A new site-specific Northern Soul show is aiming to revitalise Northern highstreets, thanks to Lancashire Business Improvement Teams (BIDs).
Keep On Keepin’ On is a new feel-good play which will tour to three non-theatre spaces: a shop in Crewe, a working men’s club in Blackburn and a library in Blackpool.
These themes are being used as ways to start conversations between independent retailers facing daily challenges and the local BID team.
Theatre company Northern Soul Productions aims to combine a good evening’s entertainment with a route to reinvigorate the high street and night time economies.
Bradford-based writer Mick Martin has created the new high-energy comedy as a sequel to his 2003 Once Upon a Time in Wigan, with his teenage dreamers now middle-aged and balancing co-parenting, a failing Northern Soul-themed discount shop and a ‘what could possibly go wrong’ scheme.
Keep On Keepin’ On is a soul-rich, cash-poor comedy with a classic Northern Soul soundtrack about a dysfunctional family just trying to keep it together on a run-down northern high street.
The two-hour show follows Eugene and Maxine; their teenage romance first ignited on the dance floor, but life has spun them in and out of each other’s arms ever since. Now, years later, Eugene is a weekend DJ and a full-time disaster, barely keeping his shop afloat. When Maxine reappears with one more plea for help – this time for their son, newly released from jail – their ‘what could possibly go wrong’ plan sets them spinning into chaos.
Working with local partners in each area, Northern Soul Productions will be working with local communities to deliver a series of outreach and workshops to connect audiences with local BID.
Writer Mick Martin said: “It’s a play about now, family and love, about people struggling to keep it together in these dark and straitened times at the working-class coalface of dysfunctional northern Britain. That’s why we want to bring it to high street spaces rather than traditional theatre venues. We’re hoping that, in each town on our tour, the play helps to start conversations with their communities and brings new audiences to the theatre and the high street.”
Mick Martin has written for theatre, TV and radio with commissions from BBC, ITV, Sky TV, Leeds Playhouse, Bolton Octagon, Hull Truck and many more.
Shows, suitable for over 14s, run from May 13-17 in Crewe, May 21-24 in Blackburn and May 28 – 31 in Blackpool. For ticket information, visit: www.keeponkeepinonplay.co.uk
Image credit: Kevin Furber
