Actors wanted to stage a mass ‘riot’ in Leeds

It is not a question you normally get asked but then Slung Low aren’t your typical theatre group.

The company is on the lookout for a cast of more than 100 for an action-packed short film called ‘The Good Book’.

James Phillips’ dystopian script is set in the near future in Holbeck when the country has been divided by political extremism and is bubbling on the edge of civil war.

The film, which will be shot this month and next, will be released later in the year. One of its set pieces is a riot.

Rehearsals have been taking place at Slung Low’s headquarters, The Holbeck which is still a working men’s club that dates back to the 1870s.

Slung Low’s artistic director Alan Lane said: “All weekend we have been rehearsing how to construct a riot with a bunch of volunteers, which has been a lot of fun. They were setting off smoke grenades and marine flares. Some of them played soldiers with police riot shields.

“If you came to the club and were expecting four blokes to be drinking mild, well upstairs there were 50 people all throwing rubber bricks at each other.”

The action is going to be filmed over the weekends of January 25 and 26 and February 1 and 2.

It will be the first production of Leeds People’s Theatre, who have teamed up with filmmaker Brett Chapman.

And the team behind it still want more cast members. You don’t need to have previous acting experience but you have to be 18 or over.

Mr Lane added: “If people want to be in that film then they just need to drop an email to [email protected]. There is still time for them to sign up, and they can come down and be in the riot.”

The theatre group is well known for its epic productions, and it has plenty of form for doing the spectacular with a big cast.

In 2015 it staged Camelot: The Shining City with an army of 137 performers from the Sheffield People’s Theatre.

The show, a contemporary reworking of the King Arthur myths, was staged at Sheffield Theatres but it wasn’t long before they moved outside.

Mr Lane said: “At the end of the first act, the fire alarm went off and the audience was rushed outside. The rest of the play was performed outside. It was all part of the action, we set the fire alarm off on purpose and did it every night for three weeks.

“Within the action, the theatre was ‘set on fire’ and the audience left not quite knowing whether it was real or not.”

In the meantime a whole new set had been build outside replete with a large cast of nearly 150. They had soldiers patrolling the streets with guns and Land Rovers.

Slung Low was set up in 2000 by a bunch of university graduates in Sheffield. They moved the company to Leeds around six years later.

The company has helped pioneer concepts like ‘pay as you feel’ in theatre and has striven to remove obstacles for both the audience and artists - making theatre accessible for all. It moved to The Holbeck after getting feedback at Holbeck Gala that the audience wanted entertainment on its own doorstep. After the move it saw an “explosion” in audience levels and event participation. Slung Low, also runs a Cultural Community College where people can do courses in all sorts of things like fire eating and blacksmithing on a “pay what you decide basis”.

FACT FILE:

Slung Low was formed in 2000 in Sheffield.

After a short spell in Bradford, the theatre company moved to Leeds around 14 years ago and later found its home at The Holbeck.

Slung Low is a theatre company which specialises in epic productions in non-theatre spaces, often with large community performance companies.

Its South Leeds venue has a number of a roles. The Holbeck’s traditional one is as a working men’s club. But it is also an events space where Slung Low invite other companies to present work that otherwise might not get to be seen in Leeds. It also a place for artists to rehearse. Another element is as a venue for weddings, birthday parties. It’s also the base for Cultural Community College courses.

Slung Low’s artistic director Alan Lane said: “One of the things is that we are many things to many people. We are an award-winning theatre company which you read about in The Guardian. But to most people now we’re just the people who run the local pub and put on stuff that they like to watch.”

Slung Low is supported by the Arts Council England and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. Previous notable productions include ‘Flood’, a year-long epic for Hull UK City of Culture, and ‘The White Whale’. For current shows see: www.slunglow.org. The pictures used in this article were taken by Simon Keith Allen, Susana Sanroman, James Phillips and Mark Douet.