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We Are Family: Six Kids and a Super-Dad

  • The Portico Library 57 Mosley Street Manchester, England, M2 3HY United Kingdom (map)

Tickets £10 Adult , £5 Child, 2 for 1 children early bird bookings. Book here.

Meet six kids and their amazing Super-Dad!

There’s Dad’s disgusting nettle soup and peculiar pancakes, horrible home haircuts, punishing press-ups and scum in the bathtub. BUT then there’s the joy of boxing lessons with Dad, fun family outings, jokes and pranks – and storytelling round the fire. Not to mention a homemade birthday cake like no other!

Oliver’s real-life childhood – rough, tough but happy – is vividly depicted in this groundbreaking debut story told in poems.

Fusing performance poetry and family-friendly stand-up comedy, multi-award-winning children’s author, Oliver Sykes, takes his hotly anticipated new one-man show out on tour.

Set within a gripping adventure; expect a deeply touching story like no other from this sharp young powerhouse, who writes for publications including BookTrust, The Guardian and Metro

His first book, Alfie’s First Fight, won the ‘Illustrated Young Reader’ category at the 2023 Children’s Literature Festivals Book Award and in the same year his debut one-man family theatre show of the same name toured to over 50 venues across the UK. Oliver is touring his second live show, Fishing For Rainbows, throughout 2024.

Of We Are Family, Oliver said: "With austerity and the current cost of living crisis, unfortunately even larger numbers of children and young people will be experiencing the financial hardships that my family dealt with when my mum left. I hope in reading my poems they feel seen and less alone. My poems are full of hope and joy and love. I don't look back on my childhood as a bad time as there was fun, camaraderie and love in abundance. There was never much money in the pot, but there was always love and laughter around the Sykes family table."

Supported by Trafford Libraries and Oldham Libraries, and supported using public funding by Arts Council England.