We sat down with Mick Martin ahead of his new show Keep On Keepin’ On touring around three non-theatre spaces in Northern Soul strongholds, using the themes of the play to connect independent retailers with local authorities and Business Improvement District (BIDs) as a way of starting conversations to generate real change.
Can you tell us a bit about Keep On Keepin’ On and what inspired it?
I love the music and always have, but it was whilst at a Skegness weekender just on the eve of lockdown, 8000 diehard soulies having a brilliant time, that made me want to write about it again. That said, two things stood out so clearly that they couldn’t be ignored, first that it was a very working class crowd, and second it was almost exclusively white. Bearing in mind Northern Soul is about an abiding passion for mostly if not exclusively black music, this struck me as worthy of deeper consideration. This was in a moment when the term ‘left behind’ towns was the term du jour and the whole Leave or Remain row was still everywhere. I began to see that the scene speaks of this country now in some really fascinating ways, of class and culture and identity. So it’s about the modern day scene and the changes that 40 odd years of neo liberalism have wrought on the places where it flourished and is still so deeply embedded, and most of all on the people who live there.
Northern Soul features heavily, do you need to be a Northern Soul fan to enjoy the show?
Not at all, but if you aren’t at the start you will be at the end don’t worry, the songs we’re using are all crackers trust me. At it’s heart it’s a story about a dysfunctional modern family, about Eugene and Maxine, their gay son Liam and mixed race daughter Siobhan (long story). It charts his efforts to keep his Northern Soul home improvement discount centre (second hand shop ) open on a very struggling high street and the measure he goes to in order to achieve it. It’s a very funny play, full of heart and most of all soul. Northern Soul is all about rhythm, driving beats, searing vocals, it’s so infectious that whether you like drum ’n’ bass or Taylor Swift, you’ll love it.
For audiences that aren’t familiar with it, how would you describe it and why did you want to make a show around it?
Northern soul is this amazing subculture, the forerunner to 90’s rave, that grew up in the north and midlands of the UK, devoted entirely to very rare soul music from the USA that was mostly rejected over there and so acquired this almost sacred quality among the faithful. It’s a dance culture first and foremost, it offered an escape that meant young people in towns like Wigan, Blackpool, Bradford or Crewe felt it in a way that transcended every other aspect of workaday life. That’s the reason it has survived so long because it is so true to itself. It’s a rejection of mainstream homogenized culture in favour of something deeper, truer. It grew from a time when black music barely got played on the radio, people had to travel the length of the country to hear their favourite record because that DJ had the only copy of it in the country! That’s devotion for you, and that’s why it remains so strong to this day.
The play blends comedy with some pretty tough themes—family struggles, economic hardship, and social change. How do you strike that balance between laughter and real-life challenges?
I think through being honest about the themes and issues that Eugene, Maxine and the rest of the character’s face, but not brow beating the audience with them. It’s important for me that I approach each character in the play with sympathy and love, and see the world through their eyes. But people have always coped with everything life throws at them through a capacity to see the funny side, it’s a crucial survival technique, so the humour actually helps with opening up the space for honest discussion of more complex themes. Liam, Eugene and Maxine’s son, knew he was gay at a young age, his life has gone seriously off the tracks at times, but he’s got a streak of humour as well as fearlessness that have seen him through no matter what. I think that’s something working class audience can all relate to, that laughter can grease the sharpest cogs of life and is essential.
The show’s being staged in everyday spaces— a shop, a working men’s club, a library. What’s exciting about taking theatre out of theatres?
The play is mostly set in Eugene’s Northern Soul themed Home Improvement Discount Centre – a second hand shop. He concocts an elaborate scheme to beat his enemies (ie creditors!) so actually producing it in just such a shop itself seemed obvious. It’s not just more authentic but also an exciting challenge to recreate the shop in a town centre site. It also puts the audience in touching distance of the action, in the thick of it almost, and makes for a much more engaging experience for them as opposed to a traditional theatre with people sitting in rows and rows of seats. Add to that many of the audiences we want to connect with might not normally set foot in a traditional theatre so we wanted to put it directly on the high street, a space that they are familiar with but perhaps have stopped visiting in the evenings because our high streets are not what they once were. Older soulies will recognise every detail and see themselves in Eugene and Maxine, but younger audiences will also relate to their children Liam and Siobhan. It’s about drawing people back into town centres of an evening and activating it with places and events people want to go to, are willing to come back into town for. I should add that the Blackpool show is not actually in a library but a large events space connected to one, so nobody will tell us to sssshhh!
The high street is a big theme in the play. What do you think theatre can do to help local communities reconnect with these struggling spaces?
This is linked directly to the question above and partly why we wanted to play non-standard high street spaces where possible. Town centres up and down the country are struggling so we’re working with organisations like the Vacant Shops Academy and also local authorities and BID teams to link the theme from the play surrounding Eugene’s efforts to keep his shop open, last man on the high street, to the realities faced by business owners now in a very real and positive way. So the outreach is all about engaging the local high street and business community and exploring creative methods and approaches to address this sense of struggle and decline. This part of the wider project is about how the arts play a role in getting people to come back into town centres that have become a bit moribund and revitalise them so I’m interested in how this aspect of the process plays out with local business people. But besides this we’ll be doing acting and writing workshops in Blackpool, who knows maybe some northern soul dance classes too.
You’ve worked with students at Crewe University to design the set. How did that come about, and what’s the experience been like for you both?
Arts provision in schools is so much reduced in recent times so we were really keen to open this process up to young people, involve them directly so they not just see and learn how it works but actually contribute, test their own skills and imaginations in a real and meaningful way. Crewe UTC responded immediately to this and the process of working with students and teachers there on the design and build has been extremely positive—students have shown real engagement, skill development, and pride in their contribution. Their work is actually part of a really exciting set design which I love, it has captured the visual language of Northern Soul while creating a powerful, transportive experience for audiences.
And finally, what do you hope young audiences walk away with after seeing Keep On Keepin’ On?
That they have been part of something only live theatre can give, a very heartfelt and uplifting shared experience, which they could entirely connect with on every level. I want them to have sung along with the tunes, have laughed like drains, but also engaged with a very real and true depiction of life in the UK today and the issues that we face in keeping our towns and communities alive. If you know nothing at all about Northern Soul you will have learned a lot by the end, and if it has been your life’s passion you will have seen something of yourself on the stage. It is a very entertaining play that talks about music subculture, Britain and our history, race and gender, and the sheer beauty of dancing your backside off like the world is about to end so I think people will really enjoy it.