The time has come to unveil our next big project – Make It!
This brand new play is in the pipeline for 2026, and will be written by Caroline Lamb, directed by Kitty Ball and produced by Brontë Appleby.
As always, this piece is about something incredibly important to us.
It’s about how our creative industries are being gradually buried in a world that offers less and less space for colour.
It will form just one part of a wider project offering fresh opportunities and connections to local artists.
It’s perhaps darkly fitting that we could do with a couple of quid to help get it off the ground! If you can, please please donate via the link below and/or share the news far and wide across your networks.
We did it! Our upcoming project, Silent Approach – on which we’ll be collaborating with mental health organisation S.I.S Strength in Struggles – has achieved its crowdfunding target on Spacehive. This means that work can now begin on bringing it to life!
Our heartfelt thanks go out to all the wonderful people and organisations who donated in support of this really exciting project.
Silent Approach is a play based on the true story of Rebecca House, the founder of S.I.S and a former police officer who was sectioned under the mental health act. It explores the treatment of – and attitude towards – those in mental health crisis, and makes a powerful case for empathy and reform.
We’ll be touring Lancashire and Greater Manchester this autumn, so please watch this space for creative team and cast announcements, tour dates and much more! You’ll find all information and updates via the project’s dedicated Linktree:
Huge news! Our award-winning play, On Me, is returning to the stage in March 2025.
The first performance will take place on Wednesday 5th March at the Martin Harris Centre on Bridgeford Street, Manchester M13 9PL.
Doors will open at 6.45pm for a 7pm start, and the hour-long show will be followed by a 45-minute panel on Gender-Based Violence and Domestic Abuse, featuring key changemakers and frontline workers who will be taking audience questions.
The play will then head to the Octagon Theatre in Bolton on Friday 7th March and Saturday 8th March, thanks to vital support from the incredible Greater Manchester domestic abuse charity, Endeavour and backing from the National Lottery Community Fund.
On Friday 7th, doors will open at 6.45pm for a 7pm start.
Saturday 8th will be a matinee, with doors opening at 2.15pm for a 2.30pm start. Both performances will again be followed by our acclaimed 45 minute panel discussions.
We are absolutely thrilled to be bringing this vital piece back to Greater Manchester. Watch this space as we prepare to announce cast, crew and more fantastic partner organisations, all of whom will be working together to deliver On Me in 2025!
We’re excited to announce that On Me has received an OffComm (OffWestEnd Commendation) award for our short run of On Me in Trafford and Bolton in May 2024!
Requirements for nomination were a minimum of three performances and at least two reviews of 4* or above, which we achieved – and, on 6th June, we received the exciting news that the show was a winner.
Congratulations to everyone involved, and here’s to more exciting On Me news in the future!
Fantastic news on the reviews front: our performance of On Me at Waterside Arts in Sale – which took place on 2nd May 2024 – has been awarded 4.5 stars from The Reviews Hub!
Written by Helen Jones, the write-up reads as follows:
“Dangerous To Know Theatre Company have brought their award-winning Manchester Fringe play On Me back into production and landed at Waterside Arts, Sale for one night before performing for two nights in Bolton later in the month.
On Me tackles the very current issues around gender-based violence, female safety and the difficulties in forming relationships in the post #MeToo era. Shona and Christian are actors employed for a docu-drama about a true crime abuse case. Christian plays the cruel abuser who turns killer later while Shona is his surviving victim. Together they play out the scenes of the relationship which turns violent, while dealing with the impact the subject matter has on them personally. Attraction grows between them but the situations they play out affect their off screen emotions.
Leah Eddleston portrayed the role of Shona in the original Manchester production and returns to it here, creating a confident and outgoing woman who hides her past. But her past rears its head during filming and makes her vocal when her sister is in a vulnerable situation. But the past becomes the present as she is vulnerable too. Alexi Papadopoulos is the less confident Christian, a nice guy but the actions of his character make him question both men in general and his own role in relationships with women. Papdopoulos is excellent, showing that men can also have that vulnerable side. The cast is made up of Trevor Dwyer-Lynch as the film director and John Joyce O’Keeffe as the clapper loader. Writer Caroline Lamb appears on film as the original victim.
The set is simple but effective with a sofa centre stage and the green room and a bar as minor areas each side. A backing screen allows for both the backdrops for the staging and an impactful place to show the real story behind what the two actors are filming. There is a slight technical issue when the pre-recorded sections of filming are broadcast and are less audible than everything else.
Caroline Lamb has taken a difficult subject, but one so relevant to many young people today, and developed a thought-provoking short play. It is entertaining and often funny, but the underlying message is clearly carried throughout leaving nowhere to hide from it. While established director Helen Parry makes sure it gives the punch the subject matter deserves.
The play is followed by a Q&A session with local professionals who deal with the issues raised on a day to day basis.
On Me is just an hour long, but it is an important hour for the woman and men out there affected by the issues in the play. You won’t be able to catch it in Sale but it is well worth making the trip to Bolton for and hopefully it can gain longer runs to bring to more areas it’s very important message.”
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.
Dangerous To Know 