Steel on UK tour

Suraj Shah and Jordan Tweddle as Kamran and James in Steel. Pic: Chris Payne

First seen at Keswick's Theatre By the Lake last year, Steel, by local playwright Lee Mattinson, is embarking on a UK tour.

Steel is set in the west West Cumbrian coastal town of Workington, once rich with coal seams and ore, carnivals and community, where James and Kamran have been mates for over a decade. They are fed up feeling different, and at 17 they want the world to be theirs. But Workington feels like a ghost town, unemployment is double the national average and "lasses drink Bacardi by the pint and boys don’t cry".

The play was inspired by Mattinson's experiences of growing up gay and creative in Workington, with a dad who was an ex-steel worker. He said: “The story was inspired by my desire to offer a character some agency in a world where he has very little. Coming out as gay in a small town in the 90s was tough and I wanted to explore that narrative against the intersectionality of race and class in a place recently named the whitest in the UK.

"It was a very odd experience watching the play in my home town, and I’m really excited to see this weird and wonderful corner of West Cumbria on a national stage.”

Liz Stevenson, artistic director and Joint CEO of Theatre by the Lake, added: “Steel represents our vision oftheatre that is locally inspired and created, and national in relevance.

"Lee is sharing an untold story of a lesser-known part of Cumbria. People know the Lake District has produced writers like Wordsworth, but this Cumbrian story and place are worlds apart from the tourist hotspots, so it's exciting to be sharing a story from the West Coast nationally.”

Steel is on tour from May 1- June 14 across Lancashire, Yorkshire, Wales and in London.

More info here