As Chancellor George Osborne announces Budget plans to cut child tax credits and cap benefits to families, hard-hitting anti-austerity play Knock Knock arrives at the Kings Arms in Salford.
Part of the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival, the piece sees single mother Jo fighting off the bailiffs as her life becomes a merry-go-round of unemployment, a constant struggle to pay her bills and to feed her children.
Helped by her neighbour Helen, Jo makes a terrifying decision and the women fight back.
Performance coach Kate Marlow wrote Knock Knock after seeing first-hand the devastating effects that austerity is having on people in her own community.
She told SalfordOnline.com: I see ordinary people fighting back, losing the fear, and finding their voice.
“There’s a growing movement of people coming together to resist and campaign.
“In writing the play I felt like Peter Finch’s character in the 1974 film Network, when he encourages people to go to their windows and shout, ‘We’re mad as hell and we’re not going to take this any more!'”
After years working in TV for the likes of Strictly Come Dancing and the XFactor, Kate returns to her first love, theatre, for five performances from Saturday 11 July.
All profits from the five-night run in Salford will go to Coffee4Craig, a social enterprise who run street kitchens and sleepouts to support homeless people in Greater Manchester.
Known for her straight-talking, no-nonsense style, Kate takes the lead role in the play, supported by a stellar cast including Clay Whitter, Shaun McGowan and Janet Thompson.
Finally with the dreaded so called austerity budget being planned for today, Kate and the cast have made face masks of Cameron, Osborne, Clegg and other Goverment figures to be worn on the night, be prepared!
Tickets are £9 (£7.50 concessions) from The Greater Manchester Fringe website
