They Don’t Pay, We Won’t Pay

    DRAMA

%%tb-image-alt-text%%

They Don’t Pay, We Won’t Pay

From Wed 17th May 2023 to Sat 20th May 2023

by Blackburn Drama Club – 4 shows to choose from.

FIND OUT MORE OR BOOK NOW

Fast, furious and very funny, this is farce with fire in its belly. A comedy of cash-strapped conniving and riotous civil disobedience. McAndrew relocates the action from Italy to present-day Britain, with Brexit looming, austerity biting and the scars from decades of declining UK industry still smarting. Hunger is the starting point for Italian Nobel prize winner Dario Fo’s 1974 farce (lightly redrafted after the 2008 banking crisis). At a local supermarket the protest has escalated into full-scale looting. Police sirens wail. In her kitchen, recently redundant, punchy Anthea shares her spoils with her timid Catholic friend, Maggie. Their husbands must not find the stolen goods: stolid factory worker and trade unionist Jack and his naive-but-learning-fast workmate, Lewis, would not approve.

The women share information with the men “on a need-to-know basis” – not just about the theft, but about their losing battles against mounting arrears on rent, electricity, gas… Heading over to her own flat, Maggie hides beneath her coat a bulging shopping bag the size and shape of a baby bump. The play holds dialogue that leaps from political diatribe to pun-sprinkled banter and sly asides. However crazy the plot elements, all are set in motion by actual circumstances: price hikes, factory closures, Catholic prohibitions. If the politics are particular, though, the theme is universal: the poor pay while the rich profiteer.

 

Hamlet

    DRAMA

%%tb-image-alt-text%%

Hamlet

Saturday 29th July 2023 at 7:30pm

For one night only

FIND OUT MORE OR BOOK NOW

Written by William Shakespeare – Directed by Andrew Sumner

The ghost of King Hamlet, whose brother Claudius has succeeded him to the throne and married the king’s widow, declares to Prince Hamlet that he was murdered by his brother. Through the Prince, the ghost seeks revenge.

Hamlet devotes himself to avenging his father’s death but is troubled by melancholy and what appears to be madness. He becomes convinced of his Uncle’s treachery, and plots to kill him, only for Claudius to come up with his own plans for the Prince.

A story of revenge and ultimately, tragedy.

Initiate Theatre bring to life this exciting story mixing classical text with contemporary techniques, exciting sword fights, unexpected turns and the magic of theatre.