A PACKED audience turned out for Salisbury Fringe theatre festival’s first preview event of the year.

Professional actors Samantha Holland and Sara Taylor interpreted and performed 12 short monologues by new Salisbury playwrights at the Urmson-Burnett Gallery.

Each writer chose one of six of the gallery’s photograms, which range from abstract depictions of circles, ambiguous shapes, the sky and night, vermin and spindles.

The 12 monologues were chosen from a large number of entries in response to the online Salisbury Fringe 2014/Urmson-Burnett Gallery’s Photogram Open 2014.

The monologue titles and authors selected were: Machine Man by John Yates; Too Many Circles by Julian Demetriadi; No Idea by Dan Page; Sex Ed. by Sally Whyte; Putting Apart by Linda Morse; Untitled by Pete Talman; The Universe Speaks by Jarek Adams, The Saxon’s Lost Spindle by Dorothy Collard; The Snag by Betty Clark; Over the Hill by Carolyn Csonka; Going Viral by Annie Willens; and Puddle Child by Greg Hayes.

Following the success of last year’s inaugural event, the Salisbury Fringe 2014 Festival will see “bitesized plays” performed in pubs and cafés in the city from October 3 to 5.

The next pre-event will be an evening of short, original plays by local writers at 7.30pm on April 11 at The Cloisters pub.

The event is part of Theatre Fest West and is free of charge, with no booking required.

For more information, visit salisburyfringe.org.uk.