Award-winning play about two siblings whose love of music helps them navigate a working-class family in Belfast during the 2007 credit crunch.
SkelpieLimmer bring Anthem for Dissatisfaction to South Street Arts Centre on Friday 13 November, an evening of theatre that runs for about 65 minutes without an interval. It's a co-production between SkelpieLimmer Productions and Brassneck Theatre Company, written and co-directed by Gina Donnelly and Tony Devlin, and starring Emily Lamey and Simon Sweeney.
The play is set in Belfast during the 2007 credit crunch and follows siblings Sarah and Jamie, who grow up with a shared obsession with music and the weight of parents on the breadline. Pop, rock and punk rail against austerity Britain and a failing Tory government, giving the two an epic score with which to navigate lives destined for very different paths. The stage version is driven by a high-energy soundtrack featuring Oasis, The Jam, Thin Lizzy, Bruce Springsteen and Sam Fender, and co-director Tony Devlin describes it as 'an explosion of working-class frustration against a system specifically designed for them not to succeed'.
It's a play that doesn't shy away from its subject matter. It was commissioned through the ACNI Commissioning Fund and won awards during its 2025 runs at the Edinburgh and Dublin Fringe festivals, picking up five-star reviews from the British Theatre Guide, Theatre Weekly and The Independent, with critics calling it a 'rip-roaring tour de force' that rejoices in working-class strength. It's aimed at ages 14 and over, and contains strong language, grief and classist language.
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Tickets are £16, or £14 for members, and the show starts at 8pm at South Street Arts Centre, 21 South Street, Reading, RG1 4QU.
