A story set to an outstanding brass band score
King Cotton
A Co-Commission from The Lowry and Liverpool Culture Company
Wed 12 - Sat 22 Sept 2007 The Lowry - Previews 12 & 13 Sept 2007
The Lowry - World Première & Press Night Fri 14 Sept
Tue 25 - Sat 29 Sept 2007 Liverpool Empire - Press night Tues 25 Sept
This September The Lowry stages the world première of King Cotton, a co-commission with The Liverpool Culture Company, which will also open at The Liverpool Empire later that month. It is a story adapted from an original idea by bandsman, Ian Brownbill, who encouraged Liverpool’s award-winning playwright, Jimmy McGovern, to write the script.
Ian Brownbill is a fourth generation bandsman who, at the age of 15, joined the CWS Manchester Band while at the same time playing Principal Trumpet with The Liverpool Mozart Orchestra. In May 1993, Ian was appointed flugel horn soloist with Black Dyke Mills Band enjoying a number of successes including the memorable ‘grand slam' as European, British Open and National Champions in 1995. In the same year Ian was voted Black Dyke ‘Bandsman of the Year' and he has since spent many years working as a specialist brass teacher.
King Cotton is set to an exceptional score of brass band music and traditional American spirituals - performed live by the phenomenal 21-piece Ashton-under-Lyne Brass Band.
Website users can log onto www.kingcotton.co.uk to watch interviews with the creative team, including Jimmy McGovern who explains how Ian got him involved in the project, “There was a man called Ian Brownbill who said to me, ‘Have I got a story for you’, upon which I promptly died and thought ‘Oh my God, if I had a pound for the number of times I’ve heard that’. But the story was that of the Lancashire cotton famine which stunned Jimmy and he became immersed in telling the tale himself, “as a writer I retain the right to tell a story because it’s a great story and this was undeniably a very good story.”
With its heart in the truths linking the Lancashire cotton famine with the American Civil War, King Cotton is the epic story of Tom, an impoverished mill-worker from the North West of England and Sokoto, a black slave from an American cotton plantation. Both are searching for their own freedom, but neither imagines that this will involve a journey across the Atlantic bringing them together with devastating consequences.
This inspirational tale is directed by Jude Kelly, former Artistic Director of West Yorkshire Playhouse, currently Artistic Director of London’s South Bank and one of the most dynamic and innovative theatre and opera directors of recent times.
King Cotton is produced by The Lowry and co-commissioned by The Lowry and the Liverpool Culture Company. King Cotton is supported by The National Lottery through Arts Council England.
Posted on Tuesday, 31 July 2007 under Press Theatre Press