Precious Emily

We very excited to have been commissioned by and be working with Birmingham 2022 Festival on a brand new show, Precious Emily. It is about lifting up heavy things and is inspired by two very strong people: Precious Mackenzie and Emily Campbell.

Precious Mackenzie was born in apartheid era South Africa in 1936 and overcame extraordinary challenges to become a four time Commonwealth Gold Medal winning weightlifter and icon of the sport.

The inspirational and charismatic Emily Campbell was born in Nottingham in 1994, won a silver medal at the Tokyo Olympics. She is lifting for gold at Birmingham’s NEC on Wednesday 3rd August and is well on her way to becoming an icon of British sport.

Between now and the start of the Commonwealth Games we are making ELEVEN different versions of this show. One with each of our ten partner schools:

  • Blakesly Hall Primary
  • Chandos Primary
  • City Road Primary
  • Holy Family Catholic Primary
  • Hollywood Primary
  • Raddlebarn Primary
  • St. Bernards Catholic Primary
  • St. Gerards Catholic Primary
  • St. Matthews Church of England Primary
  • Watermill Primary

Each school will be working with a different director, will have a visit from a choregrapher to work on the movement, a composer to work on the sound and a weightlifting coach to work on their technique.

Every school will be giving a public performance of their Precious Emily in a venue close to their school, so look out for them. Then, on 14th July we will bring together a scene from each production and combine them in a Gala Performance.

But before all of that, Emily will visit each of the schools to be interviewed by the students as they research material for their show. Her first five visits all happen TODAY (23rd March).

Names of directors, other artistic collaborators and venue details will all follow over the comming weeks. Keep watching this feed.

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