Rockets and Blue Lights with BBC Lockdown Theatre Festival

Kristy Stott, Theatre Editor
Rockets and Blue Lights with BBC Lockdown Theatre Festival
Image courtesy of the Royal Exchange.

13 June — 12 July 2020 Entrance is free — Visit now

We were thrilled to find out that the Royal Exchange‘s Rockets and Blue Lights will be performed as part of the BBC’s Lockdown Theatre Festival, a special radio festival dedicated to those plays that had their runs cut short by the pandemic.

Winner of the 2018 Alfred Fagon Award, Rockets and Blue Lights is an extraordinary new play from one of the UK’s most trailblazing playwrights, Winsome Pinnock. The play launched the Spring/ Summer Season at the Royal Exchange, shortly before having its run cancelled due to Covid-19. This award-winning work retells British history through the prism of the slave trade. Seamlessly shifting through time, Rockets and Blue Lights explores Great Britain’s role in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade from three different perspectives.

Juxtaposing fact with fiction, the personal with the political, and the past with the present, Pinnocks’ play invites us to question how the past is presented and who has the right to tell its stories.

The BBC’s Lockdown Theatre Festival was created by actor Bertie Carvel as a response to the immediate closure of theatres due to coronavirus.

The ‘scratch festival’ will bring four stage plays to BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4. The actors will link up via the internet to record directly from isolation, reimagining their performances for the radio.

The four productions will be broadcast across the Festival’s launch weekend on 13 & 14 June as part of BBC Arts’ Culture in Quarantine initiative, and will be available for 28 days online.  Alongside Rockets and Blue Lights, featured plays are The Mikvah Project by Josh Azouz, Love Love Love by Mike Bartlett and Shoe Lady by E V Crowe.

13 June — 12 July 2020 Entrance is free Visit now

Where to go near Rockets and Blue Lights with BBC Lockdown Theatre Festival

Kōdo Entrance
City Centre
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Kōdo

Kōdo, a secret bar like no other. It is all about discovery. The only way to enter is with a special code, which changes weekly.

MediaCityUK
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Blanconero

High-level Italian food in Salford Quays, with no less than seven different lasagnas to choose from.

Yoga classes for all levels and aims.
Leeds
Yoga Hero

Yoga Hero offers various classes, including within their studio and online for all levels and all aims.

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Blackpool
Tourist Attraction
Nickelodeon Land

Combine the thrill of an amusement park with the colourful world of Nickelodeon at the UK’s only Nickelodeon Land, located within Blackpool Pleasure Beach Resort.

Leeds
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Archive

Archive serving up speciality coffee and bespoke events to the people of Kirkstall, including craft fairs, vintage pop ups and exhibitions.

Ego Death
Manchester
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Ego Death

Ego Death is a speakeasy-style secret bar in the Northern Quarter with a cocktail menu as good as its atmosphere.

Flat Iron Leeds
Manchester
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Flat Iron Manchester

Relaxed restaurant in the centre of Manchester, serving impressively high-quality steaks at an affordable price point.

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