Northern Rascals Will Embark on Tour with SUNNY SIDE

Following their tour in 2025, Yorkshire-based dance-theatre company Northern Rascals return for their final tour of Sunny Side, tackling the UK's male mental health crisis head on. At the heart of the company's ethos is understanding and sharing the everyday realities of struggling with mental health with audiences through raw storytelling that merges contemporary dance, theatre and spoken word. Sparking essential conversations on adolescent wellbeing, the company continues its partnership with men's suicide prevention charity ANDYSMANCLUB. The aim is to amplify a message shaped by the voices of over 1,500 young people from across the UK, connecting with new audiences in Stockton, Bradford, Rotherham, Scarborough, and Leeds this year.

A visual metaphor that holistically explores men's mental health, Sunny Side returns amidst a rising mental health struggle in the North of England. Lead character K struggles with his sense of self in an unhappy home and feeling left behind as friends go to university – leaving the 18-year-old feeling trapped in his small and uneventful Yorkshire village. K tries to fight the monotony of everyday life by travelling through the past, present, and future. The show's return is reflective of the prevailing issues surrounding mental health, choosing dance to express this message that is too commonly repressed.

Sunny Side looks to provide, at its core, a social commentary on young men who lack emotional support in a world that does not always make space for them within the archetypal model of masculinity. The cast delivers this message with remarkable emotional openness under the acting coach Geoffrey Colman. The production's set design by Caitlin Mawhinney perfectly reflects K's mental state and captures the emotional weight that continues to stay with you from childhood.

Co-Artistic Directors Anna Holmes and Sam Ford comment, "The world has shifted again and again and again in the 6 months since we left Sunny Side, but one thing that still remains, perhaps even more than before, is our need for compassion and connection. Sunny Side has always provided that space, a place where the very private stories of our internal world can be placed on a platform, held and bear witness too. A moment to see beyond the person that we show to the world and through to the root of who we really are. The show will always hold a special place in our hearts here at Northern Rascals, it's a story born from our hometown, from the valleys, the grit, the North. And we can't think of a better ending for the show than to take it back out on the road, to Northern audiences in Northern venues, for one last time."

TOUR DATES

• Friday 10th April: ARC, Stockton Arts Centre, Dovecot Street, Stockton on Tees, TS18 1LL - Visit Website
• Friday 17th April: Bradford Arts Centre, St Peter's House, 1 Forster Square, Bradford, BD1 4TY - Visit Website
• Wednesday 22nd April: Civic Theatre, Rotherham, Catherine Street, Rotherham, S65 1EB - Visit Website
• Friday 24th April: Stephen Joseph Theatre, Westborough, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, YO11 1JW
• Saturday 25th April: Northern School of Contemporary Dance (NSCD), 98 Chapeltown Road, Leeds, LS7 4BH

CAST

• Sophie Thomas (she/her)
• Ed Mitchell (he/him)

CREATIVES

• Co-Artistic Director: Anna Holmes (she/her)
• Co-Artistic Director: Sam Ford (he/him)
• Acting Coach/Dramaturg: Geoffrey Colman (he/him)
• Set Designer: Caitlin Mawhinney (she/her)
• Rehearsal Director: Grace Ford (she/her)
• Lighting Designer: Barnaby Booth (he/they)
• Digital Designer: Aaron Howell (he/him)
• Production Manager: Adam Goode (he/they)
• Composer: Wilfred Kimber (he/him)

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