The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester; Wednesday 13th February, 2019

Mother Courage Production Photos ©The Other Richard

Mother Courage Production Photos ©The Other Richard

The year is 2080. Every nation that humanity created has now gone – all that remains are grid squares, huge blocks of land that are both battle ground and prize as the Red and the Blue Armies wage war in an attempt to methodically seize control of each zone.

In amongst the carnage, a mother and her three children roam the vast expanses of what was once known as Europe. Armed only with a solid sense of pragmatism and a keen eye for a business deal, Mother Courage buys and sells her way through the war, determined that neither she nor her children will will be victims of a conflict that has clearly broken the spirit of so many others.Read More »

HOME Theatre, Manchester; Thursday 7th February, 2019

At number 3 Red Herring Street in the lousiest, grottiest part of town, there lies a cockroach-infested tenement block known as the Bayou Mansions – a dreadful, filthy old hovel inhabited by no-good seedy tricksters and lowlife perverts.

But as frightful as these unsavoury occupants are, their repugnant exploits pale into insignificance compared to the horrors of what happens at night – for that’s when the animals and children take to the streets.Read More »

Manchester Central Library; Tuesday 5th February, 2019

Tuesday, April 4th, 2084. Comrade #6079 (Smith) is a docile Level 2 Records Administrator and member of the Outer Party in the Ministry of Truth, Oceania.

#6079 has a specific job function – to obediently adhere to whatever truths the Inner Party wishes to promote, specifically by adjusting and amending historical documents to match the prevailing paradigm.

Whoever controls the past controls the future: whoever controls the present controls the past.Read More »

The Lowry, Salford; Tuesday 29th January, 2019

In December 1817, a relatively obscure Fleet Street writer and bookseller named William Hone found himself unexpectedly summoned to court to face grave charges of seditious libel and blasphemy.

Hone was facing the prospect of ruin in the form of bankruptcy and a lengthy jail term. Furthermore, there was even the threat of forcible exile to Australia – a one-way ticket which, in those days, was nothing short of a death sentence.

Hone stood his ground though – representing himself in court he set about convincing the jury of his peers that he was guilty of nothing more than criticising the morally deficient manner in which both government and monarchy were conspiring to rule over the populace.Read More »

The Lowry, Salford; Saturday 26th January, 2019

Deep in the hold of a 19th Century cargo ship, a desperately fatigued old man prepares for the coming of his death – old age and illness have joined forces to create a formidable nemesis which he knows he can now no longer challenge.

The crew grow ever more concerned for his well-being – he’s locked himself away for six days and he shows no sign of emerging, even though the vessel is less than a day away from reaching port.

But he has only two concerns as he wearily accepts his inevitable fate: twelve bottles of fine wine and the constant torment of his travelling companion – the silent and menacing being known only as The Turk.Read More »