A THEATRE group is hoping to re-create part of Bradford’s artistic past with a series of performances in a former city centre pub.

Bent Architects have been inspired by the artistic communes that were common in the city in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

The group is in the process of creating a new interactive performance that will run for several nights in the Old Crown Pub on Ivegate, which has been empty for years but is now used as an arts space by local group The Brick Box.

Bent Architects were behind the acclaimed The Northern School that ran in Bradford Playhouse in 2016. That play also looked at Bradford’s past, inspired by the theatre school that was set up in Little Germany the 1950s.

The new piece, This Space Is Occupied, will “celebrate a moment when Bradford was at the cutting edge of radical arts, theatre and activism”.

Anyone who wants to get involved in the new production can go along to a meeting in The Brick Box Rooms, next to The Crown, at 6pm on Wednesday, February 21.

The performance looks to recreate the “anarchist squats” that many of the groups called home – often found in Bradford’s derelict mills and forgotten industrial buildings.

Like The Northern School, the latest production will involve the whole venue, and the audience will be encouraged to interact with the performers.

Mick Martin, from Bent Architects, said: “A lot of these groups were at the cutting edge of movements like the gay liberation movement and civil rights.

“At the time there was a lot going on, the Paris Riots and movements like the Black Panthers. There was a lot of groups in the country that were looking to change things, and at the same time producing a lot of art. Bradford was quite central to that. In the city there were lots of groups coming together in empty spaces and creating art.

“It is similar to today, now there are a lot of empty shops, and you are getting art groups like The Brick Box looking to do something with them.

“The generation we are looking at for this performance really believed they were going to change the world. In the early 70s they thought things would be totally different in 10 years time. However, we now know that didn’t happen.

“This performance will be about that moment when a group of young people thought they had the ideas to change Bradford.

“It will be a very site-specific piece, and the audience can move around the building. We are re-creating these squats and the audience will be able to move around and explore.”

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He said the performance would also include film footage from the time of the artistic groups.

Rehearsals will start on March 29 and the show is expected to run from April 25 to May 5.

For more information email info@bentarchitect.co.uk