The DTK team have been handed the Offie/Off Fest/Off West End Award for our July production of On Me on the Greater Manchester Fringe!
We were also shortlisted for the Greater Manchester Fringe Award for Best Drama and playwright Caroline Lamb was shortlisted for the Write for the Stage Award for New Writing!
Find out more about the event right here!
Dangerous To Know’s run of On Me on the Greater Manchester Fringe ended on 30th July. We had a great critical reception (more on that later) and superb audience responses – and, at the time of writing, we are awaiting the results of an Off West End award nomination for best short run.
What better memento for such a fantastic project than a selection of gorgeous photographs of the show’s dress run, taken by talented and prolific arts photographer Shay Rowan? Take a look below for the fantastic images, captured at The Seven Oaks in Manchester.
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Click the link above, then type OnMe2022GMF to view.
Just days after finishing our run on the Greater Manchester Fringe, we’re thrilled to announced that On Me has been nominated for an OffFest – or Off West End – award for Best Short Run!
We’ll find out the results of this nomination at the Greater Manchester Fringe Awards, which are taking place on the 7th August.
Wish us luck!
Rehearsals are well underway for our upcoming production of On Me on the Greater Manchester Fringe!
The piece will be playing at the Seven Oaks – an antique boozer on the edge of Manchester’s China Town – in the venue’s transformed upstairs space from 27th – 30th July as part of the Greater Manchester Fringe festival.
You can book tickets for the event right here.
This vital new piece of theatre tackles themes of sexual assault, gender-based violence and female safety, following Shona and Christian – two actors performing troubling scenes for a true crime documentary series. As the pair develop an undeniable attraction to one other, unsavoury questions hang unanswered in the air.
Directed by Helen Parry, On Me focuses on the challenges of being a role model, ally, spontaneous romantic and potential victim all at once when chasing love in the post #metoo era.
Due to its challenging themes, the piece comes with 15+ age guidance and a content warning for sexual assault/r*pe, domestic violence, stalking and murder.
The run will include a matinee on Wednesday 27th July at 3pm and a BSL interpreted performance on the evening of Thursday 28th July. Evening performances will all begin at 7.30pm.
Tickets are available via https://manchester.ssboxoffice.com/events/on-me
We did it!! Thank you so much to everyone who donated to our Kickstarter or shared the link to help us reach our target.
On Me will be playing at the Seven Oaks pub theatre in Manchester city centre between 27th and 30th July this year, with one BSL interpreted performance.
You can book tickets via the Greater Manchester Fringe by visiting https://manchester.ssboxoffice.com/events/on-me.
To learn more about the project as it goes ahead, and/or to keep up to date with the activities of theatre company Dangerous To Know, please follow @dtkmanc on Twitter/Instagram and http://www.facebook.com/DangerousToKnow.
We’re now in the last 20 days of our crowdfunder – and we need help to get over the finish line in time! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/onme/on-me
This campaign will support the upcoming production of “On Me”: a brand new play that tackles gender based violence, sexual violence and femicide, with the action taking place on the set of a true crime documentary. The funds we raise will feed into the “match funding” for our Arts Council bid, enabling us to pay a set wage to our creative team. If we don’t hit our target, we get nothing at all.
The play is coming to the Greater Manchester Fringe this July (2022), and will be performed at The Seven Oaks on Nicholas Street from 27th – 30th July.
Every little helps – if you can give just £1, you’ll be supporting an independent theatre company and enabling us to hire creatives looking for North West UK theatre jobs in what could be a major stepping stone in their career. You’ll also help us to make a powerful contribution to the urgent fight against #GBV. We have some great rewards too, so you’ll get something in return for your contribution!
If you can’t donate, please share information about this campaign wherever you can.
Take a look at the lovely programme for our presentation of Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley at Farfield Mill in Sedbergh, Cumbria!
It’s the first time ever that the novel has been adapted for performance – so we really are making history! See the full cast and crew for this unprecedented production in order of appearance below:
Seán Fitton
Michael Barraclough / Reverend Helstone / Mr Sympson
An award winning child actor, Seán returned to the theatre later in life after a short thirty year break. Shirley is his second project with Dangerous To Know and he is very pleased and proud to be back with the team. He particularly enjoys learning about the historical context and feminist politics of DTK’s shows, and the challenge of playing multiple roles convincingly.
In addition to professional acting work, Seán is also a mature student at Salford University – studying for a BA in Theatre and Performance Practice – an author and an occasional musician.
Jo Gerard
Mrs Barraclough / Hortense / Mrs Pryor
Jo lives in Todmorden, West Yorkshire. She trained at the Arden School of Theatre, Manchester.
Her theatre credits include work with Northern Broadsides, Dark Horse Theatre and Manchester 24/7 festival. She has appeared on screen in Emmerdale, The Royal Today and Victoria Wood’s That Day We Sang, and also has a couple of commercials under her belt.
A Jazz vocalist, music teacher and lover of yoga, Jo was involved in the original rehearsed reading of Caroline Lamb’s adaptation of Shirley last year and is delighted to be performing it at Farfield Mill this year.
Mark Roberts
Robert Moore
Mark trained at the Arts Educational School of Acting in London. He is native to the Peak District in Derbyshire and is now based in Manchester. As an Actor and Theatre Maker he regularly works on new writing and rehearsed readings.
He is an associate artist with the Babbling Vagabonds Theatre Company.
Recent stage credits include Freddy Frith in Derby Live & Babbling Vagabonds’ Captain Sprout and the Christmas Pirates, Detective Caminada for Pagelight Productions’ A Very Victorian Scandal, Sam Philips in Rock and Roll Productions’ Memphis Son, Martin in Blind Faith’s Fool for Love, Mr Hardcastle & Luther Gascoigne in The Library Theatre Company’s Playing Up North, Jacob Grimm in the Babbling Vagabonds’ The Brothers Grimm, Will Derby in Cotton Grass Theatre’s Thin Air and Bottom, Oberon & Demetrius in Sheffield Crucible’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Behind the Curtain. Recent film roles have included DCI Anthony Roberts for Green Pen Productions’ Bad Blood and Sheep Dawg in Lesta-Botheration’s 8Acre.
He is pleased to be working with Dangerous To Know for the first time on what has been a fascinating production to be in.
Elka Lee Green
Caroline Helstone
Elka graduated from the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts North in 2014. Some of her favourite credits include the devised verbatim piece Vent (the Royal Exchange’s Co:Lab festival), the role of Chelsea in two tours of the hard-hitting play Chelsea’s Choice (Alter Ego Creative Solutions) a speaking role in the opera Intermezzo (Garsington Opera) and Danny the Champion of the World (Brentwood Theatre). She has also appeared in short films with Dustfarm, Little Joy Productions and Quickfoot Media. It’s a Dangerous To Know double bill for Elka this month as she will be playing Ellen Turner in their next exciting commission, Theft of a Girl, a live monologue blended with stop motion film for Lyme Park’s “Live at Lyme” event.
Sam Redway
Joe Scott / Louis Moore
Sam Redway is an award-winning Manchester-based actor, theatre-maker and co-Artistic Director of Knaïve Theatre. He trained at RADA on the MA Theatre Lab (2014). He has toured nationally and internationally as Osama Bin Laden in Knaïve Theatre’s multi-international award-winning Bin Laden: The One Man Show. His directing includes Mike Bartlett’s Contractions, A Dead Tree Gives No Shelter (ACE Funded) and OSA. His writing includes co-writing Bin Laden: The One Man Show; a Modern Mystery Play, The Fall; and a libretto for Size Zero Opera, Women Conduct.
He has performed and devised with many companies nationally and internationally, including: Theatre Ad Infititum, Familia De La Noche, Dangerous to Know, Manchester Camerata, Smoking Apples, Hiccup Theatre and Engine House Productions.
Caroline Lamb
Shirley
Caroline graduated from the Lincoln School of Performing Arts in 2012 and works as a writer, producer and actor. Her performance credits include Gwendolen in the Houldsworth Rep’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Emily Brontë in Dangerous To Know’s The Dissolution of Percy and Jane in Haddon Hall’s Jane Eyre. Writing credits include Dangerous To Know’s The Dissolution of Percy, Theft of a Girl and Shirley.
Caroline is thrilled to be returning to her home town with Shirley!
Joe Colgan
Stage Manager
Joseph Colgan is a North West based freelance Company Stage Manager. Alongside working on TV and film projects, he has provided technical support for corporate entertainment events, festivals, theatre and education. In addition to this CSM’ing for national touring productions at venues across the UK and Ireland, recent engagements include OMTC Festival 2017 and filming on City and The City for BBC/Mammoth Films and A Midsummer Night’s Dream with Feelgood Theatre Company.
Helen Parry
Director
Helen is a freelance theatre director who originally trained as an actor. She has an extensive body of work ranging from classical plays to new writing with several site-specific projects along the way. She will be teaching at ALRA this term and then is off to Copenhagen in January to direct Caryl Churchill’s A Number for That Theatre Company. Her continued collaboration with Caroline Lamb’s company, Dangerous to Know, excites and inspires!
We’ve been quiet for a little while, but never fear! Dangerous To Know is bubbling away in the background, gradually brewing up our next theatrical offering. In the meantime, however, Caroline has being enjoying involvement in a number of other Northern projects that we’d encourage you all to get behind.
Rep is back in Manchester after half a century, and this particular company pulls no punches with its inaugural production. This thrilling re-imagining of Shakespeare’s classic fairy-filled-fantasy is unlike anything else. For a taster of what lies in store, take a peak at this write-up in the Manchester Evening News. It’s running in the Great Northern Warehouse for another fortnight, so there’s still time to snap up a ticket if you’re quick.
BOOK FOR A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM HERE
A location for the stunning 2011 Jane Eyre starring Michael Fassbender, Haddon Hall is a grand and glorious property near Bakewell in Derbyshire. This summer, the hall is playing host to a wonderful promenade theatre adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s novel, and Caroline is thrilled to be playing Jane on 20th, 21st and 22nd June 2017! These performances are preceded by a glass of Prosecco per person, and the evening is rounded off with a gorgeous three-course meal.
Caroline will continue her collaboration with poet and fellow Brontë enthusiast Simon Zonenblick of Caterpillar Poetry with evening events later in the year. In equal parts an enlightening talk on the area’s connections with the Brontë family and a lively reading of extracts of the family’s work, followed by an intimate theatrical performance entitled The Cold Plunge, Caroline and Simon will be joining forces with local artists and musicians in various locations throughout the North. Keep checking our website, or follow us on Twitter or Facebook for further information about the next event.
To quote the great American composer Leonard Bernstein:
To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time.
We gave ourselves only three days to prepare the first ever stage adaptation of Charlotte Brontë’s Shirley to be performed script-in-hand to audiences at the Lass O’Gowrie in Manchester and the Parish Church of Saint Mary the Virgin in Woodkirk, Leeds (as part of the Morley Arts Festival), and, even then – due to prior commitments and a last-minute recast – we were missing a third of the company for our first rehearsal!
Three days may seem a reasonable amount of time to rehearse for a reading, but given the length and complexity of the text (still a lot to get to grips with even having been whittled down from Charlotte’s hefty and dense work!), our approach of editing as we went, the necessity of working out travel logistics and other technicalities, AND the influence of DTK’s characteristic attention to detail, we were flying by the seats of our pants and no mistake!
The result was extremely rewarding. Wonderful moments of great depth, pathos and comedy were discovered on the fly, sometimes even during the performances themselves. The performers often played by instinct, lending everything a fresh and energetic feel. Director Helen Parry prioritised perfectly, knowing which moments to guide and shape, and understanding which would fall into place “on the night”. I must say that I absolutely cannot imagine how everything would have come together without Helen’s intuitive and discerning direction!
We were lucky enough to play to two very different but equally excellent audiences. The lovely intimate space above the Lass O’Gowrie pub felt full – but not uncomfortably so – and the concentration of the attendees was palpable. The room seemed to buzz! In the larger space at St Mary’s the next day there was a fantastic sense of community and support, and the comedic moments in the text were bolstered by some really rewarding laugh-out-loud responses! I’d really like to take a moment to thank Vicky – the manager at the Lass O’Gowrie who opened the space to us so enthusiastically, Ella Wild, who arranged the slot in the Morley Arts Festival for us, and the vicar at Saint Mary’s, Rev’d Sharon Wilkinson, and her team for making us feel really at home and providing the beautiful venue. The most disappointing thing about the evening was that – as the performance had run over very slightly – the company had to absolutely leg it for the exits after the “curtain call” and summing-up, randomly shaking hands and shouting thanks as we went. Having travelled in from all over – Todmorden, Macclesfield, Salford, Didsbury, Wigan, et al – many cast members were banking on catching the last trains of the day and were likely to be stranded! Luckily everyone made it on time, but that regrettably meant cutting very interesting conversations short. With any luck, we might welcome some returning audience members to the next incarnation of the piece (watch this space!) and find ourselves with a little more time to discuss everything!
DTK’s involvement in the Morley Arts Festival is far from complete, however. On 8th October, the company’s founder and resident playwright Caroline Lamb will join local poet and fellow Brontë enthusiast Simon Zonenblick at Morley Library to deliver an event entitled Exploring the Brontës; an evening consisting of readings of work and letters by the famous literary family itself as well as pieces inspired by them. For more details and to book, simply follow the link below:
All in all, the positive responses over the last few days have really helped us to feel like we’ve hit the ground running, so do watch out for future updates about Shirley and other projects!
After our wonderful success with The Dissolution of Percy, at the end of last year, we thought we’d get cracking with a second Brontë-themed piece; this time, a stage adaptation of Charlotte’s Shirley (something we certainly haven’t seen before!) So we’re putting out a casting call! It’s a tricky piece to cast, as you’ll see below.
A public reading of the script will take place on 27th September at 7:00pm (for a 7:30pm start) during Morley Arts Festival between Dewsbury and Leeds (St Mary the Virgin Parish Church – WF12 7JL). Travel expenses will be covered, and unless otherwise requested, cast members will be recalled for any major future production of the piece, for which we would ensure they would be fully paid. We are hoping to cast at least one individual who holds a full licence and owns a car to lessen transport costs. Fuel costs will be reimbursed.
The company will work to accommodate all cast members’ availability regarding the few rehearsals we’ll need. Auditions and rehearsals will be held in Manchester.
Cast (including multi-rolling)
Male 1: Multi-roler, 40s-50s. Must be able to adapt body-language to suit three different characters. Accents: West Yorkshire, subtle RP and comical upper-class.
Roles
Rev Helstone: Caroline’s paternal uncle. Firm and unbending.
Michael Barraclough: A local down-and-out. Struggling to retain his grip on reality. An ex-worker from Hollow’s Mill.
Mr Sympson: Shirley’s uncle and father of her young cousin. Louis’ employer. Outspoken and affluent.
Male 2: Non-multi-roler, 30s. Tall. Must be able to speak with a Belgian accent. Will accept either Belgian actor or English actor with an excellent grasp of the accent.
Role
Robert Moore: A half-English, half-Belgian mill owner. On his last chance to prove himself after the French revolution laid waste to his inherited family business. Works hard to maintain a cold, officious front, but secretly too gentle to be a hard-nosed businessman. In love with Caroline Helstone but afraid that he cannot afford to support a family.
Male 3: Multi-roler. Mid-late 20s. Must be physically and vocally versatile, able to differentiate between two characters both visually and audibly.
Roles
Joe Scott: Hardworking and passionate mill-hand. Once loyal to his master, Robert Moore, but slowly becoming more enamoured with the prospect of a peaceful uprising. Yorkshire accent.
Louis Moore: Robert’s younger brother, raised in England. An undervalued tutor. RP accent. Downtrodden but not without a wickedly dry and charming sense of humour.
Female 1: Non-multi-roler. Early to mid 20s. Small build. RP or subtle Northern accent.
Caroline Helstone: Resourceful and intelligent. Ambitious against the will of her uncle. Repressed. In love with Robert Moore and frustrated by his aloofness. Strong in spirit but not in body.
Female 2: Multi-roler. 40s-50s. Must be highly versatile both physically and in voice as one role must be believed to be a little older than the others. Must be able to speak with Belgian and Yorkshire accents.
Roles
Hortense Moore (early 40s): Robert’s older sister and Caroline Helstone’s governess. Half-English, half-Belgian. A straight-faced, dry sense of humour. Extremely brave, protective and self-sufficient. Belgian accent.
Mrs Pryor (late 40s, early 50s): Shirley’s governess. Quietly spoken and secretive. Capable of a great deal of love that must be suppressed. RP or subtle Yorkshire accent.
Mrs Barraclough (40s): Wife of Michael. Extremely poor but extremely enterprising. Bitter and intelligent. (Can be younger and multi-role with actor playing Shirley.) Yorkshire accent.
Please send headshot and CV or Spotlight link to dtkmanchester@gmail.com!
Dangerous To Know 