{"id":290637,"date":"2025-07-25T13:02:15","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T13:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/290637\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T13:02:15","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T13:02:15","slug":"interview-a-manchester-anthem-qa-with-tom-claxton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/290637\/","title":{"rendered":"Interview: A Manchester Anthem: Q&A with Tom Claxton"},"content":{"rendered":"

Actor Tom Claxton is back out on the town!<\/strong><\/p>\n

After sell-out successes at the Edinburgh Fringe and the Vaults Festival a couple of years ago (and with a five star review<\/a> from Everything Theatre, no less!), A Manchester Anthem<\/strong> is back on stage. Tom Claxton<\/strong> returns in the role of Tommy, and we caught up with him during rehearsals to ask about this exciting revival, coming firstly to the Hope Mill Theatre and then to Riverside Studios.<\/p>\n

Hiya Tom. Thanks so much for taking the time to tell us about this fabulous solo show. Firstly, can you give us a quick synopsis of the story?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Absolutely! A Manchester Anthem follows the story of Tommy, a working-class lad, who\u2019s currently attending private school on a scholarship, and has just been accepted into university \u2013 the University of Oxford. The play takes place over his last Saturday at home, as he prepares for his final big night out, but things don\u2019t go exactly to plan.<\/p>\n

After the play\u2019s huge successes, how did you feel when you were asked to revisit the role of Tommy this year? Shouldn\u2019t he have graduated by now?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Elated. And scared. Especially after the break. Tommy is one of my favourite characters I\u2019ve ever had the chance to play, and the story, and Nick Dawkins\u2019 script, is always an absolute treat to return to. It\u2019s such a fun, witty, clever and nuanced piece of writing, and it\u2019s a project very close to my own heart for a number of reasons. I\u2019m incredibly grateful to step back into the world, even if I\u2019m painfully aware that I\u2019m no longer a wide-eyed high school graduate.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Do any aspects of Tommy\u2019s journey resonate with your own experiences?<\/strong><\/p>\n

So many. From the practical aspects of him \u2013 a Mancunian lad, growing up in a lower-income household, who\u2019s the first in his family to go off to university \u2013 to the emotional ones. I feel like I see an awful lot of my younger self in him, from his sensitivity and belief in justice and fairness, to his stubbornness and the humungous chip on his shoulder that he carries around with him. And I think his struggle with identity, and moving away from home, and how he combats growing up and moving on is a struggle that resonates with a lot of people.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve got a whole range of other characters to get to grips with in the performance \u2013 how is that for you?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a complete workout of a show to perform, in the most brilliant way possible. I think there are 13 characters in total, and scenes where there are six people in a room all talking to one another, so it takes a lot out of you \u2013 I\u2019m normally sweating by the end! But it\u2019s so satisfying when it clicks. We\u2019ve done a lot of character work in the rehearsal rooms to make each character specific, in physicality, speech, rhythm, and musicality. And because we see the world through Tommy\u2019s eyes, a lot of the characters are slightly heightened and sometimes mocked, so there\u2019s a lot of fun to be had.<\/p>\n

This time round the director is Izzy Edwards who has an amazing resum\u00e9, having tackled everything from <\/strong>La Boh\u00e8me<\/strong> to Punchdrunk productions. What\u2019s it been like working with her<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

It\u2019s been such a treat working with Izzy (pictured with Tom during rehearsal below) and getting a fresh pair of eyes on the story. We\u2019ve worked together once before, but only briefly, so it\u2019s a real joy getting tucked into a larger project. She\u2019s been so collaborative in the rehearsal room, which is always how I love to work, and it feels very much like a team effort, working together to make the piece the best that it can be, which I think gets the best work and offers out of everybody.<\/p>\n

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Can you talk a bit about the staging of the show generally, and how it evokes a big night out in Manchester?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Anna Niamh Gorman has done such a brilliant job of the design and creates a world that initially resembles Tommy\u2019s packed-up life, and then utterly transforms into a backdrop of Manchester. There are a few nods to iconic Manchester landmarks throughout the design, and Caelan Oram\u2019s lighting, alongside Sam Baxter\u2019s (pictured above) sound design, creates such a compelling world that\u2019s a delight to live in. There\u2019s also a good dollop of Manchester bangers in the mix. I don\u2019t want to give too much away, but there are some incredibly satisfying staging moments that really evoke that big night out.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve conquered Edinburgh, and you\u2019re now going to the Hope Mill in Manchester and Riverside Studios in London \u2013 do you find audience responses to the show are different in the North and South of the country?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to say, having done mostly Fringe runs so far, which tend to attract the same sort of audience responses. I\u2019m so, so excited to perform the show in Manchester and see how it\u2019s reacted to. Since the play\u2019s conception, we\u2019ve talked about performing it in the North, and getting to put it on not only in my home city, but also in Hope Mill, which is a wicked venue, is going to feel really special, and very much like a homecoming. I\u2019ve got high hopes for the Manc crowds!<\/p>\n

Thanks very much to Tom for talking with us about what promises to be a cracking show.<\/p>\n

Manchester Anthem runs at the Hope Mill Theatre from 29 July to 2 August\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

It then moves to Riverside Studios from 19 August to 13 September.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Actor Tom Claxton is back out on the town! After sell-out successes at the Edinburgh Fringe and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[108185,748,108186,393,4884,26576,108187,2465,108188,108189,108190,108191,108192,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-290637","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-anna-niamh-gorman","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-caelan-oram","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-hope-mill-theatre","14":"tag-izzy-edwards","15":"tag-manchester","16":"tag-manchester-anthem","17":"tag-nick-dawkins","18":"tag-riverside-studios","19":"tag-sam-baxter","20":"tag-tom-claxton","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114914010660899966","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}