A controversial musical highlighting the high-profile story of Shannon Matthews' disappearance is set to hit the stage. The work comes 12 years after the Dewsbury Moor girl went missing for more than three weeks before she was found hidden in the base of a divan bed at a flat just a mile from her home.
Her disappearance sparked one of West Yorkshire's biggest manhunts and the Dewsbury Moor estate banded together to search for the schoolgirl and support Karen and her family. However, some suspected her mother Karen had something to do with it.
According to YorkshireLive, musical comedy act Kunt and the Gang have now announced two performances of Shannon Matthews The Musical at the Lending Room, in Woodhouse, Leeds, on July 23, at 6.30pm and 9.30pm. The show has already sold out a later run at Edinburgh Fringe.
The fictional musical is based on research from the media but will reference events that are “entirely fictional or drawn from the imagination of the writer”, according to the show's description.
When Shannon was found, it was revealed the man who was hiding her, Michael Donovan, had planned the whole episode with Shannon’s mother in order to make money from the publicity. Donovan was Karen’s partner Craig Meehan’s uncle.
Matthews and Donovan were both sentenced to eight years for kidnap, false imprisonment and perverting the course of justice.
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