Extraordinary Adventures in a Re-imagined North

In Northern Spirit’s new theatre production A Wondrous Place, 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.

 

The A Wondrous Place Story Sequence

 

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.’

 

 

Wondrous Cities bloggers

Northern Spirit wanted to be inspired by as many different ideas and perspectives as possible while creating A Wondrous Place, so each week from September 2012 to February 2013 we handed over this space to a different guest curator from either Liverpool, Manchester, Sheffield or Tyne and Wear. They were amazing, and came up with endless surprising ways to illuminate the wondrous places that they live within and love.

Their Wondrous Cities grew, day-by-day, week-by-week, into a compelling, evolving archive of all that’s extraordinary about this part of the world, seen from numerous unexpected angles. Find out who they were and discover the great blogs they write.

 

 

Come to A Wondrous Place

 

Liverpool Unity Theatre
15th-18th May
Box office

Sheffield Crucible Studio Theatre
23rd May – 1st June
Box office

Newcastle Northern Stage 2
4th-6th June
Box office

Manchester Royal Exchange Studio
11th-22nd June
Box office