Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces - the performance
The sun was shining yesterday as we descended on Manchester Central Library for our
long awaited Heritage Lottery Funded performance of Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces. A part of the
fabulous Manchester Histories Festival, it was a privilege to be part of such
an important series of events in Manchester’s calendar.
The event began with a handing session with our young people. Dressed in periodic nineteenth century costumes, each had chosen an item from Salford Museum and Art Gallery’s Victorian loan boxes, which had been very kindly lent for the day. As well as introducing the audience to our individual orphans, we also explained some of these unusual items and in some cases demonstrated how they worked (although fortunately not the chamber pot!).
Following here the audience met our Victorian mistress for the day, Miss Smethurst. She ensured we were all on our best behaviour, quoting lines, sitting up straight and ensuring we had clean hands. Following this our music teacher took over and taught our audience some lines from our ABC song. We were delighted to welcome a primary school group into our audience who excellently sang out loud and helped us compose further lines for the song. Adults also got involved however, which made for a thoroughly enjoyable sing-a-long!
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Our orphans on display
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The event began with a handing session with our young people. Dressed in periodic nineteenth century costumes, each had chosen an item from Salford Museum and Art Gallery’s Victorian loan boxes, which had been very kindly lent for the day. As well as introducing the audience to our individual orphans, we also explained some of these unusual items and in some cases demonstrated how they worked (although fortunately not the chamber pot!).
Following here the audience met our Victorian mistress for the day, Miss Smethurst. She ensured we were all on our best behaviour, quoting lines, sitting up straight and ensuring we had clean hands. Following this our music teacher took over and taught our audience some lines from our ABC song. We were delighted to welcome a primary school group into our audience who excellently sang out loud and helped us compose further lines for the song. Adults also got involved however, which made for a thoroughly enjoyable sing-a-long!
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| Audience Participation |
After
this it was time for the main event. The lights were turned down, blinds
removed the Manchester sun and we all settled down to watch our last three
months of work on the big screen in one of Manchester Central Library’s beautiful
performance spaces. The piece, which is set to wonderful images from the
Together Trust archive, tells the story of Susannah, an orphan from one of our
Manchester Homes who emigrated across to Canada. For many in the audience the
piece introduced them to this hidden part of Manchester’s history for the first
time, in what we hope was a thought provoking and creative way.
We'll be putting the full piece on our website soon but as a taster you can see a small part of our audio/visual piece above. The young people involved have produced some stunning work and engaged in yesterday’s performance in a fully professional way. We are incredibly proud of them!
There are still many more fascinating events to be seen as part of Manchester Histories Festival. Check out their calendar to see more.
Deep Pockets and Dirty Faces
There are still many more fascinating events to be seen as part of Manchester Histories Festival. Check out their calendar to see more.
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