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Evie Manning

@eviedirects

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Theatre Director
Co-Founder & Co-Director @common_wealthhq
Curious about film & tv directing via Scraps

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All around us, resentment is building and fear is festering into hate. Who sets these powers in motion and why? In a world broken by division, who wins?

💫 Announcing ORACLES - our new show in development in Bradford, coming to you in 2028.

As theatre makers, we’re used to working with emotion. We know that stories rely on feeling - moments of happiness, belonging, fear and everything between. But what can we do when we see human emotion being twisted and turned against us?

If there’s a way out of this mess, we’re not going to find it in a politics soured by private profit and media scapegoating. As our cast member Lorraine says, we’ll find it in the thousands of small stories that make life possible.

ORACLES starts from the experiences of end-of-life carers, midwives, doulas and faith leaders. These people accompany us through transformation, however painful, however difficult. They know determination and patience, failure and loss. The cast’s experience holds a blueprint for reimagining divisive myths.

After two intensive weeks of experimentation and play, we’re sending a huge THANK YOU to our incredible collaborators - the best team imaginable for this deep and expansive work:

Our incredible cast: Jo, Lorraine, Maleehah, Mils, Olu & Terry

Our epic crew: @eviedirects @maymcquade @panda_p0pz @saoirseteale @kiera.creates05 @d.sintimaboagye @designersaschagilmour @_artiyya_ @soniahughes192 @heather.newsham @stagemanagementco @kielucas @guac_amolly @anniebrooker_ & Robbie Thomson

Our critical friends - writers and thinkers who shared work with us and offered feedback - @sianushka, @trillingual, Adam Elliot-Cooper - & everyone in The Commons, who held the audience feedback session so brilliantly.

📸Christopher Nunn & friends

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Love Will Tear Us Apart: Relationships (Shorts Block with Filmmaker Q&A)

📍Friday 23rd October 2026 | 11:30AM | Bradford Arts Centre

From awkward first dates and unlikely connections to single motherhood, teenage parties and two strangers trapped overnight, this eclectic line-up of shorts explores the messy, funny and sometimes painful ways we find, lose and lean on each other. Expect anxious rom-coms, sharp comedy and tender dramas where love, loneliness, grief and growing up collide - proving that relationships are rarely as straightforward as they seem.

Films in this block:
⭐️ Stutterbug
⭐️ Meet Cute | @mahon_media
⭐️ Babysitter
⭐️ Hard Feelings | @rachaelsampson_
⭐️ Scraps | @eviedirects
⭐️ Last Call | @kirstyhinesmackay

🔗 Buy Tickets Now! Link in bio or at www.bradiff.eventive.org/programme

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A Recap of our catch up with our DLF2026, Panellists 👀

Missed Departure Lounge this year? Not to worry, go follow @igcmidlands to catch more events and the next festival!!!

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Our friend and sister, Dr Sasha Bhat, died yesterday.

We knew this was coming, and yet, I cannot believe I’m writing these words.

I wrote once to Sasha that while we stand on the shoulders of our ancestors who came before us, we’re also lifted and carried on the shoulders of the sisterhood, the women in our lives.

Sasha was that woman.

She was not the Thatcherite kind of woman who only wanted to ascend at the expense of others. For those of us who were honoured to be loved by Sasha, and for all her fellow humans, she was forever the person who left the ladder down and lifted people up with her.

She was an uncommonly kind, loving soul whose calm, quiet energy exuded into rooms where extroversion dominates. For those of us who had the honour of being let into her thoughts when - after listening intently - she would share them, that woman had entire universes whirring around her mind:

Her love for her home land, Kashmir, unshakeable. Her heartbreak over the NHS, cuts to mental health and public sector services that support the young, the old, the most vulnerable. Books and writing. And oh how she loved her cats!

Sasha was a socially and politically conscious soul, the kind of person whose integrity and strength of heart would have made her just the kind of politician or leader we desperately need right now. She paved her way in the NHS, in the mental health sector being of service to us, for us, for years.

And Kashmir! Who can forget when at Bradford Literature Festival, she boldly held Indian author Shashi Tharoor to account for his myopia over the occupation of Kashmir.

That was Sasha: heart of a lioness, a heart brimming with love for all, a cat mama, a ferociously mischievous soul when she let you see that side, and a sister who always held you, from afar, or in person.

What an honour it was to love you and be loved by you, Sasha.

May Allah have mercy on your soul. May Allah pour light into the hearts of your grieving loved ones in the same way you poured light into us with your love, constancy, and kindness.

These are photos of Sasha over the years with a group who cherished her.

Please offer a prayer or good thoughts for her today. 💚

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PUBLIC INTEREST - MUSIC VIDEO LIVE 📢🎤

@kg_bdx @Nescio27 @get.atm3 @ezewashere @ibbyfrombradford @br4dofficial @cleeshay1 @S6r6h.M02 @j3.beats

Under UK law, you can be imprisoned for a crime you didn’t commit - if you’re judged to have helped it happen. People have been sentenced for murder for as little as sending a text, or being at the crime scene - under the legal doctrine, Joint Enterprise.

Joint Enterprise cases unfairly target black men and boys and working class people of colour, relying on racist ideas around ‘gangs’ and rap music.

A report by Manchester University found rap was used as evidence in court against 252 people, from 2020-2023. Over 80% of defendants were of ethnic minority groups, and over half the cases used Joint Enterprise.

Public Interest is a show made with @JENGbA_ to challenge Joint Enterprise, using the radical, political power of rap, grime and bassline all written by our cast.🔥

Full music video on our Youtube now - link in bio. 🔗

Public Interest was created by @common_wealthhq and commissioned by @bradfordcultureco . First performed at Loading Bay as part of Bradford 2025. Music video filmed by @jackkingfilm 💥

@JENGbA_ campaign tirelessly against Joint Enterprise. Follow, donate, and join their next protest on 30 May, 1.30PM at Trafalgar Square.

#bradford #jointenterprise #bassline #grime #ukrap

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Some of the team are lucky enough to be in Singapore @ispaglobal meeting people making theatre from all around the world and discussing what political theatre means in different contexts globally. So brilliant to learn from other artists & how they navigate their circumstance. The UK is closing its mind and borders in ways that will stifle us all & negates the fact that the best thing about Britain is its diversity. So good to be thinking internationally right now. Oh & Singapore has a banging light show! ✨

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Thrilled to announce that our show, Public Interest, has been shortlisted for the 2026 SMK National Campaigner Awards in the Creative Change Makers category. 🙌

Huge thanks to @smkcampaigners for recognising the impact and message of Public Interest! ❤️ We're so proud to have worked with @jengba_ to create this show, as a creative vessel for the wider campaign against racist, classist discrimination in the justice system. Public Interest reached over 1,100 audience members, involved 225 working class young people, created paid opportunities for 29 participants and built conversation in Bradford and communities across the country about the unjust use of Joint Enterprise in the UK.

Public Interest director, @eviedirects said:
"Being shortlisted for the SMK Creative Change-makers Award is massive for us. As a political theatre company, creating change is at the heart of what we do .... We’re so proud that the show has connected with SMK and hopefully connects with more people through this award.” 📢

Read more about the campaign via smk.org.uk/what-we-do/connect/awards/smk-national-campaigner-awards-2026-shortlist/

We're still building on the impact of Public Interest, on tour and through the original music our incredible cast created for the show. 👀 Follow us, and subscribe to our Youtube (link in bio) for more updates coming soon.

Public Interest was commissioned by @bradfordcultureco as part of Bradford 2025.

#SMKAwards2026 #creativechangemakers #ChangeIsPossible #bradford #jointenterprise #jengba

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30 years of magic, madness and mayhem. But also 30 years of creativity, community and collaboration! And nearly 20 years since one of the most dramatic manifestations of all that with the infamous Carny Ville at the old fire station in central Bristol. And still I can rarely go out without someone accosting me to tell me how it was the greatest night of their lives! How they met their husband or wives! How it was the very best of times and the reason they moved to Bristol! Such a beautiful thing they say, and pleaaaaase could we do it again?

Well I suppose we could try, but it wouldn’t be the same, it was in and of its time, a catalyst, a collision, of cosmic creative forces that caught a spark and fanned the flames of so much creativity and collaboration to come. But there’s no going back only forwards ever on! Though it’s true, now more than ever we could do with some of that potent community magic again. A cosmic culmination, a creative crescendo, a communal coming together! In search of a new bohemia!

Well, we do have access to a rather large ex torpedo Factory and now more than ever feels like the time for some mass collective dreaming, of a new world growing from the ashes of the old. Next weekend could be the beginnings of such a thing as we come together to celebrate 30 years of the Invisible Circus. So join us at the glorious Ashton Court Arts mansion, to plot and scheme, and sow the seeds of this collective dream!

And besides sat 11th is my birthday! So it would be rude not to!
Tickets via headfirst Bristol, link in bio ❤️😉❤️
Xx DF
#diyculture #peoplepower #circuslife #clowntown

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Last year I got to do some big big making, now I’ve got the bug for working AT SCALE!

My dance training and creative producing came together for a year of mass-participation, outdoor shows in deep winter, community casts and properly epic production values. Huge teams and big moving parts. I love the maths of it, the patterns, the logistics.

Showbiz is… Glue-gunning colour-coded stars on tiny figures to evenly space 180 people. Planning a magic trick with teenagers and moving walls. Plotting 40 dancers’ routes across scaffolding in the snow. Diagrams for 11 exits in the round. Spreadsheets for colour groups, entrance orders and chaperone plots. Sight lines, smoke flares, slippy stages, quick changes.

I love being in the detail to make the big moments go smoothly and something clicked for me - choreography, producing and community engagement all at once.

More of this please.

📸
Brighter Still + RISE: @wyszynski.karol
Public Interest: @danieljohnsongray

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Our Bradford Collective joined @eviedirects for a masterclass this week - sharing how we make shows that make change !! ✍️

Loved seeing everyone listen to each others’ ideas and stories and work out new ways to tell them. 📢 Our Collective are a group of young, working class artists in Bradford that we bring together through workshops and events that give them industry insights, and the chance to collaborate and learn from each other.

If you want to make political theatre too - we wrote the book on it! Do It Yourself: Making Political Theatre is our first book, packed full of exercises, methods and accessible ways to make art with impact. Link in bio to get your copy now. 📖

Find out more about the Collective on our website.

Thanks for the space! @assemblybd

#commonwealththeatre #politicaltheatre #bradford #bradfordevents

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Fabulous @calderdalecreates and @northern_broadsides #CoCreatingWithCommunities Symposiumheld held at the wonderful @deancloughhfx. #RoblingPix

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Thanks to @universityofleeds for having @eviedirects join yesterday to chat about our book - Do It Yourself: Making Political Theatre. 📣

Evie broke down how Common/Wealth has always made theatre outside of traditional routes and spaces, got people mobilised in times of political apathy, and fought against the idea that working class people aren’t into politics - or art! 🙄

Also spoke about how for us, ‘wealth’ isn’t in big budgets or status, it’s in our ideas, experiences, stories and communities. We make the work anyway, and we reach the working class audiences we make it for 🙌

We’re really proud of our process and last year we felt like it was time to share it! 👀

Our book, Do It Yourself, is an accessible, practical toolkit for making political theatre - no degrees or experience necessary.

Right now, it’s included in the @manchester_university_press January sales - available for just £9! Buy the book via our link in bio 📖

The discount is applied automatically when you check-out. Offer ends 31st January.

#communitytheatre #commonwealththeatre #bradfordtheatre cardifftheatre

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