Theatre and performance in Greater Manchester & other places.
Salford Arts Theatre. 20 April 2018. Tim Keogh's Thorn begins with a young man transfixed, and ultimately transformed, by the dazzling sight of David Bowie performing Starman on Top of the Pops. The year is 1973, and that 'boy' is Steven Patrick Morrissey. While for most of his adult life he will choose to be [...]
Royal Exchange, Manchester. 11 & 14 April 2018. A beat. Hear it. Making music, pulsing through the body and marking time. Beats can come together to make something bigger - a song, a crowd, a symphony, a city and a show. Press START Mixtape is a collection of beats, powered by the rhythms of young [...]
Octagon, Bolton. 9 April 2018. Set in Bolton in 1967, there's something reassuringly sweet about Kathrine Smith's tale of two men falling in love for the first time. Yet, Bobby and Ralph's romance follows a far from conventional trajectory - an anonymous fumble in a toilet cubicle, leading to a fiercely uninhibited fuck in Ralph's [...]
Royal Exchange, Manchester. 26 March 2018. To a Manchester audience, Middleton may seem an unlikely destination for someone with big dreams. Yet, in the 1950s, Lily Kwok chose it as the location for her pioneering Chinese restaurant. She achieved success there, but the town wasn't the only place that this woman with an extraordinary life [...]
Royal Exchange, Manchester. 13 March 2018. Matthew Xia's production of Frankenstein resists the schlock horror associations of popular culture, embarking instead upon a dark night of the soul. Honouring Mary Shelley’s original vision, it examines man's often irresponsible pursuit of glory and considers how society's cruelties can create monsters. It's powered by a well-developed sense [...]
Oldham Coliseum. 16 March 2018. For the inhabitants of two Scottish islands weary of wartime shortages of their favourite tipple, the arrival of a ship laden with 50,000 bottle of whisky is a dream come true. Especially as that vessel has run aground and is slowly sinking beneath the waves. While the authorities dispose of [...]
Contact Theatre at Alankar House of Saris, Manchester. 14 March 2018. Rani Moorthy's new play about a mother and son at odds over the future direction of their family's struggling sari business, is given an added layer of authenticity by being performed within a real life Rusholme sari shop. Rajesh (Ashraf Ejjbair) feels a strong [...]
HOME, Manchester. 7 March 2018. "One. Two. Three. Three. Start again." Vermont, New England. Five people. Lying on the floor of a community centre. Mid-exercise. Week one of a creative drama class. So begins Annie Baker's Pulitzer Prize winning play. They start again. It's a six-week course. Led by the unconventional Marty, the class comprises [...]
Contact Young Company at the Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester. 8 March 2018. Within the historic brick walls of the Museum of Science and Industry's 1830 Warehouse there's a revolution brewing. And I don't mean the cast munching on Lady Doritos in cheeky defiance of the listed building's "no food and drink allowed" rule! [...]
It's all change in Manchester this month, with lots of new theatre and performance. The following are three shows I'm particularly excited about. As well as these three choices, there are many more new openings and touring productions that are worth checking out in March, and I've included a brief overview of some of those. [...]
Circles & Stalls 