Pigeon

Commissioned & produced by the Royal Exchange Theatre, in association with ThickSkin.
Created for the Royal Exchange Theatre’s mobile theatre, the Den.

Have you ever seen a baby pigeon?

Debs is convinced she saw a man turn into a pigeon outside The Bridge Pub in 1987. Two decades years later she is still telling the tale to anyone who will listen. The pub now stands abandoned, set to be demolished to make way for a new housing estate, and Debs is on a mission to save it! But something strange is slowly happening. What starts as a twinge in her back, becomes something more bizarre than she could possibly imagine.

Is Debs about to sprout wings and take to the skies?

Pigeon is a play about community, family folklore and what it means to fly away and never return.

Pigeon was created when the Royal Exchange Theatre commissioned ThickSkin to work with the local community in Leigh, Tyldesley and Atherton as part of the Local Exchange Festival.

The group were fed up with the same stories about the area that focused on ‘coal, cotton and canals’, they asked for a play about folklore, local stories and community. The cast of Polly Lister, Tarek Slater and Lauren Sturgess were joined by a specially created community ensemble for the performances in August 2025.