Manchester trade union pioneer Mary Quaile will be remembered in Dare to Be Free, a play set in the past and present.
It’s 1908 and waitresses in a Manchester cafe are fed up and ready to strike for proper pay and decent working conditions. It’s 2016 and workers in a Manchester “fast food experience” are fed up and ready to strike for proper pay and decent working conditions.
Linking the two eras is Mary Quaile, come to help out her modern-day sisters because the issues she fought on 100 years ago are back with vengeance…
The play has been commissioned by the Mary Quaile Club, a Manchester history society which organises events on working-class history.
The play has been written by Jane McNulty, whose previous work includes episodes for EastEnders, Doctors, Peak Practice and Heartbeat. Another of Jane’s plays, A Bed of Shards, will be staged at The Lowry July 1 and 2.
Mary Quaile will be played by Manchester Theatre Awards winner Catherine Kinsella (recently seen on television in The A Word), while the waitresses in 1908 and 2016 will be played by Rebecca Brown, Rachel Priest and Catarina Pinto Soromenho.
There will be four performances of Dare to Be Free on May 14 in the Inspire Centre, Stockport Road, Levenshulme, May 15 at 2PM in the Glossop Labour Club and June 4 at Three Minute Theatre, Afflecks Arcade, Manchester.