Strangeways riot recreated on Oxford Road

Head to Contact on Oxford Road tomorrow (Thursday 1 April) if you want to see a recreation of a legendary event in Manchester's recent history. Paul Taylor, one of the leaders of the Strangeways protest, will appear on the roof of Contact theatre at 1pm to promote a play about the riot which started 20 years ago on 1 April 1990.

“Strangeways was a massive piece of social history that is still of great relevance today. It’s strange how our younger generations know very little of the uprising.”

Taylor will be on the roof of Contact with a banner reading ‘Media Contact Now’, a recreation of the banner the prisoners used to get to speak to the press and then outline their demands. These included longer visiting periods, longer exercise time and an end to 23-hour lock up.

The play, Crying in the Chapel: Strangeways – An Inside Account, gives an uncompromising insight into the riot based on the accounts and records of the prisoners themselves. It shows a penal system stretched to its limits, and highlights the conditions and treatment of the prisoners before, during and after the riots.

Co-writer and producer Nick Clarke says, “Strangeways was a massive piece of social history that is still of great relevance today. It’s strange how our younger generations know very little of the uprising. Hopefully this event will help remind people of an important moment in our penal history.”

Contact and Fink On Theatre’s Crying in the Chapel will be performed at Contact from 26 April to 8 May. £10/£6 concessions, 0161 274 0600. www.contact-theatre.org