It’s thirty years since the Miners’ Strike, so the arrival of Touring Consortium Theatre Company‘s production of Brassed Off at The Grand seems perfectly timed.
Set in the fictional mining village of Grimley in Yorkshire, the play has been adapted by Paul Allen from the screenplay by Mark Herman. It’s 1992, and Grimley Colliery pit is threatened with closure. As the miners find themselves torn between redundancy packages and picket lines, playing in the colliery brass band seems the least of their worries.
It looks like bandleader Danny’s hopes of winning the national brass band competition are also becoming a distant dream – but things are destined to change with the appearance of flugelhorn-playing Gloria. Her arrival signals the chance for hope and romance to flourish, but isn’t without controversy.
Featuring highly acclaimed actor John McArdle (from TV’s Brookside, Merseybeat and Waterloo Road) as Danny, Brassed Off will also see performances by Luke Adamson, Rebecca Clay, Clara Darcy, Andrew Dunn, Helen Kay, Andrew Roberts Palmer, James Robinson, Kraig Thornber and Gilly Tompkins. Each performance also features live on-stage music by Haydock Brass Band, including Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez and Jerusalem.
The production is being directed by Damian Cruden, Artistic Director of York Theatre Royal who has worked on other Touring Consortium Theatre Company productions, including Olivier Award-winning The Railway Children and To Kill a Mockingbird.
The Touring Consortium Theatre Company, which is led by producers Jenny King and Matthew Gale, was formed eighteen years ago to tour large scale quality drama with integrated education programmes across a circuit of seven regional theatres. In 2013 the company received funding of £1.1 million from the Arts Council England to develop audiences in areas of the UK that depend on touring for theatre.
Brassed Off will be playing at The Grand Theatre from Tuesday 15 to Saturday 19 April at 7.30pm with 2pm matinees on Thursday and Saturday. Tickets cost £21.50 or £12.50 for students and children (under 18s). Groups of twenty or more pay £9.50 each and groups of fifty or more pay £8.50 each. Book via the website, by phoning 01253 290190 or visiting the box office on Church Street.
Photos by Nobby Clark, courtesty of the Grand Theatre website.
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