Salford musician, Ewan MacColl’s unpublished play, “Landscape With Chimneys” will feature at Salford Arts Theatre on September 23-27, 80 years later since it was written.
The play comes as Salford celebrates its 100 years since being crowned as a city in 1926, as well as the theatre welcoming its 50th anniversary.
Landscape With Chimneys was written in 1949 and it’s having its moment to shine with a long-awaited revival. The play itself reflects MacColl’s story of the working class in Salford and the communities which inspired him.
The play is most well-known for giving the world “Dirty Old Town”- a song written by MacColl. Despite the song’s success the play was never published and only toured small, mining towns in Wales- making it rarely shown since.
In 1931, Years before becoming a famous folk artist, he founded the Mancunian agitprop group, the Red Megaphones, making theatre about working-class struggles, including Lancashire mill strikes while the strikes themselves were taking place.
Yet the world MacColl depicts can feel strikingly contemporary. At its heart are ordinary people facing
poor housing, financial pressures and uncertainty about the future.
Remarkably, the phrase “cost of living” appears in this nearly 80-year-old play, giving it an unexpected resonance amid today’s housing and cost-of-living pressures.
Drawing on traditions of popular and variety entertainment, the production combines music, song, dance, comedy and double acts, making the revival both a rediscovery of an important piece of Salford’s cultural history and a good night out.
Roni Ellis, Artistic Director and Theatre Manager at Salford Arts Theatre, is excited to bring this special play back to the city.
“There’s something very special about bringing this play back to Salford, to the place and the people
that inspired it. MacColl was writing about ordinary working-class lives – the humour, hardship, pride
and resilience of a community – and nearly 80 years later so much of it still resonates”, she said.
“In our 50th year, and as Salford celebrates 100 years as a city, it feels like exactly the right moment to bring Landscape With Chimneys home. It’s an important piece of Salford’s story, but it’s also full of music, comedy and life. We want people to come and discover the play behind a song they
thought they already knew.”
Tickets are priced at £12 for a concession and £14 for a full ticket. You can book your tickets to see the show this month here.
