give everything a truly global feel. The videos used were AI-created, and they did not quite match up with the country names shown on screen, so a bit more realism here would help. In a few quick sections, some of the voice projection was lost, but that is totally normal for an opening night.
There are two more shows on tonight and tomorrow, so make sure to check out the Out of the Blue show page on the Greater Manchester Fringe website today to grab your tickets before they sell out!
Review by James for Canal Street Media