As one of the leading festivals in the north, MANIFF’s focus is on making a week-long event as entertaining for all their attending guests as possible. Whether they are budding film directors, big recognisable film stars, or simply film fans coming to support the filmmakers that they love. It’s the bustling atmosphere, paired with the stunningly real ‘Manc’ location that gives new meaning to the phrase ‘This is Manchester, we do things differently here.’

This year the festival will host 45 feature films and more than 100 short films. Northwest shorts is a returning category, showcasing some of the latest and greatest talents in the northern region. Juliette Holmes, a member of the awards panel, says: “The addition of the Northwest shorts category is a great way of celebrating stories and filmmakers from the region. It is a really popular screening, as so many local filmmakers attend to show their support to colleagues. There’s always a chance you’ll see a familiar face”.

Industry professionals like Luke Bather have attended and featured in recent years festivals, coming away with awards. He says: “MANIFF has always been brilliant, not only for being able to see amazing shorts and features but also for the people that I’ve had the chance to meet simply through attending the festival!”

From start to finish, the festival hosts evening events for their filmmakers to connect and unwind following the stresses a launch can bring. The festival is known for its positive energy that doesn’t stop when the screenings fade to black, with festival director Neil Jarem-Croft reflecting on fond memories: “From a 3-day festival to the 10-day extravaganza that we have now. What has been most enjoyable over the years has been meeting so many talented filmmakers and sharing their films with an audience”.

Kicking off the festival will be the UK premiere of The Convert, starring Guy Pearce.
The Convert is directed by Lee Tamahori and tells the story of a preacher who arrives at a British settlement in 1830s New Zealand. His violent past is soon drawn into question and his faith put to the test, as he finds himself caught in the middle of a bloody war between Maori tribes.

One of the highlights of this year’s festival is the UK premiere of The Trap, marking the directorial debut of Lena Headey. Other The world premieres hosted at the event include UK films Of God’s Men, Straight Through Crew, The Can and Die Before you Die.

The closing night also promises to be a cinematic treat with the screening of the latest Rose Glass film, Love Lies Bleeding, starring Kirsten Stewart, Katy O’Brian and Ed Harris.
The film sees Stewart star as Lou, a reclusive gym manager who falls hard for Jackie (O’Brian), an ambitious bodybuilder who’s heading to Las Vegas to pursue her dream. Their love soon leads to violence as they get pulled deep into the web of Lou’s criminal family.

The festival runs from March 15-24 at Odeon, Great Northern. Forfull details of the films and tickets visit MANIFF’s official website. Here’s to the next 10 years!

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Building on the success of the Magical Christmas Movie Experience in December, Mayfield Depot has been transformed into a romantic hideaway, guaranteed to get you in the mood for love.

The former railway depot near Piccadilly, is laying out the red carpet to everyone who wants to celebrate love and romance. And because you can never get too much loving, it’s welcoming couples not just for one night, but five, starting on Wednesday 13 February.

The evening begins with a romantic walk through a snow-kissed forest to reach the pop-up cinema. There is warm welcome from a live band playing love songs. And for Dirty Dancing fans there is an added bonus at each of its three film screenings over the festival, where you can pick up tips on how to recreate some of the film’s flirty dancefloor moves with live dancers mirroring the on-screen action.

Music may be the food of love, but the venue hasn’t forgotten your taste buds. And once inside, there is a tasty array of street food for sale, including woodfired pizzas and Jamaican barbecue, gourmet burgers and hot dogs. As well as exclusive candy-floss roses to put the sweet in to sweet-heart.

If you want to mimic a night in on a night out, there are bean-bag seats where you can take a hot drink or cocktail and snuggle-up under a cosy blanket to watch the film. Choice of movies include the Oscar-winning smash hit, Titanic starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet; Pretty Woman featuring Richard Gere and Julia Roberts; Beauty & The Beast with Emma Watson; and Notting Hill with Hugh Grant and Julia Roberts.

And on Valentine’s Day (Thursday 14 February) there is a double bill of The Bodyguard with Kevin Costner and Whitney Houston, followed by Dirty Dancing starring Patrick Swayze.

After a couple of hours snuggled-up in the city’s romantic cocoon, we wouldn’t be surprised if you get the urge to make your feelings known in a public declaration of love. So, dig deep for your inner poet because there is a chance for guests to run personal messages and videos on the big screen.

Organiser, Steven Matthews, says: “Love is all around as we countdown to our very special movie experience this month. All in all, it’s going to be quite a February.”

The Valentine’s Movie Experience, Mayfield Depot (near Manchester Piccadilly) runs from Wednesday 13 February through to Sunday 17 February 2019. Tickets for all the films start from £14.99. See website for details.

For a chance to win a pair of tickets for Titanic on Wed 13 Feb, 7pm email your full name and address to competitions@quayslife.com with Valentine in the subject line.

Alternatively to enter you can retweet and follow us on Twitter @quayslife; share our competition and like our QuaysLife page on Facebook. 

The competition closes at noon on Friday 8 February 2019.

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Can you tell us about the show?

Släpstick is indeed a series of musical (as in “with music”, not “Musical”) sketches, with a loose to non-existent narrative. There are plenty of recurring characters and themes, and a general 1920’s/1930’s fairground feel to the whole thing.

What do you think is the timeless appeal of slapstick comedy?

I suppose the fact that many of the great slapstick acts are textless makes them instantly relatable to all, since language barriers are irrelevant. It’s also truly a craft – the greats worked on their timing and precision the way a concert pianist practices scales, or a world class athlete prepares for a competition. That level of dedication is universally appreciated. That, and a man with a tiny moustache, falling off a ladder, will never not be funny. That’s just a fact.

How do you become a slapstick comic?

If you’re like us, then you were always the one at the music school trying to balance a trombone on his chin while your peers were diligently studying their etudes. I suppose it’s a natural progression. If you have that innate silliness, the diligence to work on your craft in great detail, and the willingness to fling your body around the stage, you’re well on your way.

How does Släpstick fit with the history of clowning? Do you consider yourself to be a clown?

Two branches of the same tree, I guess? Or maybe a square and rectangle kind of thing? All slapstick artists are clowns, but not all clowns are not slapstick artists? The Swiss clown, Grok is a great example of a clown and slapstick artist in one. I don’t know if we consider ourselves to be clowns, but we use a lot of elements from clowning in our acts.

How long did it take you to learn to fall over convincingly without getting hurt?

Oh, we still get hurt! But it’s all about damage control. I’m not sure how long it took us, but we were coached by several different people from various disciplines: clowning, acrobats, dancers and stuntmen.

What makes you laugh?

Everything, just about. YouTube Cat Videos. Buster Keaton falling down a hillside. South Park. Pretentious classical musicians. The A-Team and Chuck Norris movies. The way Charlie Chaplin’s eyebrows take over an entire scene. Monty Python. Kenny G album covers from the 80’s. Groucho Marx seducing a rich blonde, etc. etc…

Which slapstick comedians inspire you?

The Marx Brothers were my father’s favourite and will always have a place on the slapstick pedestal for me. Obviously, Charlie Chaplin. His craftsmanship is second to none, an absolute master of timing and physicality, and a brilliant musician as well. Buster Keaton has to be up there too, for his moxie and absolute daring! The man must have been completely fearless!

If you could ask your hero any question about his work, what would it be?

I think I’d ask Buster Keaton how many bones he’s broken over the course of his career!

What is your favourite ever slapstick sketch?

I’d have to say it’d be the scene from the Marx Brother’s “A Night At The Opera”, where Chico Marx is playing the piano for a small crowd of children. What he’s playing is absurdly virtuosic, yet he still manages to throw in his little finger gags, silly subtle movements, and make faces at the kids. It’s perhaps a bit less “slapstick-y” than Buster Keaton jumping off the roof, or Charlie Chaplin getting tossed through the giant gears of the factory in Modern times, but it captures golden combination of silly and melancholy that makes slapstick so endearing.

Have you incorporated any of this routine into the show?

Not that one, no. If we had to incorporate something from every slapstick scene we love, the show would be about 10 hours long!

What can audiences expect from the show? Is there any audience interaction?

They can expect first and foremost top-class musicianship. Music is our background after all, and as clown-esque as we may be, the music is always at the forefront! Otherwise they’ll get a rowdy and raucous night, filled with lots of gags, nostalgia, mild stuntman-ship and original and exciting music! And yes, there’s lots of audience participation – prizes to be won, ladies to be romanced, and glory to be had! And no, you’re not safe even all the way in the last row!

Is your show suitable for all ages?

Absolutely! The gags range from erudite classical music references, to trouser-dropping, violin throwing silliness, and everything in between. There really is something for everyone here, and I don’t say that flippantly! The music genres cover everything from Balkan to Jazz to Classical to Rock to Prince to Michael Jackson to Peruvian Folk and back. There is physical humour, subtle nuances, and even some touching moments. Hope to see you there, people of Manchester!

Släpstick is at HOME from 13- 22 December 2018 visit homemcr.org for details.

Visit Jon’s website to find out more about his work. 

The post What does it take to be a 21st century slapstick comedian? We talk to Jon Bittman of Släpstick at Home, Manchester appeared first on Quays Life.

Well, Manchester’s new pop-up cinema might just have found the festive fairy dust to make it happen. For four weekends, the Magical Christmas Movie Experience has taken over Mayfield Depot, an old railway siding by Piccadilly train station, and turned it into a family-friendly cinema experience featuring popular Christmas classics such as, Elf, The Holiday, Love Actually, Home Alone, and Santa Claus The Movie.

The experience begins once you step off the street, where you’re greeted by two little elves who direct you through a secret door into the first of the covered railway arches. This one has been decorated as a frosty forest and it’s here the excitement builds for little-ones as they make their way through a covered igloo to be greeted by a jolly Father Christmas relaxing in an armchair outside his toy workshop.

The space is open for an hour before the film starts giving time for youngsters to take part in some of the crafts in the workshop area. These include, building wooden toy boats, creating origami stars and watching pots being thrown on a potter’s wheel.

There’s a food stall area serving a range of high-quality street food – yes, they really are serving half a lobster in a take-out paper carton. There are also sweet treats – doughnut stacks, strawberries and cream, popcorn – and you can take all your munchies into the movie next door.

The cinema area is in one long railway arch, with the cinema screen at the far end, where you’ll later exit. Near the front is giant bean-bag seating, for you to snuggle up under one of the blankets provided. The main space is heated by calor-gas heaters, so it isn’t as cold as being outdoors. But we’d still advise you wrap-up warm if you’re sitting still for a couple of hours.

There is general chair seating behind the bean bags and a tabled area further back, where you can eat your food and enjoy the show.

The full-immersive experience with a choir wasn’t on when we visited, and you may want to check before you go what the event includes for your screening. We went for The Greatest Showman and it was a relaxed atmosphere where people could sing along if they wanted to. As the credits rolled there was a huge round of applause and lasered lights shone across the roof for a magical finale. It’s one of the most comfortable and fun pop-up movie experiences we’ve had in the city, and its good-cheer is spreading beyond the festive run, with all blankets being donated to the city’s homeless community after the final screening.

Tickets for all the films start from £14.99. For more details visit www.magicalchristmasmovieexperience.com

Show listing

The Greatest Showman
Date: Fri 23-Sun 25 November, Fri 14 December
Time: times vary

The Greatest Showman Sing-a-long
Date: Fri 23-Sat 24 November
Time: Fri 6pm, Sat 1.30pm

Love Actually
Date: Thu 29 November-Sun 2 December
Time: times vary

The Holiday
Date: Thu 6 December, Sat 15 December
Time: Thu 7pm, Sat 9pm

Elf
Date: Fri 7-Sat 8 December, Sat 15 December
Time: times vary

Gremlins
Date: Fri 7 December
Time: 9pm

The Polar Express
Date: Sat 8 December, Sat 15 December
Time: 1.30pm

Home Alone
Date: Sat 8 December, Fri 14 December
Time: Sat 5.30pm, Fri 6pm

Home Alone 2
Date: Sun 9 December
Time: 1pm

Die Hard
Date: Thu 13 December
Time: 7pm

Santa Claus The Movie
Date: Sun 16 December
Time: 1pm

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Sarah Frankcom’s production, starring Don Warrington as the disillusioned, Willy Loman, doesn’t sit neatly in any timeframe. The costumes place the characters in 1950s America, but the largely bare staging, overshadowed by a full tree canopy also give it a dream-like atmosphere.

In many ways what we are watching is a dream of sorts. Miller’s original title for the play was, ‘Inside of his Head’, and for much of the action that’s what we are seeing, as Loman revisits his past in an attempt to make sense of his present.

Here the Royal Exchange’s in-the-round set up works particularly well. Designer, Leslie Travers has removed the banquettes to surround the stage with a low-seated ring, from which the various characters in Lomas’ life look on like shadows.

As the title suggests, the story follows a salesman in the last days of his life, and this heaviness envelopes the production from the start. At the centre is the complex Lomas, who after more than 30 years with the same firm is travelling hundreds of miles a day, busting a gut on a commission only contract, and borrowing money to keep up a lifestyle he can no longer afford.

The ideas of an older generation feeling discarded in the workplace; a younger generation seemingly refusing to grow-up, and the harshness of a capitalist society which holds no value for loyalty are all as relevant today as they were when Miller first envisioned his characters.

In a compelling performance, Warrington embodies the weariness of Loman, while also offering striking glimpses of the man he once was, or at least once believed himself to be. As we learn through the play, everyone has different sides, and even those closest to us don’t recognise them all.

Maureen Beattie is equally convincing as his burdened wife, Linda, who is doing everything she can to desperately hold the family and her husband’s mind together.
There is hope but it feels misplaced. Their two sons: argumentative, Biff (Ashley Zhangazha) and philanderer, Happy (Buom Tihngang) don’t have the answers or the lives they hoped.

This intricate web of family, society and psychology, requires a lot of talent to hold it together, and the whole cast is to be commended. The result is a gripping, if sobering, three-and-a-quarter hours that will stay with you for much longer.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Death of a Salesman is at The Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester from 11 October – 17 November 2018.

The post Death of a Salesman review appeared first on Quays Life.

Like millions of others, for me the airport has been the start of many adventures. In the early days I would be carrying the case, then came the ‘two-wheeler’ and today my contents sail through on four wheels. I have been fortunate over the years to broadcast a whole host of radio programmes for BBC from the airport, both airside and land side and have presented many a Children in Need night on a huge stage under those unforgettable chandeliers! I even been lucky enough to sit next to a pilot and interview him whilst at 33,000 feet.

Manchester was the first city in Great Britain to establish a municipal aerodrome when an Air Ministry licence was granted to the Corporation on 22 April 1929. In January 1934, an airline’s senior pilot claimed that the existing Barton site for Manchester was unsuitable and by July 1934 the City Council had chosen Ringway, as Manchester Airport used to be known, as a new home.

The original 1938 route network included the exotic hotspots of Western Super-Mare, Croydon and Doncaster whereas Manchester now serves more than 220 international destinations worldwide including Beijing, Houston, Mumbai, San Francisco, Singapore and Boston.

Treasured tales of travel spanning eight decades have inspired a special short film created by Manchester Airport and world-renowned poet Tony Walsh.

Called “Time Flies,” it was released in April to celebrate the airport’s 80th birthday.
The film tells the story of Manchester’s evolution from a single wooden hut in 1938 to the UK’s third largest airport and a key driver of global trade and tourism for the whole of the North.

It features poignant memories from passengers, businesses and airport workers past and present, with the words used to narrate the footage penned by the famous Mancunian wordsmith.

Andrew Cowan, CEO of Manchester Airport, says: “Looking back over the past 80 years has made us appreciate more than ever the important role Manchester Airport has played in the lives of so many people across the North.

“We have unearthed so many stories, from people’s first time on board an aircraft, special holidays and family reunions, to husbands meeting their wives and rock stars passing through our terminals.”

Among those featuring in Time Flies is Phillip Mallinder, of Clifton, Salford, who was born exactly one month before Manchester Airport opened in 1938. He is one of the millions of people for whom air travel wasn’t possible more than 40 years ago and is seen flicking through the holiday photos from his first trip abroad in the early 1980s.

The future generation also makes the cut, as pupils from nearby Ringway Primary School feature. The class shown in the video are seen drawing and designing a bespoke 80th birthday card for the airport to use. The pupils shown from Ringway Primary school make up part of 15,000 students the airport’s Community Relations team work with every year on a host of aviation themed projects.

From the airport itself, Special Projects Director Tony Lavan is seen clutching one of his old passport photographs. He joined the airport more than 40 years ago as an engineering apprentice.

And husband and wife Gary and Janet Brown also feature. They met while working at the airport and are both now terminal duty managers.

The collaboration with Tony Walsh is just one of the activities as part of Manchester Airport’s 80th celebrations. This includes planting 80 oak trees (the official gift for an 80th), opening the archives, tea parties for the local community and working with KLM – my personal favourite airline – which had the first commercial flight from Manchester.

The post 80 years of Manchester Airport appeared first on Quays Life.

Future Bodies is about the fusion of brains and technology. It’s a very interesting and complex concept. Where did the idea come from and what does it mean to you?

My company, Unlimited Theatre specialises in collaborating with scientists and in 2015 I was commissioned by the Science Museum in London to make “an interactive festival of human enhancement and biotechnology”. As a result, I got to meet some of the most brilliant researchers and cyborgs working in advanced prosthetics, smart drugs and brain implants. I’d always been into sci-fi but it was inspirationally eye-opening for me to discover how advanced some of the real, current developments are. It was also startling how little real-world thinking and policy making has been done about the implications of most of the tech being developed. So, this show and You Have Been Upgraded – the other event I’m making for Manchester Science Festival are my contribution to creating a higher quality conversation around the real world (potential) impacts of human enhancement technologies.

How did you approach the research for the show?
It was mostly conversations in offices or pubs with some of the people we met through that initial event. Professor Barbara Sahakian at Cambridge for cognition enhancing drugs; Dr Tim Constandinou at Imperial’s Centre for Biospired Technology on brain implants; Professor Paul Freemont at Imperial’s Centre for Synthetic Biology and Anders Sandberg at the Institute for the Future of Humanity were all extremely generous with their time and introductions to other specialists. We also read most of the internet! If you’re interested, we’ve distilled some of the most interesting/relevant research on a dedicated website https://unfuturebodies.com

What is the most interesting/exciting discovery you made during the research?

The show has been co-created by five of us (myself and Clare from Unlimited Theatre and Abbi, Helen and Becky from RashDash) and I’m sure we’d all have different things that blew our minds – synthetic wombs; panda meat burgers grown from scratch in a lab; brain implants to restore a sense of touch for prosthetic limbs. But the thing we we’re all most equally fascinated with (or troubled by) was the sincere and increasingly mainstream quest to cure ageing, particularly with regard to Whole Brain Emulation – “mind uploading”. Yes, most researchers dismiss this as an impossible fantasy but there are some very serious people who believe it is achievable in the not-too-distant future. If you really want to have your mind blown you should totally check out this 50minute podcast interview with neuroscientist Randal Koene.

What has been the greatest challenge of presenting this scientific research as an artistic piece?

Not just making a lecture! It’s always our biggest challenge to find ways to make these often extremely complex ideas both accessible and relatable. But it’s a good challenge and one that I think we’re increasingly good at.

What can audiences expect from the show?

You can expect to have your mind blown and for your hairs to stand on end; stunning visuals and heartbreaking new writing; outstanding performances from a brilliant cast and magnetic vocals and driving guitar riffs from a blue-skinned alien. If you’re deaf or hard of hearing then you can expect a fully accessible experience as the whole show is captioned.

Has your view of your own brain/body changed through making the show and if so how?

I started making this show excited by the possibility of becoming an internet connected, blue-skinned, 300-year-old, winged demi-god. As a result of the depth of conversation with my collaborators, particularly Abbi and Helen from RashDash, I’ve become surprisingly reinvested in exploring the full potential of the body I was born in. I’d still like wings though.

Will there be any opportunities to see the show again after the Science Festival?

We hope so! It goes on a short tour to Northern Stage in Newcastle and the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield – details on our website. We’re hoping it will be back for more performances in 2019. If anyone would like to stay in touch then you can follow us on Twitter @untheatre or Facebook

Future Bodies is a co-production from Home and Unlimited Theatre in collaboration with RashDash and has been developed specifically for Home’s intimate 150-seat Theatre 2 space. It is at Home from 28 September to 13 October 2018.

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It’s also one the director has already thought of, and it is just one of many self-depreciating gags narrator, Lonny (Lucas Rush) makes about the show. This is a musical that doesn’t take itself seriously, and laughing at itself is what it does best.

To be fair, Kevin Kennedy has done wonders in transforming his career from Corrie favourite to musical star and more than ably fills the role of ageing rocker and club owner, Dennis.

And it is not the fault of any of the cast that the musical doesn’t always quite hit the mark. Rather it’s the lewd gags and broad stereotyping that makes it feel all a little bit sleazy and dated. For all it’s tongue-in-cheek humour, it has twice as much butt cheek on display.

Set in LA’s Sunset Strip of the 1980s, Rock of Ages tells the story of Sherrie (BBC1’s Over the Rainbow winner, Danielle Hope) who in the words of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believing is ‘just a small town girl, livin’ in a lonely world, who took the midnight train goin’ anywhere.’

With aspirations to be an actress she finds herself working as an LA club waitress where she falls in love with fellow dreamer, Drew (Luke Walsh), gets ‘romanced’ then spectacularly dumped by rock star, Stacee Jaxx (Sam Ferriday) and ends up working in a strip joint.

There is obviously more to Chris D’Arienzo’s book, but not an awful lot more. Like many juke box musicals, the story is a mere thread to weave together a stack of hits, of which Rock of Ages has plenty including: We Built This City, Every Rose Has it’s Thorn, Dead or Alive, Waiting For A Girl Like You, The Final Countdown, Here I Go Again, Can’t Fight this Feeling and I Want To Know What Love Is.

There are some belting numbers and strong vocals, which win over the audience. As does, Lucas Rush’s Lonny, who starts off all tongue-out as a weaselly letch, but settles into a more watchable role as he builds rapport and interacts with the audience.

Zoe Birkett, although young to play life-battered whore, Justice, commands the stage and clearly has a massive fan base with audience members cheering every time her character steps on stage.

Aside from the sexist stereotyping, the comedy works best with fun, physical jokes, like seeing hero, Luke Walsh ride out on a toy motorcycle. And for people who lived through the 1980s, hearing the music again is a nostalgia trip and one the audience clearly loved.

★ ★ ★

Rock of Ages is at The Opera House, Manchester from 25 – 20 September, 2018 and touring until July 2019. See website for full details of the tour.

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How could this be when most of us have never heard of her either as an historical figure or a character in a play? Well, it seems that while this often-overlooked wife of Henry VI has a lot to say, her voice is scattered over four plays – the three Henry VI plays and Richard III – so unless, like O’Hare you get to watch 12 hours of Shakespeare within a relatively short period of time, it’s unlikely you’d have remembered her.

As we all know, changing the perspective can give a whole new view of a story, and that is exactly what O’Hare has done in penning Queen Margaret. She’s taken a series of scenes from Shakespeare and woven them into a fresh telling of the War of the Roses, seen through the eyes of this 15^th century Queen.

The play opens as a young Margaret of Anjou arrives from France to wed Henry VI and take her new place among English royalty. But as we know from history she arrives in a turbulent time for British monarchs – with innumerable plots against the crown and rivals willing to kill to take it.

Jade Anouka makes a strong and complex Queen, who displays humour and humanity as well as a blood-thirsty brutality. Her performance is compelling from the start, but it takes a while for the production to gel.

An understandable element of scene-setting accounts for the slow start, but at times it is also confused by the fact that this is, in essence, a disparate number of scenes being welded into a whole.

Adrienne Quartly’s thumping soundscape builds a tangible tension as the warfare plays out as a game on what looks like a dart-board, where knives fall and in one striking scene bullets spatter from the sky.

The characters wear contemporary dress, workplace lanyards around their neck in court and bullet-proof vests on the streets. At times this mix of time and place is off-putting, but it also makes for some witty 21^st century references to looting large screen TVs, gaming culture, fake news and an obsession with selfies.

O’Hare throws in other twists in that the Duke of York (a formidable, Lorraine Bruce) and Earl of Warwick (Bridgitta Roy) are played as women. Margaret’s French roots and the legacy she brings to the story are highlighted through her conversations with a ghostly Joan of Arc (Lucy Mangan).

Max Runham portrays King Henry VI as a good, rather than a weak man, who doesn’t have a thirst for blood, even if his longing for peace means disinheriting his son of the crown.

Queen Margaret, of course, will not stand for that and the second act becomes a gripping and gruesome battle for the crown.

The historical thriller that emerges feels both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time, and will no doubt get people re-reading their history to find out more about this fiery, forgotten queen.

★ ★ ★★

Queen Margaret is at The Royal Exchange, Manchester from 14 September to 6 October 2018.

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Now Ashley and Diversity are taking on another new challenge. As part of the Circus250 celebrations they have partnered with one of the world’s leading circus companies, Gandey World Class Productions, fusing street dance and circus to create a brand-new type of show.

Ashley talks to Quays Life about the challenge of creating Ignite, a two-hour spectacular of street dance, acrobatics, death-defying stunts, magic and feats that promise to leave audiences rethinking what they thought was humanly possible.

Whose idea was it to link the talents of Diversity and Gandey’s circus?
I was speaking to a good friend who told me it was the 250th anniversary of the circus, and we were put in touch with Gandey’s. The rest is history!

What attracted you to the idea of the show?
Being able to do something that I feel has been a calling for us for a while. We have never officially done circus before but we have been inspired by it and brought elements to our routines from the beginning, so it felt like with it being the anniversary it was an incredible opportunity.

Did you know much about circus before this?
Nowhere near as much as I do now! But I have always loved the circus.

Have you and the dancers had to learn any circus skills for the show? 
Yes, we have! We have had to learn different types of aerial work, so we are suspended really high-up at certain points in the show. We have learnt the art of clowning, we have been learning all different types of escape and illusion and we have also turned our hands to a couple of strong man acts in the show!

What has been the most challenging part of bringing street dance and circus together in one show?
Obviously when you combine two different worlds they work differently, there are different techniques, different ways of performing and different styles of show and the trick is blending the two and making them feel like one unique show as opposed to two sets of people coming together, that is always the challenge. But when everybody is good at their job and loves what they do, that is the type of challenge everyone wants to accept!

How has working on the choreography for this show differed from what you’ve done before?
Normally I am just worrying about the 5,6,7,8’s and worrying about how to make that look good. I rarely have to worry about what’s in the air, how someone bends, what something looks like from a certain angle, am I going to survive getting through this because there are elements in the show that really are that dangerous? But that is what excites me about pushing the limits of the human body.

What can audiences expect from the show? Is it suitable for kids?
It is definitely suitable for children! But like my favourite films, my shows always have double meanings that you can connect to on different levels, so the adults will definitely enjoy and love the show just as much and hopefully it will take you on a roller-coaster of emotions and make you feel inspired when you leave.

It’s almost 10 years since Diversity won Britain’s Got Talent. How do you think the act has changed in that time?
I think at its core it’s still the same, and that it is still a group of guys who are best friends and are doing what they love to do, but what we love to do has grown and changed. We used to just dance but now we do magic, illusions, aerial, escapes, all sorts of different things and combine that into our world. So, nothing has changed but at the same time everything has changed!

What is your vision for the next 10 years?
Our vision for the next 10 years is to continue to grow. You know what and who Diversity is and what to expect, but in some ways, it is almost unrecognisable in terms of the numbers and what we like to do in our shows. I want to be able to create bigger and better shows and hopefully build those shows into something people would love to come and watch all over the world.

IGNITE premieres in a specially designed 2,000 seater big top, located at INTU Trafford Centre on 21 – 23 September 2018, with additional dates in Sheffield, Norwich, Bristol, London, Bournemouth and Brighton. See website for tickets.

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