Chris Wright
CREATIVE PRODUCER
A Royal Exchange Theatre production
05 February - 07 March 2015
Written by Rona Munro. Directed by Wils Wilson. Designed by Fly Davis. Movement Direction by Eddie Kay.
MANCHESTER’S ORIGINAL STREET GANGS
It's 1885 and the streets of Manchester are crackling with energy, youth and violence. As workers pour into Ancoats to power the Industrial Revolution, 50.000 people are crammed into one square mile. The mills rumble thunderously day and night. The air is thick with smoke. Life is lived large and lived on the street. This is the world's very first industrial suburb and the young mill workers who are the living cogs in its machines form the very first urban gangs, fighting over their territory with belts, fists and knives.
Invisible in history their lives, deaths, loves, lusts and defiant energy tell stories that will repeat and repeat over the decades that follow. Inspired by the Manchester riots of 2011 and the stories of all the Manchester gangs between the nineteenth century and today Rona Munro's new play smashes the nineteenth century against a twenty first century sensibility to bring the young Scuttlers back to vivid, potent life.
I produced the Community Ensemble for Scuttlers on behalf of the Royal Exchange Theatre.