We are delighted to confirm the exciting cast for our much-anticipated third and final site-specific production, Manchester Sound: The Massacre, written by Polly Wiseman and directed by Paul Jepson, which runs at a secret city centre venue this summer.
Manchester Sound: The Massacre sees the Peterloo Massacre of 1819 collide with the explosion in acid house rave culture in 1988/89, and each actor, some of whom will double up as musicians in the production, plays a character from both historical eras.
The cast comprises Bolton-born Leah Hackett, who as well as playing Tina McQueen in Channel 4’s Hollyoaks for two years before being spectacularly killed off in October 2008, has appeared in Doctors and crime thriller The Case for Lime Pictures, both on BBC1; Rachel Austin, who starred recently in the Manchester Theatre Award-winning production of Black Roses at the Royal Exchange Theatre; Northern Broadsides regular Simeon Truby, who is also the Musical Director; and former professional boxer and rugby league star Adam Fogerty, who played boxer Gorgeous George in Guy Ritchie’s Snatch.
The other four members of the company are Pete Ashmore, who appeared in our well-received Grimm Tales in Christmas 2009; Dean Anthony Fagan, who is a jazz-funk DJ in Manchester when he’s not acting; Stephen Fewell, who recently played Manchester’s Second World War code-breaker Alan Turing in English Theatre Frankfurt’s 2012 production of Hugh Whitemore’s Breaking the Code; and Janey Lawson, whose appearance in the controversial The Assassination of Paris Hilton in the 2009 Edinburgh Festival hit the headlines.
To recreate the spirit of both 1819 and the rave scene of 1989, audience members will be asked to gather at a given point in the city to be escorted to the venue.
Manchester Sound: The Massacre will be designed by Amanda Stoodley, who won the prestigious Theatrical Management Association/Theatre UK Awards gong for Best Design for our production of Manchester Lines, our second site-specific production, in June 2012; the sound designer is Peter Rice, who was part of the team which won the Manchester Theatre Awards Best Design award for Hard Times, our first site-specific production, in June 2011.
Manchester Sound: The Massacre runs from Sat 8 Jun – Sat 6 Jul 2013. You can book tickets online or from Cornerhouse Box Office on 061 200 1500.