Maxine Peake is one of the UK’s leading actors, playwrights and activists. She’s won the hearts of her home town, Salford, as well as charming an national audience with stage and screen performances including Hamlet at the Royal Exchange, and roles in TV shows like Shameless, Silks and Black Mirror. Next summer, she takes the lead in a new Royal Exchange production, Happy Days – and this performance is followed by the debut production of Queens of the Coal Age, the latest drama written by Maxine Peake. The new play is based on the true story of four women protesting against the closure of Parkside Colliery 1993, and the disruption to local community that came with the closure. The play’s subject shows a continuation of Peake’s interest in the unsung stories of working-class women of England’s industrial north, following her critically-acclaimed first play, Beryl, which was developed from a BBC Radio 4 drama in 2012. Queens’ director, Bryony Shanahan, has won a BBC Performing Arts Award and, among other work, was assistant director on Sarah Frankcom’s Hamlet, where Peake starred in the title role. For more arts and culture events in Manchester click here.
Fri 28 Jun – Sat 21 Jul 2018, Royal Exchange Theatre, St Ann’s Square, Manchester M2 7DH, Tel: 0161 833 9833, times and prices vary, vary, www.royalexchange.co.uk
- Words:
- William Felix Robinson
- Published on:
- Sun 8 Jul 2018
