Keep On Keepin’ On is a big-hearted comedy set to tour three non-theatre spaces in Northern Soul strongholds: a shop in Crewe, a working men’s club in Blackburn, and a library in Blackpool. Written by Mick Martin as a sequel to his 2003 play Once Upon a Time in Wigan, the show focuses on a working-class Northern Soul family and aims to facilitate conversations between independent retailers and local Business Improvement Districts (BIDs).
Running from 13 – 31 May, Keep On Keepin’ On uses its themes to connect independent retailers with local authorities and BIDs, starting conversations to generate real change. The production foregrounds the challenges facing independent retailers through the story of a working-class family and the choice of site-specific locations. Theatre company Northern Soul Productions aims to combine a good evening’s entertainment with a route to reinvigorate the high street and nighttime economies.
Bradford-based writer Mick Martin has created this high-energy comedy as a sequel to his 2003 Once Upon a Time in Wigan, with his teenage dreamers now middle-aged and balancing co-parenting, a failing Northern Soul-themed discount shop, and a ‘what could possibly go wrong’ scheme. Keep On Keepin’ On is a soul-rich, cash-poor comedy with a classic Northern Soul soundtrack about a dysfunctional family just trying to keep it together on a run-down northern high street.
Working with local partners in each area, Northern Soul Productions will deliver a series of outreach and workshops to connect audiences with local BIDs. Using Eugene as a lens through which to look at the struggles of independent retailers, the theatre production will give retailers a new way to voice their needs to local authorities and explore solutions to reinvigorate local businesses and nighttime economies. The outcomes of these conversations will inform a business support programme to rejuvenate the high street.
Keep On Keepin’ On follows Eugene and Maxine; their teenage romance first ignited on the dance floor, but life has spun them in and out of each other’s arms ever since. Now, years later, Eugene is a weekend DJ and a full-time disaster, barely keeping his shop afloat. When Maxine reappears with one more plea for help – this time for their son, newly released from jail – their ‘what could possibly go wrong’ plan sets them spinning into chaos. Keep On Keepin’ On is a hilarious and heartfelt story of resilience, family, and the power of music to keep us moving, even when times get tough.
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Each site-specific location – a shop in Crewe, a working men’s club in Blackburn, and a library in Blackpool – will be set up as Eugene’s shop with the audience seated in and around the bric-a-brac, and a shop counter that doubles as a DJ booth after the show. The set has been designed in collaboration with students from Crewe University Technical College, and the locations have been chosen as areas that have poor nighttime economy and high vacancy rates.
Writer Mick Martin said, “Keep On Keepin’ On is about the modern-day Northern Soul scene and the changing faces of the towns that spawned it. It’s a play about now, family and love, about people struggling to keep it together in these dark and straitened times at the working-class coalface of dysfunctional northern Britain. That’s why we want to bring it to high street spaces rather than traditional theatre venues. We’re hoping that, in each town on our tour, the play helps to start conversations with their communities and brings new audiences to the theatre and the high street.”
Mick Martin has written for theatre, TV, and radio with commissions from BBC, ITV, Sky TV, Leeds Playhouse, Bolton Octagon, Hull Truck, and many more. He is also one half of Bent Architect, an award-winning Arts Council funded theatre company, for whom he wrote The Northern School, This Space Is Occupied, and Full English in 2021, which won the award for Best Stage Production from the Asian Media Awards.
Listings and ticket information can be found here.
