Red Ladder Theatre Company

Written by ex-Chumbawamba guitarist and writer Boff Whalley, and directed by Red Ladder’s Artistic Director Rod Dixon, We’re Not Going Back is a musical commissioned by the North East, Yorkshire and Humberside regions of Unite the Union, and is performed by Victoria Brazier, Claire Marie Seddon and Stacey Sampson.

We’re Not Going Back is about the 1984/85 miners’ strike. More or less. But in this hard-hitting musical comedy there are no miners. Instead, we follow the fortunes of three sisters – Olive, Mary and Isabel – hit hard by the Government’s war against the miners and determined to set up a branch of Women Against Pit Closures.

It's February 1984, and as the rumour mill stirs with developments of impending pit closures, the coal miners’ unions are drawn into a battle of attrition against an unbending government. Forced into poverty, miners and their families become part of a strike that will resonate through the coming decades.

But for many people, the war fought between politicians, police and pickets took a back seat to the fight to hold together families, friendships and community – fought on the battleground of living room and soup kitchen, meeting hall and social club. It was a battle fought with laughter and songs, with knees-ups, punch-ups and p**s-ups.

With music, comedy and grit, the three sisters embrace the values of the ’84 strike and underline the empowerment; determination and vulnerability those communities were faced with in this war.