How Soon Is Now?

How Soon Is Now? plays at the Playhouse on Wednesday 4 and Thursday 5 November, both nights starting at 7pm. It's an indie musical by Siân Owen that follows three mates, Polly, Angie and Jean, on New Year's Eve 1997 in a smoke-filled Manchester club. The whole thing is set to a live soundtrack of 90s classics by the likes of The Stone Roses, Radiohead and The Smiths, so the music is as much a part of the storytelling as the script.

It sits at the crossroads of New Labour and the turn of the millennium, and Owen has said it's as much about club culture as it is about female friendship and finding your place. She's described it as a love song to music, friendship, courage and hope, and says she wants audiences to feel as if they've walked straight into the middle of a nightclub and to leave lighter than when they arrived. Adam Quayle, artistic director of Box of Tricks, who also directed the piece, calls it an electric story of female friendship and empowerment.

The Sheffield run follows a UK tour that opened with a world premiere at The Lowry in Salford. Owen spent ten years bringing it together, and the production is rounded out by designer Hannah Sibai and musical director and sound designer Vidar Norheim, who handles the live music that runs through it. It's a short run here, just the two nights, so if you're going to catch it, you'll need to pick your evening early.

It's at the Playhouse on Wednesday 4 and Thursday 5 November, 7pm start both nights.