A BURTONWOOD playwright has been invited to open Shanghai International Festival with a production that he describes as ‘Ken Loach meets rock and roll’.

Jimmy Fairhurst and his co-writer Louise Haggerty are bringing their new show Electric Eden to China with 12 performances over eight days.

But Not Too Tame theatre group’s Warrington supporters will get to see the production first with a warm up at Burtonwood Catholic Club on Friday, October 13.

Jimmy said: “I’m really excited. I’m also quite anxious because we’ve only just started rehearsals so there’s a lot to get through.

“We’re playing some small hotel bars in China and we’re going from that which is about 150 capacity to a big venue in Shanghai called Mao performing in front of about 500 people. I’m really proud to take a story from a company that is based in Warrington.

“We really try to celebrate regional identity because we don’t think people are proud enough about where they come from. I want to put us on the map and opening the Shanghai International Festival is not a bad way to start.”

Electric Eden is about a group of misfits are left to save their beloved nightclub after the death of their gaffer and friend, Tommy Eden.

And the group even convinced Peter Mullan to jump on board as the voice of Tommy thanks to Louise who worked with the Harry Potter and Tyrannosaur actor on 2015’s Sunset Song.

Peter is currently working in America so he will be recording his part over Skype.

Jimmy added: “It’s a good rule of thumb that if you don’t ask you don’t get and he seems like a really lovely bloke. He’s a phenomenal actor and I’m going to be directing him over Skype which is insane.”

Jimmy was inspired to write Electric Eden after hearing tales about the likes of ‘Toy Mic Trev’, an eccentric busker in Cardiff.

The 33-year-old said: “He was a real old crooner and he used to sing with a toy microphone.

“He’d busk under this archway but due to the gentrification of the city he got asked to move on.”

That got him thinking about other ‘David and Goliath’ stories.

Jimmy, dad to nine-month-old Amélie, added: “There are so many places where that sort of thing is happening. Look at the BBC and Salford. Salford was hugely impacted by gentrification.

“Then you’ve got the likes of what’s happening in Tottenham. Businesses who had been there for many years making a good profit were just told one day they had to move to allow Tottenham Hotspur to develop a Wembley-esque walkway. There’s loads of people from working class backgrounds or from little communities who are affected by things like that – and how do you fight against it? Where do you even start? How does the normal everyday grafter go: ‘No, I don’t want this to happen’?”

Jimmy, who grew up across the road from Burtonwood Brewery, was also inspired by the changing face of Warrington.

He said: “The show is about this club and this guy who ran it who put people before profit.

“The kids could come for a kids’ disco, the older people come and do line dancing. It’s a community hub and they’re dying because of overheads from the brewery or certain pressures or gentrification of an area or people not wanting to go anymore.

“Burtonwood used to have six pubs and now two of them have shut. It’s really sad. It’s become cheaper for people to drink at home so they’re regressing back into their homes rather than getting out in front of each other.

“They’re not just drinking establishments. They’re social buildings. If you take the drink out it’s where communities come together and tell stories.”

But Jimmy’s fifth production with Not Too Tame is also a celebration of music.

And that was partly influenced by the experience of seeing his brother Dean, the frontman of Warrington band Slydigs, tour the world with The Who.

Dean is also providing the music for Electric Eden live on stage.

Jimmy, who is Slydigs’ tour manager, added: “I toured America, Canada and Europe with them but that was really difficult as normally I’m the one who likes a party and I had to be ‘fun prevention officer’ to keep them alive.

“It was really weird for me not getting on stage but watching the lights come down and the hush in the audience and then Slydigs come out with big banner behind them was electric.

“We fought like cats and dogs when we were younger. We can still go from zero to 100 in two minutes.

“That’s family but at the same time Dean’s my hero. I couldn’t do what he does. I’m in awe of him.

“I’ve seen him stand in front of a 40,000-strong roaring crowd.

“We have different disciplines but we’re both storytellers in a way. I think for the pair of us what’s most important to us is our audience.”

There has not been a moment’s rest for Jimmy because he was also recently cast in his first film role.

He plays the Trumpeter Edward Meagher of the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry in Mike Leigh’s upcoming Peterloo.

It is about a massacre in Manchester in 1819 which happened when government troops charged a crowd of around 60,000 people who gathered to demand the reform of parliamentary representation.

Jimmy, whose first job out of drama school was a script reading project with Cate Blanchett in Australia for Cheek by Jowl theatre company, said: “I did character rehearsals earlier in the year so I was working with Mike one-on-one.

“It was a real eye opener because I’ve not worked like that before.

“It was an amazing experience. Peterloo is a massive film for the north. There are so many people – young and old – who don’t know about what happened but they will do when they see this film.”

“It was funny because when I got to the hotel I was staying at I opened the curtain and when I looked down at the car park I could recognise actors I knew from the likes of Brassed Off, Kes and Full Monty. It was nice because they are the stalwarts of all the great northern films and I was working alongside them.

“I think it’s a great time for British film and also TV with the likes of Peaky Blinders.

“If I can work with Mike Leigh, Ken Loach and Shane Meadows then I can die a happy man.

“They’re my ‘holy trinity’ of directors so I’d love to do more and hopefully on the back of this they’ll be more films coming my way.

“I want real life. I want the Paul Abbott and Shane Meadows stories. I want those warts and all comedy dramas. Only Fools and Horses for me is as rich as Dickens. It’s funny, it’s heart-warming and you see people struggling – it’s close to real life.”

Not Too Tame's Electric Eden is at Burtonwood Catholic Club on October 13 before the production tours in China. Click here for tickets or buy them on the door