A Manchester Anthem – Riverside Studios, London

Writer: Nick Dawkins

Original Director: Charlie Norburn

Production Director: Izzy Edwards

Tommy is leaving home soon, the first to go to university from his family, and following one last shift at work, he’s diving headfirst into a taste of this new life by heading out to a Manchester nightclub with the others from his school who’ll be at Oxford next year. The house music is soulful and filled with the promise of a new future. But he’s scared of losing all the people he’ll leave behind. Losing home. Losing Manchester. A Manchester Anthem is a love letter to that place.

Nick Dawkins’s script is refined and full to the brim with heart and wit, while leaving just the right amount of room for contributions from the actor and directors, which lift the piece to another level. These would not be possible if we were not in the hands of a performer in Tom Claxton who effortlessly embodies every character with variety and clarity throughout. These interruptions are peppered throughout Tommy’s monologue and have been honed by expert direction by Charlie Norburn and Izzy Edwards.

A play about a city like Manchester must have a defined sense of grounding in its location, and Anna Niamh Gorman’s design achieves this with remarkably little. By nodding to the floor of the Hacienda club through a delicate touch on one cardboard pillar, Gorman’s set manages to deliver a confident feel without overcomplicating matters.

There is, at the start, a feeling that A Manchester Anthem could capture something different: a club-themed play that both delivers on its inspiration in an embodied way while constructing an emotionally resonant narrative. Unfortunately, it leans heavily into the latter and loses the heady feeling of the club in doing so. It opens with a fizziness of excitement that flits around the room, but this soon dissipates into traditional storytelling. Nevertheless, fans of theatre will leave feeling utterly fulfilled, even if club goers may sense some disappointment in what was sacrificed along the way to achieve an emotionally powerful narrative.

Claxton is the overriding reason to see A Manchester Anthem. His performance is outstanding and achieves that rare connection with an audience when a performance is crafted to such excellence that it feels utterly effortless. Even if audience members feel a dip in energy as the narrative solidifies, none can leave the show without feeling energised by Claxton’s performance.

Runs until 13 September 2025