About Us

"...an astonishing Northern powerhouse of political theatre..." (Manchester Theatre Awards)

Take Back Theatre Collective was set up by actor Julie Hesmondhalgh, writer Becx Harrison and visual artist Grant Archer in October 2015, as an artistic response to the politics of austerity. The original intention was to commission urgent short pieces of theatre, performed script-in-hand, in response to social and political events.

In the past two years we have been privileged to bring together a community of artists from Greater Manchester and beyond, united by a passion to make our voices heard and be a part of the change.   

We now have two main strands to our work:

• Rapid response script in hand events that explore a specific issue pertinent at the time.
• Immersive and installation based work that explores social and political issues in more depth.

In all we do, we seek to make bold, exciting, innovative work on specific social and political issues that raises wider awareness, moves the conversation forward, inspires people into action and is ultimately full of hope.

In March 2017, Take Back were honoured to be awarded with a Manchester Theatre Awards Stagedoor Foundation Award For Excellence. We were overwhelmed to be described by the judges as:

“Bravely and unashamedly a political theatre company but not one bogged down in old-fashioned agit-prop. Their events are about people getting together and responding to different social and political events by having an immediate and urgent conversation inspired by art and artists. They are exciting, inclusive, fierce and hopeful, with deep roots in an artistic community in Greater Manchester and beyond that loves, cares and gives so willingly of its time, talent, dedication and passion.”