Two weeks ago, hundreds of bingo players demonstrated outside the Houses of Parliament against a tax increase. Now the writer and director Neil Bartlett explores the game's appeal in an engaging play specially created for the Manchester International Festival. The assumption is that theatregoers disdainfully curl their lips at the thought of bingo, but given the chance to play and win a prize of £200, we are soon dabbing away at the numbers with the same concentration as any regular.
Miriam Buether's set transforms the Royal Exchange into a dingy bingo hall, with a swirly, stained carpet, strip lighting, glitterballs and polystyrene cups on the Formica tables. The players - mostly women of all ages - form a chorus in which they religiously chant their