Redefining
Pub Theatre
The Kings is a bold new resident production company redefining what pub theatre can be. Based at the iconic Kings Arms in Salford.
A collaboration between John O’Neill (UP ‘ERE), Oli Hurst (Red Brick), and Colin & Lisa Connor (The Kings Arms), The Kings has a clear ambition: to make pub theatre the main stage in Manchester.
Bold, intimate, electric. Welcome to The Kings.
Colin Connor
The Kings Arms
Lisa Connor
The Kings Arms
Oli Hurst
Red Brick
John O’Neill
UP ‘ERE
Intimate & Electric
We bring audiences closer to the action, championing powerful, high-calibre plays rarely seen in the North.
Championing Talent
Creating vital opportunities for Northern actors and creatives, ensuring the region's finest talent rightfully takes centre stage.
Born from Success
Born out of the smash-hit success of our acclaimed productions of American Buffalo, MOJO, and Orphans.
Built for the Future
A powerhouse collaboration between UP ‘ERE, Red Brick, and The Kings Arms to build a lasting legacy for theatre in Salford.
Shows Produced
A definitive portfolio of theatrical works, collaborative revivals, and new writing produced by The Kings Arms.
The Red Lion
David Thacker
This September, step inside the changing room of a struggling semi-professional football club for Patrick Marber’s gripping drama The Red Lion — a powerful, funny and deeply human story about ambition, loyalty, betrayal, community and the price of chasing a dream. Directed by acclaimed theatre director David Thacker, returning to The Kings for his fifth production, The Red Lionbrings together three men from three generations — and three very different ideas about what football, success and belonging really mean. When a gifted young footballer arrives with the potential to transform the club’s fortunes, old loyalties are tested, ambitions collide and difficult choices have to be made. And this is so much more than a play about football. Three men. Three generations. Ambition. Loyalty. Betrayal. Belonging.
BOYS by Ella Hickson.
Oli Hurst.
In a flat overflowing with bin bags and broken dreams, four boys are facing their final 24 hours of freedom. The graduation ceremony is over, the refuse collectors are on strike, and the "real world" is clawing at the door. BOYS is a visceral snapshot of a generation standing on the edge of a cliff. Benny, Mack, Timp, and Cam have spent years cocooned in the chaos of student life, but as the sun sets on their final night in Edinburgh, the party is curdling. While Timp fuels a hedonistic bender to outrun his responsibilities and Mack weaponizes his cynicism against everyone in sight, a darker shadow hangs over the flat: the recent suicide of Benny’s brother. Hickson’s play is a razor-sharp, heartbreaking exploration of toxic masculinity, the terror of growing up, and the messy, violent transition from who you were to who you’re forced to become. It is a story for anyone who has ever looked at their future and wanted to hide under the floorboards.
SHEILA’S ISLAND by Tim Firth
Colin Connor
Lord of the Flies meets The Office in the middle of a lake. When four middle-managers from Pennine Mineral Water trade their power suits for walking boots, a corporate team-building exercise in the Lake District spirals into a hilarious, fog-drenched disaster. Stranded on a tiny island in Derwentwater with nothing but one soggy sausage, a dying mobile phone, and a spatula for a weapon, Team C must navigate more than just the murky water. As the cold sets in and the rescue boats fail to appear, the thin veneer of office politeness shatters. Sheila’s cryptic crossword "logic" has left them shipwrecked, Denise’s sarcasm turns lethal, Julie’s over-packed rucksack becomes a battlefield, and Fay is just trying to commune with the birds. Sheila’s Island is a razor-sharp comedy about what happens when "synergy" is replaced by survival and the most dangerous thing on the island
A Christmas Carol
David Thacker
A Daring One-Man Performance Starring West End's Colin Connor Directed by Olivier Award-Winner David Thacker This December, experience Charles Dickens’ timeless classic as you've never seen it before. Rising Moon Productions and Form and Pressure present an intimate, powerful adaptation at the iconic King’s Arms Theatre, Salford. Fresh from London's West End and The Old Vic, actor Colin Connor performs over 30 characters in a breathtaking 90-minute tour-de-force. Adapted and directed by Olivier Award-winner David Thacker, this production uses only Dickens' original text, honouring the author's own tradition of public readings. This is world-class, heartfelt theatre, made accessible for the entire community.
Mojo
Oli Hurst
The team that brought you the ***** production of AMERICAN BUFFALO last year are back with Jez Butterworth’s Olivier Award winning dark-comedy. 1950’s. Soho. Ezra’s Atlantic Nightclub. In the seedy gangster underworld of the rock’n’roll scene, club owners fight for control of Silver Johnny, the latest young sensation. MOJO premiered at the Royal Court in 1995, he has since gone on to writer The Ferryman, The Hills of California and Jerusalem, which has collected away plethora of awards on both sides of the Atlantic. This 30th anniversary production & Manchester premiere will be directed by award winning director Oliver Hurst. Starring John O’Neill (American Buffalo, Cock, Emmerdale); Matthew Khan (Waterloo Road); Jack Elliot (The Mousetrap, West End); Paddy Stafford (Too Much World at Once, Dr Who); Charlie Watkinson (Sexy Beast) and introducing Gaz Thomson in their professional stage debut.