In October 2024, we partnered with lead creative Harry Clayton-Wright for the Research and Development phase of Mr Blackpool, supported by Arts Council England and Marlborough Productions. This collaboration led to the creation of content for the show, which culminated in a preview performance at the Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts in Brighton in March 2025.
Building on this foundation, the work evolved into Mr Blackpool’s Seaside Spectacular, developed in continued collaboration with Harry Clayton-Wright. Supported by Arts Council England and produced by Marlborough Productions, the work brought together ambitious artists and national partners committed to bold, unapologetically queer theatre grounded in regional identity, humour, and joy.
Plug & Play Productions collaborated closely on the creative development of the piece, contributing directly to the shaping of its content while also delivering the complete sound design for the production. The work balanced sincerity with excess, reframing the aesthetics of end-of-pier entertainment through a contemporary lens. The project moved fluidly between theatrical spectacle and intimate storytelling, demanding a sound world capable of supporting both scale and emotional precision.
In October 2025 Mr Blackpool's Seaside Spectacular went on a small national tour. The show was presented in Newcastle with Northern Stage and Curious Arts, in London at the Southbank Centre as part of KUNSTY, and in Liverpool at the Unity Theatre with Homotopia. Across venues, the work was met with generous audiences and strong institutional support, reaffirming the appetite for queer, regionally rooted stories told at scale.
At a time when regional voices, queer narratives, and live performance are all under sustained pressure, Mr Blackpool’s Seaside Spectacular stands as a reminder of what is possible when collaboration, belief, and ambition align. Seeing work so deeply connected to a historically significant coastal town platformed nationally is not only celebratory, but necessary.
To capture the behind-the-scenes journey of the early iterations, Matt Crockett, Rosie Powell, and James Barnett were invited to document the production process through photography and video, providing a visual record of the creative and technical work that went into bringing Mr Blackpool to the stage.
