Ardent Theatre Presents STRIKE! at Southwark Playhouse Next Year

As a South African grapefruit rolls towards the shop till, it will start something that will take nearly three years to finish......

It's a hot, hot summer and Frankie Goes to Hollywood are riding high in the charts. At Dunnes Store, shop assistant Mary Manning refuses to ring up a grapefruit, sticking to her union instructions not to handle South African goods, in protest of the country's apartheid policies. Mary is immediately suspended and it's not long before she and eight other young women and one young man, all workers at Dunne's, are out on strike. It'll only last a few weeks......

Kate Saxon directs Tracy Ryan's extraordinary account of the Dunnes Stores Anti-Apartheid Strike which took place in Dublin from 1984 to 1987. This action would play a pivotal role in world history with Ireland becoming the first Western European state to ban South African imports and ultimately leading to the fall of the apartheid regime.

Full of passion and humour, Strike! is the true story of the hardships and personal sacrifices, the friendships and camaraderie these extraordinary young shop workers experienced as they stood up for what they believed in. As their understanding of the suffering under apartheid in South Africa and the politics within their own Government deepened, they began a journey that would change their lives, and Ireland, forever.

Tracy Ryan is an award-winning Irish director and writer. Her credits include Sisters the musical (The Mill Theatre); The First Irish Coffee (Laughter Lounge), Rogue (GSA Grad Show 2021); Sure Thing (The Corps Ensemble (Bohemian Theatre); Brothers of the Brush (Verdant Productions Irish tour); Iphigenia in Splott (Irish premiere (Smock Alley Theatre Trainspotting (Olympia Theatre), Legacy (Rich Mix), Disco Pigs and Sucking Dublin (Smock Alley Theatre - winner of the Best Ensemble, The Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards 2017); The Boys (Viking Theatre, Smock Alley and Irish tour).

Kate Saxon has directed over 35 theatre productions and her work now runs across the disciplines of theatre, television, video games (garnering several BAFTA wins), VR and film. Kate's theatre credits include working with John Fowles on the world premiere of The French Lieutenant's Woman at The Fulton Opera House, Pennsylvania, which later transferred to the UK for a number 1 tour; Tom Stoppard on The Real Thing for Leeds Playhouse and ETT; and with Iraqi-American playwright Heather Raffo, developing Nine Parts of Desire with The Public in New York. For Television, credits include Grace, Endeavour, Silent Witness, Call The Midwife, Casualty and Eastenders. In Film, Kate was Voice Director on Paramount's Animated Feature Film, Capture The Flag, which won the Goya Award for Best Animated Film 2016. She's now in pre-production for a feature film, To The River, due to film in Thailand in 2023.

Full cast and creative team to be announced shortly.