Kate Kelly

This performance is a script in hand rehearsed staging.

October 1936. In London’s East End, survival is a daily struggle against relentless poverty and hardship. But when the British Union of Fascists bring hatred, division and fear to the streets, life becomes even more cruel.

As Sir Oswald Mosley plans his march through the East End on Sunday 4 October 1936, the stakes rise for Irish  docker’s wife and community firebrand Kate Kelly. Her three-month-old granddaughter is struggling to breathe as her health deteriorates, while the local Blackshirts are drawing in Kate’s youngest son, who is becoming dangerously fascinated by their cause.

Pulled in every direction, Kate faces an impossible choice. Should she follow advice and stay indoors when Mosley marches, or stand shoulder to shoulder with the dockers, her family friends, neighbours and  husband, in defence of their community?

With poverty tightening around her and fascism closing in Kate feels like she is living in a pressure cooker, she must decide whether she will be crushed by the moment—or rise and fight back