Originally commissioned by Nottingham Playhouse, RIOT ACT will be presented as a script-in-hand rehearsed reading with a community cast at the Framework Knitters Museum over two nights on Friday 27th and Saturday 28th March.
Writer Andy Barrett has worked with thousands of local people to explore their histories, culture, stories, and identity across the East Midlands, as well as major community projects in India.
His plays for radio and stage include Dolly, a cloning meets country and western musical; Tony’s Last Tape, based on the Benn diaries; Barbeque 67 for Radio Four; Garage Band and an adaptation of Ibsen’s The League of Youth for Nottingham Playhouse.
RIOT ACT is a raw, uncompromising play examining the lives of the framework knitters in Nottinghamshire and the rise and fall of the Luddite movement at the start of the nineteenth century.
Drawing immediate parallels with our contemporary world, RIOT ACT is told with a dark sense of humour, which is unflinching in its language, themes, and world-setting. This is certainly not a cosy Victorian depiction of the framework knitters.
The play will be presented as a rehearsed reading in the museum’s chapel gallery, which will set-dressed to evoke the nineteenth-century world of the play, along with three large banners depicting the Luddite rebellion made for the production by De Montfort University. Live music will also provide an extra atmospheric touch.
The play will be directed by David Longford, Museum Manager at the Framework Knitters Museum, who previously worked on large scale community productions in his previous role at the Theatre Royal Nottingham.
“Andy presented RIOT ACT to me just after I started at the museum last year. In trying to reach new audiences through a new museum events programme, presenting this play is a really exciting way to tell the important story of the Notts framework knitters,” says David.
Performances of RIOT ACT have now sold out and with its success, it is hoped it will be revived later in the year.
For full details of the events programme at the Framework Knitters Museum please visit their website at www.frameworkknittersmuseum.org.uk
