A BRADFORD-based theatre group has been awarded over £400,000 to bring a groundbreaking production to a wider audience.

Mind The Gap’s Zara: Daughters of Fortune looks at the sensitive issue of people with learning disabilities and parenthood. The group, based in Lister Mills, Manningham, has just learned it will be given a £425,000 grant from the Arts Council’s Ambition for Excellence Awards.

It was one of five projects across the UK to share £2,821,542 of funding.

The huge cash injection will mean the group, which works with learning disabled artists, will be able to “super size” the thought provoking piece.

The Daughters of Fortune project saw Mind The Gap work with medical experts, geneticists, social workers, council officers and advocates, as well as learning-disabled parents who shared their real life stories with the group.

So far the group has produced Anna, an interactive forum looking at the subject, and Mia, which has toured the UK, and will be performed again in a 2018 tour.

The funding will allow the new strand, Zara, to be performed at two major outdoor events, at the Piece Hall in Halifax and Southwark in London, as well as a number of community engagement events.

Work will start on the project in the New Year, and will take around 18 months to reach its conclusion.

Apart from capital funding, it will be the biggest single grant the group has recieved.

Executive Director Julia Skelton said: “This exciting news has certainly brought additional festive cheer to the Mind the Gap team. Building on our existing Daughters of Fortune project, including the touring production Mia, this Ambition for Excellence investment will enable us to literally super-size the subject of learning-disability and parenthood for large, diverse audiences.

“We can’t wait to get started in making this dream a reality in 2018, working with our partners Walk the Plank, The Piece Hall Trust, Southwark Council, Emergency Exit Arts and Royal Holloway University of London.

“Right from the outset our ambition was to create an epic scale piece of theatre that highlights this issue for big audiences and bring the issue into people’s consciousness.

“It looks at all the issues people with learning disabilities experience when they decide to become parents.

“It will lead to these two massive performances. It is very exciting to be able to export something like this which is made in Bradford.”