Theatre in the North
Kristy Stott, Theatre EditorTheatre this month bursts with contrasts – from bold new writing and Black History Month highlights to contemporary arts and reimagined classics.
In Manchester, the thrilling autumn/ winter season launches at the Royal Exchange Theatre with Brian Friel’s Olivier and Tony-winning masterpiece, Dancing at Lughnasa. Meanwhile, over in Liverpool, the Everyman & Playhouse launches its new season with a super-fresh Romeo & Juliet, a strikingly contemporary take on Shakespeare’s most famous love story. And nearby at Shakespeare North Playhouse, The HandleBards bring magic and mayhem with a riotous new staging of The Tempest.
October also sees Black History Month take centre stage. Lowry marks it with Black Power Desk, a powerful exploration of Britain’s Black Power movement.
New writing is everywhere this autumn. Wisteria Theatre Company debuts with Vivienne Franzmann’s Pests at The Kings Arms, Salford. Back under the arches at 53two, JB Shorts returns with six sharp, brand-new plays from top TV and stage writers. Liverpool audiences can catch Graeae’s Bad Lads and Chalk Line’s The Chaos That Has Been and Will No Doubt Return – both urgent, unflinching and rooted in lived experience.
For contemporary theatre, Emergency 25 transforms Contact into a day-long festival of bold experiments, while Reckless Sleepers bring their mind-bending Binary Opposition to Lowry. At Aviva Studios, performance icon Marina Abramović returns with a major new show. And further afield, Leeds’ Transform Festival opens up unexpected spaces to radical new work, with highlights including Basel Zaraa’s Dear Laila, an intimate one-to-one performance exploring a Palestinian perspective on war and exile.
Scroll down for details of all of these, and even more top picks for the months ahead.
