Red Ladder Theatre Company and Unite the Union present
We’re Not Going Back
Written by Boff Whalley
75 Mines. 3 Sisters. 1 Cause. (And a six-pack of Babycham)
2024 is the fortieth anniversary of the 1984/85 miners’ strike, a dispute that still resonates today. But the strike wasn’t just about pickets vs police – in this hard-hitting musical comedy there are no miners and no cops. Instead, we follow the fortunes of three sisters in a pit village, hit hard by the Government’s war against the miners and determined to set up a branch of ‘Women Against Pit Closures’.
Early 1984, and Olive, Mary and Isabel are sisters whose everyday squabbles collide with a strike that forces them to question their lives, their relationships and their family ties.
This strike wasn’t just a war fought on the battlegrounds of picket line, Parliament and public opinion. It was as much a battle in the homes and families of those fighting for their communities.
We’re Not Going Back tackles the resilience of working communities, the make-and-mend fabric of family and the power of sticking two fingers up to a government hell-bent on destruction… and all with humour, song and a six pack of Babycham.
“Elvi Piper’s fine revival of Boff Whalley’s 2014 musical comedy about three sisters on a pit village frontline in 1984 is full of humour, drama and lived experience” THE OBSERVER
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE
ALL performances of We’re Not Going Back will use Talking Birds’ brilliant The Difference Engine, meaning d/Deaf and hard-of-hearing audience members can get captions direct to their own mobile devices Not sure what that means? Have a read of this!
TAKE A LOOK AT WHAT AUDIENCES HAD TO SAY IN MARCH 2024
PLEASE NOTE: the videos and photos on this page feature the original cast of 2014 who toured the show in March and July 2024: Victoria Brazier, Beccy Owen, Stacey Sampson & Claire O’Connor.
‘This organisation is funded by Leeds City Council through the Leeds Cultural Investment Programme.’
