Formed in 2006, Vertigo Theatre Productions is owned and run by in house writer and director Craig Hepworth and producer Karl Burge and are one of Manchester’s original fringe theatre companies producing almost 40 productions since 2007 including original works by in house writer and various co writers as well as premiering work from the United States.
Vertigo’s work has consistently won rave reviews and played to sold out audiences, the stories the company tell and the genres played in are always diverse. Original works include the award winnings Porno Chic, M and Watching Goldfish Suffocate, the critically acclaimed plays Last Dance, Noir, Fake News, Ascension, Black Ice and Rage. Comedy plays include the UK premieres of Charles Busch’s hit Off Broadway plays Die, Mommie, Die! And Psycho Beach Party, the UK premiere of Bert V. Royals Off Broadway smash Dog Sees God: Confessions of a Teenage Blockhead, original comedy plays Christmas Sonority Massacre and The Great American 80s Soap Opera.
During the pandemic, the company had to cancel several projects but managed to create a an audio drama and filmed stage version of their hit play NOIR that was shown on Amazon Prime and theatre streaming sites.
Vertigo also produced the UK Premiere of Peter Michael Marino’s one man show Desperately Seeking the Exit in Manchester prior to its award winning run at the Edinburgh Fringe and then around the world.
Vertigo also premiered the official UK stage adaptation of the BAFTA nominated movie EXAM that will be returning in 2023. Currently the team are in development on the stage adaptation of the iconic movie BOUND written by the legendary Wachowskis. The play workshops in November 2022 before it’s world premiere in October 2023.
OWNER, Creative director, writer & Producer
Craig Hepworth
Craig trained at Stage 84 and Huddersfield College of Performing arts.
His theatre acting work includes ‘Fame’ (Tour, Europe), Joseph and His Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Tour), Jesus Christ Superstar, Joy Ride, Black Comedy, Tick Tick Boom (Workshop London), Life Said No (London) Catch The Dream, Mary (Lowry), Hot Mikado (London), Sidewalk 45, Breathless, Ellis, Grease, Rocky Horror Show, Blink, 3sum, Dog Sees God (UK premiere), ‘M’, The Breakfast Club, ‘Rage’ and OUT! amongst others.
TV and film work includes ‘Gold’, Emmerdale, Children’s Ward and One Past Midnight.
Craig Founded and co owns Vertigo Theatre Productions along with Adele Stanhope and Karl Burge and has produced each one of the 19 shows along with his team. His directing work includes ‘3sum’, The Breakfast Club’, M’, Dog Sees God’, ‘Rage’, OUT!, ‘Psycho Beach Party’, Die Mommie Die, Christmas Sorority Massacre, NUMB (Queer As Fringe), EXAM, M, Mysterious Skin, the new version of RAGE earlier this year and Watching Goldfish Suffocate and the upcoming Porno Chic.
Choreography and Dance Captain work includes ‘Catch the Dream’, ‘Fame’, ‘Spectacular’ ‘70s Cabaret’ and ’ Psycho Beach Party’ . His writing credits include ‘Rage (With co writer Adele Stanhope) ,’M’, 3sum’ (with Co Writer Adele Stanhope), Verdict (with co writer Adele Stanhope), Something Sinister (with co writer Adele Stanhope) Breathless, Dog Tags (with Co Writer Adele Stanhope) the stage adaptation of ‘EXAM’, ‘Christmas Sorority Massacre (with co writer Stuart Reeve)’ Craig reworked ‘Christmas Sorority Massacre’ (along with Stuart Reeve) and directed it for a second outing at the end of 2013.
He wrote and directed OUT! which went on to be award nominated for Best Fringe/Regional Production at the ‘Broadway World.com UK Awards’ and received nominations again for Best Fringe/Regional this year at the same awards for ‘Mysterious Skin’ which he co directed. ‘M’ also won Most Outstanding Production of 2013 and Vertigo won Most Successful Fringe Company at the 3MT Awards 2013. Craig also co wrote and directed the critical award winning hit Watching Goldfish Suffocate, Last Dance, Ascension, co wrote Murder She Writes & The Great American 80’s Soap Opera, and more recently the critical hits NOIR & Fake News.
The 2016 version of his play Porno Chic won the Best Drama award at the Greater Manchester Fringe Awards and also enjoyed a successful third sold our run. Most recently the third outing of the hit comedy Die, Mommie, Die! and second production of EXAM enjoyed another sold out acclaimed run.
Lockdown provided some new challenges and Craig reworked his script for NOIR and directed both an audio version of this over Zoom and a filmed movie version filmed in January 2021 which was released on Amazon Prime and theatre streaming sites.
Craig is excited to be working an another movie adaptation, this time the Wachowski’s iconic movie BOUND which will hit the stage in 2023.
OWNER, PRODUCER & aUDIO/VISUAL
Karl Burge
As co-owner of Vertigo Theatre Productions Karl has served on each play as producer and technical designer. He has created unique stylistic technical work on award winning plays like Porno Chic and M and many others including Rage, Dog Sees God, Last Dance (in which his work was heavily praised), Ascension (the video projections he created were compared to work by David Lynch), Murder She Writes, The Great American 80’s Soap Opera, the multi award winning Watching Goldfish Suffocate and most recently Noir, Fake News, Porno Chic, Die, Mommie, Die! and EXAM for many of which his technical work was pulled out by many critics. He also created the backdrop visuals for the filmed production of NOIR that was released on Amazon Prime. He also undertook camera work, editing, sound design and special effects for this production.
Karl is looking forward to the challenges over the next 12 months in what is shaping up to be Vertigo’s most exciting year with the return of the acclaimed production of EXAM and also the world premiere of the stage adaptation of BOUND.
Who are Vertigo?
“Thrilling, fringe theatre at its best.”
Manchester Theatre Awards
