With Eyes Wide Open

“Blending members’ stories with music and song” – ULearn

With Eyes Wide Open is a new Banner production, developed with UNISON, the public sector trade union, and highlights the vital importance of education in helping to develop confidence and personal fulfillment amongst union representatives, as well as helping encourage increased activism in the union.

This 30-minute show combines original music and song with archive film, digital imagery and video interviews with UNISON members and officers, to create a powerful and highly entertaining piece of trade union entertainment.

The show was premiered in the West Midlands at UNISON branches in Coventry, Telford, Wolverhampton and Worcester during Adult Learners Week 2010, and was also performed at this year’s UNISON national conference in Bournemouth in June.

The show is now available for booking by UNISON branches throughout the United Kingdom. Contact the Banner office for details.

We Share the Same Sky

Banner is touring We Share the Same Sky throughout 2010.

We Share the Same Sky looks at migration and the world of work in the context of the global recession. Using video interviews, digital media and new music and song, it entwines the stories of three visitors to Britain:

* Ali from Afghanistan, who fled the Taliban and came to England in search of safety;
* Natalya from Poland, where unemployment had been spiralling, came to England in search of work; and
* Edenis from Venezuela, who compares life in Britain with the popular revolutionary changes taking place in his home country.

The show weaves these stories into a rich tableau and asks what control we have over our working lives in the crisis-ridden 21st-century global economy, and whether the economic downturn that now threatens heralds a new period of struggle, resistance and change.

Funding for the show was from the Academy for Community Leadership, the Amiel & Melburn Trust, Arts Council England West Midlands, Birmingham City Council, the Communication Workers Union, the Fire Brigades Union, the Sir Barry Jackson Trust, Unison, the Unity Theatre Trust and Urban Living.

We are still taking bookings for this show and welcome enquiries from anyone interested in booking a performance. For more information and bookings email the Banner office or ring 0845 458 1909.

1st of May Band

Banner Theatre's 1st of May Band builds on the company's 35-year tradition of working with the trade union movement, from the NUM to the NUJ and from UCATT to UNISON. We are the only theatre company in Britain with a dynamic cultural commitment to the trade union movement and offer fast-moving, hard-edged, relevant entertainment for rallies, socials, conferences and educational schools.

The band’s wide repertoire is drawn from Banner’s previous productions and can be customized to fit different kinds of event for different campaigns and different issues.

To find out more contact the Banner office

back to top