New Northern Broadsides show takes a trip down Quality Street

This grant has been provided by Community Foundation For Calderdale. The show marks the beginning of a new producing model for Broadsides, with each production being co-created with “creation squads” formed from the local community.

For this production, the actors will collaborate with workers from the Quality Street factory, developing contemporary tales of hapless love and a live commentary that will frame the action of Barrie’s regency rom-com.

Read: Celebrating the lives of Anne Lister and the Brontës in HalifaxNew Artistic Director, Laurie Sansom’s first production for Northern Broadsides will be a revival of JM Barrie’s rarely performed farce Quality Street.

The production will open in February 2020 in Halifax, the home of Quality Street the UK’s most popular brand of chocolates. Barrie’s play was so popular in its day that it gave the chocolates their name.

The show follows Phoebe Throssel who lives on Quality Street, the bustling hub of a quaint northern town where she runs a school for unruly children.

Ten years since a tearful goodbye, an old flame returns from fighting Napoleon. But the look of disappointment on Captain Valentine’s face when he greets a more mature, less glamorous Phoebe, spurs our determined heroine to action.

Read: 23 things you can no longer do in Halifax town centreShe becomes the wild and sparkling Miss Livy, a younger alter-ego who soon entraps the clueless Captain. As their romance is rekindled, can she juggle both personas? Or will her deception scandalise the town and wreck any future with the man she loves?

Before the new production hits Halifax, the company will celebrate the festive season with a programme of folk songs and stories drawn from the Broadside Ballads published from the 1600s.

Local folk singer Alice Jones will star in the fundraiser at The Viaduct Theatre, Dean Clough, alongside musicians who have been recently granted asylum in Halifax.

For details and tickets visit www.northern-broadsides.co.ukRead: Why this £7m Halifax mill transformation has been nominated for top award