We Should Definitely Have More Dancing at Oldham Coliseum

We Should Definitely Have More Dancing at Oldham Coliseum, Manchester, 17 June–2 July 2022, from £7.00 - Book now

Written by Ian Kershaw and Clara Darcy, don’t miss the world premiere performance of We Should Definitely Have More Dancing at Oldham Coliseum this summer.

Actress Clara Darcy is healthy, happily, single and care-free – joyously dancing through life. However, everything is about to change…with the arrival of a fist-sized tumour – a sucker punch – right in the middle of her head.

We Should Definitely Have More Dancing takes a dark and difficult subject matter and uses it to celebrate life.

Based on an astonishing real-life story and performed by the actress herself (with friends), this brand-new performance explores the things that define our identity and make us who we are. Packed with heart, love and dancing, the play will receive its first-ever performance at Oldham Coliseum before it heads out on a national tour, which is set to include the Coliseum’s Edinburgh Fringe debut.

To tell this remarkable and authentic story, Clara Darcy has teamed up with celebrated director Tatty Hennessy, and the team behind the multi-award winning sell-out show The Greatest Play in the History of the World, Ian Kershaw and Raz Shaw.

Taking a serious real-life experience, like a cancer diagnosis and translating it onto the stage, isn’t without its challenges. We Should Definitely Have More Dancing takes a dark and difficult subject matter and uses it to celebrate life – with all its complexities and absurdities. It’s a feeling that both Darcy and the show’s co-director Raz Shaw, who was given the all-clear following treatment for stage 4 cancer in 1996, have both experienced. Exploring the limitations and freedoms that the diagnosis of a life-threatening illness brings, We Should Definitely Have More Dancing echoes those feelings of unimaginable confusion and fear alongside those unexpected moments of joy.

Of the show, Darcy told us, “Although this is a show with a really serious subject matter that makes you confront quite dark, deep and difficult things about life and possibly even your own existence, more importantly, it is a celebration of the brilliant nuances of being alive and actually what a gift it is to have a dance with death that brings you to that realisation.”

We’ve got high hopes for this uplifting and bright show.

Writers Kershaw and Darcy are no strangers to Coliseum audiences: Kershaw penned the Coliseum’s hit productions of Star-Cross’d, The Mist In The Mirror and Bread & Roses, whilst Darcy performed in the theatre’s productions of Brassed Off and Chicago.

We’ve got high hopes for this uplifting and bright show – don’t leave it too late to get tickets.