The renowned Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester have joined forces with theatre company Monkeywood to bring their new play FLESH to Ellesmere Port on February 5th. FLESH is a brand new play by Sarah McDonald Hughes, nominated for a prestigious Manchester Theatre Award.
Based on the real experiences of young parents in Manchester, FLESH is a love story about growing up. Set in Wythenshawe, the story follows two young people as they become parents for the first time.
In the summer of 2012, Monkeywood spent hundreds of hours with young parents from across Manchester, Trafford and Salford, gathering their true stories, opinions and insights. During the development of FLESH, Monkeywood worked with various groups of young parents, including groups from Barnardos and Sure Start centres. The stories they told were surprising, moving and heart-stoppingly honest.
Sarah McDonald Hughes is an acclaimed writer who has previously written for B.B.C. Radio and received two Best New Play nominations at the Manchester Theatre Awards. Sarah explains why hearing the stories of young parents was so important to the development of the script, “It was hugely important to me from the very beginning to meet young parents and hear what they had to say – so that the play was grounded in truth… The response was fantastic and completely overwhelming – all the young parents we met were delighted to talk to us and their stories were moving, funny, devastating – but above all, surprising.”
Tom Cole, from Salford Young Dad’s Project, spoke of their involvement with FLESH, “We all thought the production was amazing and the content of the play was really true to our experience…I thought the production was really powerful and kept on thinking about it over the following few days”.
The development and tour of FLESH has been funded by Arts Council England through Grants for the Arts. The tour of FLESH has also been funded by The Granada Foundation and continually supported by The Royal Exchange Theatre. The production will open at The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester, in November 2013, prior to a northern tour which includes Ellesmere Port.
The performance at Whitby Hall in Ellesmere Port on Wednesday 5th February will start at 7.30pm. Tickets are priced at £8 with £5 concessions. Tickets are available from www.actiontransporttheatre.org by telephone on 0151 3572120.
Following the performances of FLESH there will be some post-show discussion to open up conversation and debate about perceptions of young parents.