A rollicking tale of adventure set in early Victorian England, ranging from East End squalor to the Northern mills, and packing in an almost Dickensian gallery of characters.



England 1837: a country in a state of turmoil. A young girl is propelled on a journey from the London slums to the servants' quarters of a great house, and from first love to murder.



Jack Shepherd's play Holding Fire is a picaresque tale of tavern assemblies and prize fights, gin-palace communists and bullying do-gooders, industrialists and whores, bringing to life the violent times of early Victorian England.



Holding Fire was first staged at Shakespeare's Globe, London, in July 2007.