A sharply funny drama about everything but exercise...
I’m standing here. Wishing I hadn’t come. Staring at my phone, pretending to text, feeling the others watching me. And then the teacher, this perfect, pretty, smiley woman with no problems, says how good it is for my mental health if I start jumping about like a dickhead. Yeah right.
Yet something makes them stay. Something about a shared experience, something about desperation, something about being in a too-big too-bright room in the community centre… And then the music starts.
Work It Out follows a community based fitness class where a rag tag band of participants, all with their own issues, swallow their fear and step out of their comfort zones. Together, they work out their problems with music, exercise and gallows humour. But amidst the sweat and camaraderie there is a simmering mix of fragile egos and impulsive behaviour that threatens to boil over at any moment.
This compelling comedy drama by award-winning writer-performer Eve Steele weaves a bittersweet tale of triumph, friendship, and conquering inner demons.
Download the Work It Out programme here.
Reviews
"Affecting, amusing drama with political bite"
The Guardian
“Work It Out is filled with hilarity, heartache and hope. A brilliant must-see play!”
Manchester Theaters
“Filled with bags of humour and warmth”
British Theatre Guide
“Emotional, beautiful and intuitive”
I Love Manchester
Cast
Marie
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Theatre credits include: Willy Russell’s Blood Brothers (Liverpool Playhouse, London’s Lyric
Theatre), Shirley Valentine (Northcott Theatre), To Kill a Mockingbird (New Vic Theatre), Stags and Hens (Young Vic), A Sense of Justice (Perth Repertory Theatre) and The Secret Garden (Byre Theatre St Andrews).
Television credits include: Secret State (BBC), Cold Feet (ITV Granada), The Royal (YTV),
Coronation Street (ITV Granada), and Peace Keepers (BBC).
Shaq
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Manchester based contemporary dancer Dominic Coffey has recently starred in Lay Down Your Burdens (The Barbican), Tin Man by Joss Arnott Dance, and Vidya Patel's Don't Mind Me (Sadler's Wells). Dominic has worked professionally with Ellen Hathaway Dance Company, Gary Clarke, Rhiannon Faith, Thick & Tight, Vidya Patel, Hawk Dance Theatre, Carlos Pons Guerra, Cahoots NI, Joe Garbett, Urban Conceptz, Fallen Angels Dance Theatre, Joss Arnott, ThickSkin Theatre and more.
Rebecca
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Theatre credits include: Follow the Signs (Soho Theatre), The Emperor’s New Clothes (Derby
Theatre, Polka Theatre), Treasure Island (Derby Theatre), and Antigone (Storyhouse Theatre).
Television credits include: Coffee Morning Club (Mutt and Jeff Pictures), Mo <3 Kyra 4eva (Film Four), Trinity (Tilt Films), Jerk (BBC Three), Hunch (Reid Productions), and Clink (Five Star).
Rab
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Film and television credits include: Hope Street (BBC NI/Brit Box), Marcella (ITV/Netflix), Shameless (Channel 4), Fortitude (Sky Atlantic), Bohemian Rhapsody, Women on the Verge (UKTV), The Astronaut Wives Club (ABC), Silent Witness (BBC), Dexter (Showtime US), and Murder (BBC).
Theatre credits include: Good Vibrations (The Lyric Theatre, Belfast), The Importance of Being Earnest (The Lyric Theatre, Belfast), and King Lear (The Crucible Theatre).
Colette
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Theatre credits include: Betty! (Royal Exchange Theatre), I Wanna Be Yours (Leeds Playhouse), Penny (Pleasance Theatre), I Don’t Know Why I’m Crying (Theatre Deli), Decades (Leeds
Playhouse), A Big Ol’ Laugh (Sheffield Crucible), Don’t Stop Believing (45North).
Siobhan
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Theatre credits include: The Manchester Project (HOME); Newspaper Boy (53:Two), The Political History of Smack and Crack (Soho Theatre); Trial (Bolton Octagon), Life By The Throat (Theatre 503), Multi Story, Habeas Corpus, Lub You (Bolton Octagon) and A Little Local Difficulty (Oldham Coliseum).
Television credits include: Clink, Scott & Bailey, Sleeping Lions, All At Sea, The Driver, Accused, AWOL, Doctors, Spooks, The Royal, Bright New Hole In My Heart, Bodies, Blue Murder – Hit and Run, Playing the Field, City Central, Fat Friends, Always and Everyone, Comin Atcha, Casualty, Peak Practice, Coronation Street, Dear Dilemma and Emmerdale.
Alice
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Theatre credits include: Top Girls (Everyman Theatre & Playhouse) Beryl (Oldham Coliseum), Death Of A Salesman; My White Best Friend North (Royal Exchange Theatre), Holes (Nottingham Playhouse/Fiery Angel), The Importance of Being Earnest (Octagon Theatre), Darkness Darkness (Nottingham Playhouse), Aloe Aloe (Bush Theatre), Harvest (New Perspectives/UK Tour), Pot (Ovalhouse/Stratford Circus), Pygmalion; The 39 Steps (Vienna's English Theatre), Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (The Mercury Theatre), Anna Karenina (Arcola Theatre), Three Sisters; Blood Wedding (The Faction/New Diorama Theatre).
Television credits include: Emmerdale (ITV), Doctors (BBC), Everything I Know About Love (BBC/Working Title), The Bay (ITV/Tall Story Pictures).
Creative Team
Writer
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Theatre credits include: The Manchester Project (HOME); Newspaper Boy (53:Two), The Political History of Smack and Crack (Soho Theatre); Trial (Bolton Octagon), Life By The Throat (Theatre 503), Multi Story, Habeas Corpus, Lub You (Bolton Octagon) and A Little Local Difficulty (Oldham Coliseum).
Television credits include: Clink, Scott & Bailey, Sleeping Lions, All At Sea, The Driver, Accused, AWOL, Doctors, Spooks, The Royal, Bright New Hole In My Heart, Bodies, Blue Murder – Hit and Run, Playing the Field, City Central, Fat Friends, Always and Everyone, Comin Atcha, Casualty, Peak Practice, Coronation Street, Dear Dilemma and Emmerdale.
Director
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Sarah has worked extensively as a director and dramaturg making theatre in a range of participatory, training and professional settings. After joining the Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester as Literary Manager she created the Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting and became Artistic Director between 2014 - 2019.
Her directing work there includes acclaimed collaborations with Maxine Peake including: Hamlet, Miss Julie, Streetcar Named Desire, Happy Days. She has also collaborated with the playwright Simon Stephens on On the Shore of the Wide World (Olivier Award Best Play); Punk Rock (MEN Best Production); Blindsided and Light Falls.
Other recent work includes; at the Royal Exchange: West Side Story, Death of a Salesman, Our Town (winner UK Theatre Award Best Director 2018); for Manchester International Festival The Masque of Anarchy, The Skriker and The Nico Project and for Hull City of Culture 2017 The Last Testament of Lillian Bilocca. Her most recent work has included a Macbeth for Schools at Shakepeare’s Globe, The Breach at Hampstead Theatre, Betty! at the Royal Exchange Theatre. They (a sequence of unease) a collaboration with Manchester International Festival and MAAT - a new company she has formed with Maxine Peake and Imogen Knight dedicated to creating new live performance work.
Set & Costume Designer
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Katie is an award-winning Designer based in the North West. Upon graduating from The Liverpool Institute For Performing Arts, Katie was the inaugural recipient of the Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse Prize for Theatre Design. She is proud to be an Associate Artist at Box Of Tricks Theatre Company, Co-Founder of the North West Design Allotment and a committee member of the Society Of British Theatre Designers.
Katie’s credits include: Spring & Port Wine, A Christmas Carol, One Man Two Guvnors; Bolton Octagon. Too Much World At Once, Spark Plug and Narvik; Box Of Tricks Theatre Company. Here; Curious Monkey. A Skull In Connemara and Jungle Book; Oldham Coliseum. Freedom Project, Fairy Poppins and The Naughty Winter Ghost, Searching For The Heart of Leeds; Leeds Playhouse. Beauty & The Beast, Cinderella and Blackout; The Dukes Lancaster.
Lighting Designer
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Laura is a freelance Lighting Designer who trained at LAMDA as a recipient of the William and Katherine Longman Charitable Trust Scholarship. Often working in new writing, Laura’s work is led by story, whilst also offering bold, unexpected and atmospheric designs.
Assistant Lighting Designer credits include:
Odyssey: A Heroic Pantomime (Jermyn Street Theatre), Amadigi (English Touring Opera), and Constellations (Donmar/West End).
Lighting Designer credits include: Snow Queen (Polka Theatre), Elephant (Bush Theatre), Black Is... (New Diorama), Brassic FM (Gate Theatre), Salty Irina (Broccoli Arts), Invisible (Bush Theatre / 59E59 Theatre), Dismissed (Soho Theatre), Faun (Cardboard Citizens), The Beach House (Park 90), The Kola Nut Does Not Speak English, Clutch (Bush Theatre), Manorism (Southbank Centre), Exodus (National Theatre Scotland), Juniper & Jules (Soho Theatre), Dead Air (Stockroom), Moreno (Theatre 503), SPLINTERED (Soho Theatre), Cells out (Camden People's Theatre), curious (Soho Theatre)
Sound Designer
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Recent credits include Falkland Sound (Royal Shakespeare Company); Sound of the Underground, Purple Snowflakes and Titty Wanks (Royal Court); The Good Person of Szechwan (Lyric Hammersmith/Sheffield Theatres); The Wonderful World of Dissocia (Theatre Royal Stratford East); Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Bloody Elle (also Traverse Theatre/Soho Theatre), Wuthering Heights, Light Falls (Royal Exchange Theatre); Never Have I Ever, The Narcissist (Chichester Festival Theatre); Anna Karenina, Operation Crucible, Chicken Soup (Sheffield Theatres); Groan Ups (Mischief Theatre/Vaudeville Theatre/UK Tour); Uncanny: I Know What I Saw (UK Tour); How Not To Drown (Traverse/Theatre Royal Stratford East); The Cavalcaders (Druid); Good Luck, Studio (Mischief Theatre/Mercury Theatre); Kes (Bolton Octagon); The Climbers (Theatre By The Lake); Things of Dry Hours (Young Vic); A Pretty Shitty Love, A Christmas Carol (Theatre Clwyd); Endurance (HOME Manchester); My Name Is Rachel Corrie (Al Madina Theatre, Beirut); Cougar, The Rolling Stone, Dealing with Clair (Orange Tree Theatre); Dublin Carol (Sherman Theatre); Hamlet, Talking Heads, Rudolph (Leeds Playhouse); The Audience, Juicy and Delicious (Nuffield Theatre); The Remains of Maisie Duggan (Abbey Theatre); Toast, Enough (Traverse Theatre); When I Am Queen (Almeida).
Movement Direction and Choreography
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Jennifer is a Latinx British-Bolivian theatre-maker, movement director and actor.
Her acclaimed production, ENDURANCE, premiered at HOME Manchester/ Battersea Arts Centre, and was shortlisted for the prestigious Stückemarkt at the Theatertreffen (Berliner Festspiele, 2022).
Theatre includes: Cowbois (Royal Shakespeare Company & Royal court Theatre); Julius Caesar (Royal Shakespeare Company); I, JOAN, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice (Globe); Britannicus (Lyric Hammersmith); The Breach (Hampstead); KES (Bolton Octagon); 5 Children and It (Theatre Royal Bath); Endurance (HOME Manchester/ BAC); The Mountaintop, Cuttin’ it, Wuthering Heights, Death of a Salesman, Queens of the Coal Age, Our Town (Royal Exchange Theatre); Baby Reindeer (Francesca Moody Productions/The Bush- Olivier Award 2020); Midnight Movie, Invisible Summer, Living Newspaper (Royal Court); Perspective (New Views National Theatre); Amsterdam (ATC/Orange Tree/ Theatre Royal Plymouth); I Wanna Be Yours (Paines Plough/The Bush); Parliament Square (Bush Theatre/Royal Exchange Theatre); The Strange Undoing of Prudencia Hart (New Vic Theatre); Be My Baby, Around The World in 80 Days (Leeds Playhouse); Mountaintop UK Tour (Young Vic/ Desara Productions Ltd); Mayfly, Out of Water (Orange Tree).
Television and Film includes: Hope – A film (Clean Break), Hold Hold Fire (ICA, Olivia Plender), The Great (Hulu).
Events include: Coventry Moves, Coventry City of Culture 2021.
Awards: She was a recipient of a Jerwood Live Work Award (2021), and was recently awarded the Jerwood New Work Fund (2023) for WRESTLELADSWRESTLE: Levehulme Arts Scholar 2019; MCGFutures Award; Oliver Award 2020 (Baby Reindeer).
Casting Director
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Nadine has over twenty years’ experience as a Casting Director for Theatre. She was in-house Casting Director at Soho Theatre for over fifteen years; working on new plays by writers including Dennis Kelly, Bryony Lavery, Arinzé Kene, Roy Williams, Philip Ridley, Laura Wade, Hassan Abdulrazzak, Pheobe Waller-Bridge and Oladipo Agboluaje.
Since going freelance in January 2019 Nadine has worked for theatres and companies across London and the UK; including Arcola Theatre, Orange Tree Theatre, Sheffield Theatres, Leeds Playhouse, Paines Plough, Fuel Theatre, National Theatre of Wales, Northern Stage, Wales Millennium Centre, Kiln Theatre, Park Theatre, Theatre503, Pleasance Theatre London, Almeida, Lyric, Hampstead and Minack theatres. She continues to cast on a regular basis for Soho Theatre and has a long running relationship with Synergy Theatre Project as their Casting Director/Consultant.
TV work includes BAFTA-winning CBBC series Dixi, casting the first three series.
Nadine is a member of the Casting Directors Guild and currently sits on the Committee.
Assistant Director
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Gráinne Flynn (She/Her) is a Manchester community facilitator and theatremaker. She is a creative member of the theatre company Switch_MCR and a Young Trustee at Contact.
Her passion is for working with the community as a facilitator; her training started with TiPP (Theatre in Prisons and Probation), where she led creative workshops in Prisons and Youth Justice settings. Recent work includes being an artist on the Balmy Army project and working with young people in a CAMHS to create an exhibition for the Manchester International Festival.
As a theatre director, her credits include Leader (The Royal Exchange Theatre) and Bright.Young.Things. (Storyhouse) and as Assistant Director, credits include Work It Out (HOME). Besides her creative work, she works as a Youth Voice and Leadership Consultant with organisations such as YPF Trust.
