The summer of 1969 saw Tubby, an overweight insurance man, and Enid, a buttoned up secretary, back on the stage of the Free Trade Hall forty years after they first stood there as children, singing their hearts out with the Hallé orchestra. It’s the anniversary of the Manchester School Children’s Choir recording of Nymphs and Shepherds.
But Tubby and Enid don’t sing any more – they’re just doing a little interview for local television. And they’re not children with everything ahead of them, they’re two middle aged people who’ve let a lot of chances slip by.
Two stories unfold: the children of 1929 are eagerly gearing up for their big day and in 1969, Tubby and Enid, now fiftyish, are trying to reconnect with who they were then, and who they could be now.
The action switches between the Manchester of Tubby’s boyhood, and the Golden Eggs and Berni Inns of Manchester ‘69, as the memory of that day he sang propel Tubby to make one last stab at happiness.
Together with a leading cast, That Day We Sang featured a new Manchester Children’s Choir, formed especially by MIF Creative, for this major new production.
Cast
Lorraine Bruce
Jemma Drake
Vincent Franklin
Gerard Horan
Ian Marr
Jenna Russell
Martin Savage
Orchestra The Hallé Youth Orchestra with choirs especially formed for the the production from:
Bowker Vale Primary School
Crab Lane Primary School
Pike Fold Primary School
The Co-operative Academy of Manchester
Creative Team
Victoria Wood Writer and Director
Lez Brotherston Set and Costume Designer
Mark Henderson Lighting Designer
Melvyn Coote Sound Designer
Samantha Murray Assistant Director
Andy Pryor CDG Casting Director
Nigel Lilley Musical Director
Chris Walker Orchestrator
Anna Flannagan Choir Master
Credits
Commissioned by MIF Creative.
Produced by Manchester International Festival.
With support from the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.