Once Upon A Time member warns of Bolton Wigan Play farce

North West viewers may be aware of what appears to be a re-working of the "Once Upon A time in Wigan" play on show planned to run in the near future at Bolton Octagon.

Amazingly it seems that this production is going to be done using
"a live band of brilliant actor musicians pumping out classic Northern Soul tracks in the Octagon Theatre’s signature style"  

Its scheduled for a 2 week run and going by the forum is looks like the way it has been advertised is already causing some confusion amongst soul fans.

The soul source member who devised the actual play in its original format posted the below in the soul source forums

His view makes interesting reading and hopefully they will help avoid any more confusion amongst soul fans between this local production and the acclaimed original play

 BOLTON OCTAGON are staging a play called 'Once Upon A Time In Wigan. LIVE'

'LIVE' being the key word to watch out for! It stands for live music and singing. No, not from soul artists, but from the actors themselves!


THIS CRAP IS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE PLAY THAT MY COMPANY TOURED TO THOUSANDS OF SOULIES IN 2004!

THIS IS A MUSICAL WHERE, BELIEVE IT OR NOT, WHITE ACTORS SING THE SONGS TO A HOUSE BAND. A bit like THE WHEELTAPPERS AND SHUNTERS SOCIAL CLUB!

They have been deliberately trying to confuse in the advertising and I had to ask them to remove a newspaper quote about my play, that they were using to advertise theirs!

I devised this play, based on my experiences of going to wigan and Mick Martin wrote it. Unfortunately, as he was a friend of 20 years, I trusted him to look after it and not sell it to the highest bidder. MISTAKE....He has since proved himself to be a 'soul less ******!

The guy is not and was not, a soulie. I took him to a couple of nighters in the eighties and he just got pissed up! The production worked in its presentation, the actors, the film, the setting, but, most of all, the use of a real and narrative sound track. Mark Babbage, the director, hasn't got a clue about our scene and its soulful ethic! If he did, he wouldn't dare trivialise it, by doing a musical execution of something that means a lot, to a lot of people.
Watch out for Winstanley popping up at the opening! It will definitely get coverage on his show and I would expect him to be djing at the opening (if there is money involved!)

From the heart

Paul-s