There are two Norths. There’s the compass point North and there’s the North as an idea.
In Northern Spirit’s new theatre production A Wondrous Place, which comes to the Unity Theatre from Wednesday 15th till Saturday 18th May, four outstanding young writers challenge the ‘it’s grim up north’ clichés and offer four fresh and vibrant perspectives on four amazing contemporary northern cities: Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield and Manchester. A Wondrous Place brings these brand four new short-dramas together within one dramatic story sequence. It’s about celebrating all that’s unique about these North of England cities. It’s about discovering what they share. It’s about seeing this part of the world differently and experiencing it with new eyes.
Chris Meads, Northern Spirit’s Artistic Director said, “Overwhelmingly, dramatic stories located in the North of England depict a North of the past, or emphasise social depravation, or are about a character’s need to escape to a more fulfilling life elsewhere. We want to present an alternative, more surprising and more inventive idea of the North of England to the world, led by people who are passionate about this part of the world. We want to approach the people, the landscape and the experiences that you can have here with respect and with imagination, invest them with a sense of wonder, with a wide-screen intensity, with glamour and with romance”
The four plays on show are Electricity by Sarah McDonald Hughes (Once In A House On Fire, Monkeywood Theatre, The Lowry) Angel discovers that Manchester can be as glamorous as New York and as romantic as Paris: ‘The cobbles round here are like stepping stones into a new world.
Dog by Luke Barnes (Bottleneck, High Tide Festival, Soho Theatre) Haunted by a terrible event, Jonny seeks redemption and forgiveness within the midnight streets of Liverpool: ‘This moment is everything…where I sink or swim, where the tide takes me or I learn to fight the tide…Everything depends on this.’
What Space Between by Alison Carr (Can Cause Death, Forward Theatre Project, National Theatre, Northern Stage, Latitude Festival) Eme has an extraordinary encounter with Gateshead’s Dunston Rocket: ‘Its smells, its feel, its colours, its joys, its losses – they are in my bones, my blood, my teeth, my sweat, my nails.’
Porters Brook by Matt Hartley (Sixty Five Miles, Paines Plough, Hull Truck) Adam’s life is saved by the spirit of Sheffield’s people: ‘We’re pioneers, up here, chucking sense out of the window. We’re an experiment.
Luke Barnes’ most recent play Chapel Street was presented at the Liverpool Everyman Playhouse as part of the Everyword season. It received its first full production as part of the Old Vic New Voices Edinburgh Season 2012 before transferring to the Bush Theatre as part of their RADAR Season in 2012. Luke’s other theatre credits include: Bottleneck (Soho Theatre), Weekday Nights (Unicorn Theatre) and Eisteddfod (Latitude Festival). He was runner up in 2012 for Most Promising Playwright at the Off West End Awards and is currently Leverhulme Playwright on Attachment to the Liverpool Everyman Playhouse Theatres.
Alison Carr’s theatre credits include: Have A Heart (Traverse Theatre); Can Cause Death, Desert, Fine, When It Falls (Forward Theatre Project); The Girls From Poppyfield Close, Clint, Tittle Tattle Tattletale (Live Theatre); Until It’s Gone (nabokov/Live); But Otherwise Went Well, (The 24 Hour Plays, Old Vic New Voices); Blood & Money (Prague Fringe Festival); Come To Where I’m From (Paines Plough/Live); Mam, Dad, Monkey & Me (New Writing North); Quick Bright Things, My Mam Was An Ice-Cream Blonde (People’s Theatre); Patricia Quinn Saved My Life (5065 Lift, Edinburgh & London). Radio credits: Dolly Would (BBC Radio 4 & Pick of the Week); The Illumination of Beatrice Monroe, Yackety Yak (The Verb, BBC Radio 3); BBC Sparks 2010. Alison is currently on a year-long attachment to Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre as part of The Traverse Fifty and she is currently developing her first solo show as a writer and performer, The Soaking of Vera Shrimp.
Sarah McDonald is an actor and writer from Manchester. Writing includes Once In A House On Fire, Last Orders, Maine Road, A Song For Lovers (Monkeywood Theatre), Salisbury Street (Box of Tricks/Liverpool Everyman), The Tower (Paines Plough/Royal Exchange Studio), The Tree, Night Train, Scratches In The Earth (Action Transport Theatre), Take Me To Redcar, Maine Road (BBC Radio 4), Streets Above (Banter Media), Scattered (24:7 theatre 24 hour plays), The North (Royal Exchange Studio). Sarah was highly commended in the BBC’s 2009 Alfred Bradley Award and her plays Last Orders and Once In A House On Fire were both nominated for Best New Play in the 2011 Manchester Theatre Awards.
Matt Hartley grew up in the Peak District and studied Drama at the University of Hull. Sixty Five Miles won the Under 26 Bruntwood Award in the inaugural Bruntwood Competition and was produced by Paines Plough/ Hull Truck. In 2006/7 Matt was a member of Channel 4/ Paines Plough Future Perfect Scheme. Other work for theatre includes: The Bee (Edinburgh Festival), Punch (Hampstead Theatre), Sentenced (Union Theatre), Epic (Theatre 503/ Latitude), Trolls (Tristan Bates/Theatre503), Life for Beginners (Theatre503). Radio: The Pursuit for Radio 4. Television includes Hollyoaks for Lime Pictures. Matt is currently under commission to the Royal Shakespeare Company, The National Theatre, Radio 4 and Lime Pictures.
As well as Liverpool’s Unity Theatre, the production will be going To Sheffield’s Crucible, Newcastle’s Northern Stage and The Studio at the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester.
Tickets for A Wondrous Place are available from the Unity Theatre Box office on Hope Street, online at www.unitytheatre.co.uk or by telephone on 0844 873 2888.