\n Still Here, written by Wirral resident Mari Lloyd, the play tells a moving and funny story of two 18-year-olds coming to terms with life in a post-industrial landscape, and how they clash in a local boxing gym.\n<\/p>\n
\n For research\u00a0Lloyd visited 12 Quays Boxing Gym in Wallasey and ended up presenting a performance to the local boxing community and to staff from the Birkenhead branch of the mental health charity MIND.\n<\/p>\n
\n Lloyd said: \u201cIt was important to reach the people I was writing about and to get their feedback.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe boxing gym is a fascinating place and really does foster a sense of community and belonging.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt\u2019s a vital place for both physical and mental health.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThe play was born out of frustration about people and places that have been \u2018disappeared\u2019.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere are themes of identity, loss, anger and most important, communication; which is often not with words.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n As for the boxing gym, Lloyd\u00a0added:\u00a0\u201cI loved it so much I never left! It was supposed to be research but now I am a regular attender. People there feel like a family.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n The play, directed by Julia Stubbs and performed by actors Phillip John Jones and Emma Kaler and supported in development by Arts Council England, premiered on the London Fringe, receiving excellent reviews from critics and audiences, and an award nomination for its two young Welsh actors.\n<\/p>\n
\n Still Here will be performed at Hope Street Theatre in Liverpool on Thursday, September 11, and Friday, September 12.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Still Here, written by Wirral resident Mari Lloyd, the play tells a moving and funny story of two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":110636,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[64,63,802,85],"class_list":["post-110635","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110635","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110635"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110635\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110636"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110635"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110635"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110635"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}