Premiered on Sat 11 & Sun 12 July / Manchester Town Hall
(part of The Great Indoors).

Walk the Plank and Thingumajig Theatre’s madcap adventure The Difference Engine premiered at Manchester’s Town Hall as part of The Great Indoors and is set to return to Manchester in November for a series of school and public performances at the Museum of Science and Industry. Expect to travel from past to future, through a landscape of machines and ideas to help inventor and mathematician Charles Babbage find the clues to repair his Difference Engine and on the way, help Babbage to solve the spider’s riddles; persuade the counting madman to open the gates to the Hall of Shadows…and discover the secret workings of the steampunk arcade…

Alongside the show, the Centre for Urban Education led a programme of engagement with six local schools where young people and teachers were able to explore the scientific and industrial heritage of the characters and themes in the show. The results of this educational programme will be published this autumn in a new creative learning resource linked to the science, technology, engineering and maths curricula.

As part of this project MIF and partners created a set of playing cards inspired by The Difference Engine and a new teaching and learning resource aimed at creative and inventive thinking at Key Stages 2 and 3.  To request a copy of either of these resources please contact creativelearning@mif.co.uk

Created by Walk the Plank with Thingumajig Theatre.

Commissioned by Manchester International Festival, the Museum of Science and Industry and the Centre for Urban Education at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Produced by Manchester International Festival and Walk The Plank.

Photo: copyright Karen Wright