How Soon Is Now? The Brand New Indie Musical Comes To Bristol

Siân Owen’s musical comes to Tobacco Factory Theatres

Come and celebrate New Year’s Eve 1997 Manchester style. How Soon is Now? takes us up North for a night of banging music, friendships and how the connections we make help us through our darkest moments.

The show is written by playwright Siân Owen and performed by Box of Tricks Theatre. It’s a story about humour and hope, capturing the zeitgeist of that sweat-box, smoke-filled club night pumping out iconic hits from The Stone Roses to Radiohead.

The show will premiere at the Lowry in Manchester ahead of a tour which will bring it to Bristol.

In a smoke-field nightclub, three girls are on the dancefloor. Polly and Angie are ready for the big night of the year. Jean feels lost and alone. The future promises a fresh start with new horizons. After decades of grey, this is their time. But as midnight beckons, and darkness falls, will they find their light?

It was the year heading towards the Millennium. Nights filled with Song 2 by Blur, Nancy Boy by Placebo, Space, The Verve, Eels, Supergrass, The Stone Roses, Manic Street Preachers, The Charlatans, Inspiral Carpets, Pulp, New Labour, no tuition fees, smoking in nightclubs, scribbled telephone numbers and a full night out on a tenner.

“You open the door into this club. And the noise and the smell and the heat hit you. It smothers you. Jumps all over you. Gets right in.”

The show celebrates Northern voices. It’s told with a soundtrack of iconic 90’s indie anthems. Audiences should expect all the ‘highs and lows, darkness and light’ of that big 90’s New Year’s Eve.

How Soon is Now? is at Tobacco Factory Theatres 22 – 24 October 2026

For more information or to book, visit: https://tobaccofactorytheatres.com/shows/how-soon-is-now/

Tobacco Factory Theatres on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tobaccofactorytheatres/

Box Of Tricks Theatre on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/boxoftrickstheatre/

Cast and Creatives
Bethan McLean
Kaitlyn Akinpelumi
Laura Robinson
Darragh Cowley
Theo Woolford
LJ Willow

Director – Adam Quayle for Box of Tricks
Design – Hannah Sibai
Musical Direction – Vidar Norheim
Lighting – KJ
Movement – Chris Brown

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