A Manchester Anthem
- Robert Beale
- Aug 1
- 2 min read
Nick Dawkins
Cloudburst Productions
Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester
July 31-Aug 2, 2025: 1 hr 10 mins
It’s an indicator of the cachet that still attaches to the University of Oxford that the mere mention of “getting in” there could be the key to a one-man show that’s really about being a school-leaver in Manchester.
Not just any school, though. In the apparently real-life-based story that makes up A Manchester Anthem, Tommy is a scholarship student at a private school in the city, and quite a lot of his mates are also heading for Oxford. I can think of only one place that really fits that, though Tom Claxton is from Stockport, so there might be another.
In Nick Dawkins’ 70-minute play, written for Tom Claxton (who in fact he met at the University of Leeds), the last night out before heading for the dreaming spires features a gallery of his school friends, among whom he’s the classic misfit. He is from a lower-income household, living with his mum (though he knows where to find his dad’s place); the others are what he calls “upper class” and “rich kids”.
He gets invited to party with posh Angus and Sharon, and Markie and his mate, along with rugby player and contemporary dancer Liam, serial protestor Heather, drama club member Freya, and many more, as they spend their night drinking, snorting and dancing to N-Joi’s Anthem.
So Tom Claxton has the chance to be around a dozen different people in one night, and it’s a powerful showcase for his prodigious acting skills. He did the show at the Edinburgh Fringe and VAULT Festival in 2023 (original direction by Charlie Norburn), and now it’s directed by Izzy Edwards, with design by Anna Niamh.
For those who relate to the house music and club scene it evokes, there’ll be plenty of warming recognition: for the rest of us the tale is about roots, life-changing moments, the exclusion of being less than loaded, and being young, male and northern (“Oxford isn’t an interstellar journey away – it’s just south”).
Nick Dawkins’ writing has some nice lines in it – Tommy tries not to “ricochet around like a renegade pinball”, and finds his rich mates live in “judgmental houses” – and this was created as a birthday present for Tom Claxton almost seven years ago. Many happy returns.
More info and tickets here
