It all became a bit massively meta on Thursday night.

It didn’t stop at going to watch a play about a pub which took place in a pub. The play talked about the evolution of the pub, taking in the changing landscape and gentrification along the way.

I sat in the pub on WhatsApp remarking to my mum how that little stretch of Stockport Road, Levenshulme, reminded me somewhat of Chorlton, thus taking in the changing landscape and (whispers) ‘gentrification’ along the way.

Yes, I sat in the pub – The Talleyrand – drinking my drink and watching a play about people in a pub drinking their drinks (if only, those in the play, in turn, were watching a play about people in a pub drinking their drinks – why, it would be practically Droste-ian).

Yes I knew the word for this. No I didn’t have to look it up (I did).

But who are ‘they’ you might well ask and what on earth is going on here.

Well, ‘they’ are the Farewell Theatre Company: ‘3 northern lads’, Ross Thompson, Reece Hallam & James Ward.

And what is going on here is their production, The Death of the English Pub, as performed as part of Greater Manchester Fringe.

It’s closing time. Three friends have one final drink in their local before it closes for good. As the night draws to an end, they talk about the good times, the bad times, and just why so many pubs in England are suffering the same fate.

First off, I want to say I’ve never seen three actors work so hard. One of the most energetic performances of anything ever in the history of things being energetic. Since records began.

As we, the theatre audience (and pub patrons) sat at our candlelit bar tables, nursing our drinks, the actors used the space valiantly as they took us on a journey into the history of the pub as we know it, from the 60s with a bid to build one on almost every corner, to the present day., aided and abetted by music on ‘the jukebox’.

Along the way, we were taken through the charge sheet of the government and the breweries as the rise and fall of our beloved institution was examined through seven decades of pure unadulterated pub.

Now the word immersive usually sends shivers down my spine and sends me flying at lightening speed out of my comfort zone and into a state of shock.

Not so this time. Happy to be immersed in an environment I love – pub– into activities that I was happy to embrace. During those 60 minutes, the actors weaved their witty way through the audience. Some found themselves wearing Santa hats, some ‘picking a card, any card’, we all engaged in a pub quiz (prize for those who get our team name reference)

and, and…here’s the big one, we all went to a rave…

We did! We went to a rave. We’d hit the 90s stop of our trip down memory lane, and suddenly a door opened to a room we hadn’t even noticed, lights were flashing, smoke machines smoking, and we suddenly found ourselves forming an orderly queue (we’re so British) waiting to get our hands stamped and doing shots. I kid you not.

Don’t believe me, just watch…

God it was fun. The whole 60 minutes were. But don’t get me wrong. Take away the quiz sheets and shot glasses and you have a very cleverly written play which was witty, educational and actually very moving.

Coupled with the boundary-pushing, imaginative use of the, of course, befitting environment, you have a production that is fringe theatre gold.

Cheers to Farewell Theatre Company, cheers to GM Fringe and cheers to our beloved English pub.

(Also go to the Talleyrand, it’s a cracking establishment).

For more details on what else is on at GM Fringe festival, visit https://www.greatermanchesterfringe.co.uk/

You can read about Farewell Theatre Company here.

And take a little look at the fine Levenshulme gaff that is The Talleyrand, here.