Box of Tricks to Present CHIP SHOP CHIPS

After the critical national success earlier this year with new plays Plastic Figurines by Ella Carmen Greenhill and Narvik by Lizzie Nunnery, Manchester theatre company Box of Tricks is delighted to announce that it will be starting off its 10th anniversary year in February with the premiere of Becky Prestwich's funny and nostalgic new tale of love over fish and chips and some Northern soul - Chip Shop Chips.

The new play will open at The Hub in Salford on the 17th February and then tour the North of England until the 23rd March.

It's the grand reopening of Booth's Fish & Chip Shop. Eric has returned home, over forty years after he left, and it's time for a fresh start. But old flame Christine has other ideas. Transported back to a time of chippy teas and Northern Soul, there's unfinished business for these old lovers. Watching teenage love stumble as hapless Lee make a pass at the beautiful Jasmine, is it all just history repeating?

Focusing on love at different ages and celebrating the nation's favourite food, Chip Shop Chips is an immersive love story set in a chippy performing in unusual spaces across the North of England.

The production is directed by Box of Tricks' Joint Artistic Director and co-founder Adam Quayle (Plastic Figurines, Box of Tricks) and is designed by award-winning designer Katie Scott (Plastic Figurines, Box of Tricks and Liverpool Everyman & Playhouse Studio Design Prize). The cast will feature Ben-Ryan Davies (Wonderland, Hampstead Theatre and Waterloo Road, BBC), Russell Richardson (A Winter's Tale, Northern Broadsides), Julie Edwards (Brief Encounters at Bradford Interchange, Freedom Studios), and in her stage debut Jessica Forrest (Hollyoaks and Coronation Street).

Becky Prestwich's first full length play, Streetlights and Shadows was produced by Box of Tricks at the White Bear Theatre and her second, Letting in Air at the Old Red Lion. Becky has had short plays performed at Theatre 503, the Union Theatre, Live Theatre and the Arcola. She is currently on attachment to the BBC through their Writersroom 10 scheme. The scheme includes a seed commission to develop her play, How the Cabinet-Maker Crossed the Road. Through the scheme, Becky is also working with CBBC development producer, Simon Nelson, on an idea for children's television. Her play Chopping Onions, starring Maureen Lipman, was recently heard on BBC Radio 4.

Director Adam Quayle said about the new play:

"Becky (Prestwich) and I have a long-standing creative relationship dating back to 2007, when we staged her first play Streetlights and Shadows in London. Becky is a wonderful playwright: her plays are beautifully crafted, warm and big-hearted. She delves into what it is to be human with an everyday poeticism that chimes with both heart and mind. I can't wait to take her latest play, Chip Shop Chips, out on the road to unusual venues across the North - chip shops, village halls, community centres, libraries - engaging new audiences with a chippy tea and a great night out right there on their doorstep."

The production is the third national touring production for Manchester-based Box of Tricks, a theatre company that champions the next generation of playwrights.

So put on your dancing shoes, tuck into a fish supper and brace yourself for a unique theatrical experience.

For further information on Box of Tricks and the production, visit www.boxoftrickstheatre.co.uk.

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