A Wondrous Place @ Royal Exchange, Manchester, 11-22 Jun

Four new short plays offering altered perspectives on contemporary Northern cities come together in A Wondrous Place, a new production combining the efforts of four up-and-coming writers in an attempt to show the region in a different light – and challenge the old 'it's grim up North' cliché.

"Overwhelmingly, dramatic stories located in the North of England depict a North of the past, or emphasise social depravation, or are about a character’s need to escape to a more fulfilling life elsewhere," says Chris Meads, artistic director of Northern Spirit, the company behind the piece.

Examining the cities of Liverpool, Newcastle, Sheffield and Manchester, A Wondrous Place aims to encourage its audience to experience them with new eyes. Electricity, by Sarah McDonald Hughes, makes the case that Manchester can be as glamorous as New York and as romantic as Paris; redemption and forgiveness on the midnight streets of Liverpool set the scene for Dog, by Luke Barnes; What Space Between, by Alison Carr, tells the story of a girl who has an extraordinary encounter with the Dunston Rocket, Gateshead’s iconic tower block; and finally in Porters Brook, by Matt Hartley, a young man's life is saved by the spirit of Sheffield's people.

Meads continues: "We want to present an alternative, more surprising and more inventive idea of the North of England to the world, led by people who are passionate about it. We want to approach the people, the landscape and the experiences that you can have here with respect and with imagination, invest them with a sense of wonder, with a wide-screen intensity, with glamour and with romance." [Vicky Anderson]