North East Connected

Award-winning comedian heading to Durham

Comedian and activist Mark Thomas is coming to Durham’s Gala Theatre to perform his award-winning show, The Red Shed.

The show centres on Mark’s political awakening in 1980s Wakefield, where he performed his first gigs in a 47-foot-long wooden hut that doubled up as a Labour Club.

Amidst the backdrop of Margaret Thatcher’s prime ministership, Wakefield’s traditional Labour community awoke a new determination in Mark and changed his life forever.

Three decades later he returned to The Red Shed to celebrate its 50th birthday, and in doing so entwined the story of his political coming of age with the tale of the people who inspired him.

The Red Shed is the story of strikes, fights, dinner ladies, burgers and burger slingers.

Pickets, placards, friendship, love, history, dreams, and above all: remembering.

The show will involve the audience to recreate the shed and its inhabitants: part theatre, stand up, journalism and activism; it’s the story of the battle for hope and the survival of a community in a small wooden shed.

The Red Shed follows on from Mark’s multi award-winning shows Bravo Figaro! and Cuckooed, and last year won him his third Scotsman Fringe First, alongside The Stage Special Award, when it was performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

Mark Thomas has also won a Herald Angel award and the Amnesty International Freedom of Expression award, alongside filming his own Channel 4 series and continuing his work as an author.

Mark’s political work has seen him give evidence to Parliamentary Select Committees, investigate inheritance tax avoidance, and walk the entire length of the Israeli wall in the West Bank.

The Red Shed will be performed at The Gala Theatre on Wednesday 1 March at 8.00pm.

Tickets cost £16 (£12 concessions), and can be booked online at www.galadurham.co.uk, by calling the box office on 03000 266 600, or by visiting the venue in person.

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