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Local Treasures… Yorkshire’s Radical Theatre Companies And What They’re Getting Up To Now

Jelani D'Aguilar and Misha Duncan-Barry in My Voice Was Heard But It Was Ignored. Photo credit: Ant Robling

Red Ladder are touring again. The Leeds-based company is one of the country’s oldest radical theatres. Starting life as an agit-prop outfit in London during the political turmoil of 1968, it has survived by constantly reinventing itself.

Inevitably, in the woke-saturated arts world of the early 2020s, this means they create dramas which explore issues around identity. But, because they are Red Ladder, it’s a cut above. Nana Kofi Kufuor’s script is the story of a black teacher who sees one of her pupils being roughed up by police “outside Marks & Spencer’s” but does nothing to intervene. It tackles head-on the complex interactions between class, race and misogyny at work in British society.

A co-production between Red Ladder, Leeds Playhouse and Oldham Coliseum, it’s stuffed with questions and packs a great deal in. And that’s much better than asking no questions at all. Wesley Centre, Harrogate, Oct 8, £12,

Buy Tickets For The National Tour Here

Who is free? In a technology-dominated world of unaccountable power, we must ask that question with greater intelligence and urgency.

In saner times, Proper Job Theatre’s adaptation of Franz Kafka’s novel The Trial would have won every theatrical award in the known universe. We do not, of course, live in sane times, and so their stylish filmed version of last year’s production languishes neglected on Youtube, described modestly as “our first attempt to create a hybrid Theatre/Film performance”.

It’s terrific. Mentored by Two Govnors writer Richard Bean, Chris O’Connor’s script is full of dour Northern humour, the performances are compelling and there’s a super-clever, Kurt Weil-inspired score from Leighton Jones.

Watch Free Here

Unlimited Theatre, on the other hand, have never knowingly undersold themselves. Founded in 1997 by students on the University of Leeds drama course (including Chris Thorpe who was one of my first Substack interviewees) they have subsequently seeded themselves throughout the UK’s radical theatre community.

Unlimited are still based in Leeds and were recently awarded squillions by a consortium of Arts Council England, Arts Council Wales, Creative Scotland and 17 partner organisations including the British Council to help dismantle the barriers faced by disabled artists.

Inevitably, given today’s political climate, they do work that plays around with the social construct of gender. (And that would be fine with me, if only an exclusive focus on gender didn’t also — as a seemingly accidental byproduct — erase the biological reality of sex and sexual orientation upon which women’s, children’s and gay people’s rights are based.)

The Unlimited-sponsored House of Curio as part of House of Suarez Vogue Ball. Photo credit: fotocad

But here’s some good news for those of us who are fully onboard with LGB rights — and doing what you want with your life if the ‘T’ bit is your thing — but also remember with subversive fondness the Tim Peake Festival of Heteronormativity which was the British return to space. Unlimited have another strand of work for families and young people called the Unlimited Space Agency (USA). Touring to music, science and arts festivals across the UK, The USA’s ‘Space Shed’ plays host to inspirational storytelling shows, interviews with leading scientists and sets by guest DJs. And yes, the super-sexy British astronaut is a patron.

This fabulous initiative has, since 2017, partnered with the Royal Observatory, the Met Office, the British Science Association and the European Space Agency among others. But it began life as a small project that was co-sponsored by the Civic Theatre in Barnsley.

You can visit the Space Shed this weekend at New Scientist Live 2022 in London. Oct 8-9, £17-£42 with family offers available.

That’s it for now. It’s time to clamber into my key-worker's uniform and do my file-losing and call-dropping bit for the health of the nation. (Don't worry, I'm very conscientious really.)

Little but often seems, right now, to be the way to go. See you soon!

Liz x

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Yorkshire Theatre Newsletter

Yorkshire Theatre Newsletter: Oct 7, 2022