A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Octagon Theatre

Kristy Stott, Theatre Editor

Book now

A Midsummer Night's Dream

24-27 September 2020

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

A Midsummer Night's Dream with the Octagon Theatre
Image courtesy of the Guildford Shakespeare Company.
Book now

Before the Octagon Theatre Bolton reopens to welcome visitors, the theatre continues to reach its audiences digitally. This autumn the Octagon Theatre will broadcast a brand new live-streamed production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Co-produced with the award-winning Guildford Shakespeare Company and directed by Octagon Artistic Director Lotte Wakeham, this ‘made for online’ version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream will reach eager audiences via Zoom for four nights this September. A hilarious online adaptation of one of Shakespeare’s best-loved comedies.

While we wait for the theatres to reopen and for performances to resume – bring the live theatre experience into your living room. Originally performed in the open-air by the Guildford Shakespeare Company in 2017, the production has been specially adapted and directed for an online audience.

The Shakespearean comedy follows four young lovers as they find themselves lost in a mystical wood. With feisty fairies, mischievous sprites and a gang of highly-strung amateur actors, this classic light-hearted tale boasts some of Shakespeare’s most popular characters; Bottom the weaver, who finds himself transformed into a donkey, and Puck, the crafty little sprite whose love potions cause all manner of mayhem.

Artistic Director Lotte Wakeham said, “A Midsummer Night’s Dream will be fantastic fun and a great opportunity for audiences of all ages to engage with live theatre safely, until we can meet together in person. I look forward to sharing more details of our new productions which will take place in the theatre itself soon.”

Where to go near A Midsummer Night’s Dream with the Octagon Theatre

Balance Taproom
Manchester
Restaurant
Balance Taproom

Manchester has a glut of taprooms, and Balance Brewing’s is far and away the best. Drinks, decor, service – all a cut above.

Richard Hards ‘Strangeways’
Manchester
Gallery
Moon Grove

A Georgian front room in Rusholme houses Moon Grove, an independent gallery with an unusually ambitious international programme.

In Focus: Chinese Contemporary Art.
Manchester
Gallery
New Adelphi Exhibition Gallery

New Adelphi Exhibition Gallery opened in 2016, providing a permanent space to showcase the University of Salford Art Collection within the New Adelphi School of Arts and Media.

Cumbria
Restaurant
1863 Restaurant

1863 offers a seven-course Lake District tasting menu that overdelivers at every turn. Cumbrian ingredients, clever ideas and classical cooking techniques.

City Centre
Bar or Pub
Schofield’s Bar

Schofield’s could be Manchester’s most grown-up bar. Very precise drinks in an upmarket city centre venue. It’s not cheap, hey, but true class costs.

Manchester
Restaurant
Sampa

Sampa’s underground space is the perfect place to learn about both her new mind-expanding dishes and vintage sherries, reimagined for the late 2020s.

Northern Quarter
Restaurant
Sicilian NQ

Busy backstreet Sicilian restaurant in the Northern Quarter, serving up traditional dishes with well-executed vegan versions that more than match up.

Manchester
Restaurant
Maki & Ramen

Japanese sushi and ramen restaurant on High Street, Northern Quarter, founded by Teddy Lee. House-made noodles, eight-hour broths, plus sushi, donburi and vegan options.

What's on: Theatre

Encounter Festival in Preston
FestivalsLancashire
Encounter Festival in Preston

Preston comes alive with outdoor theatre, live music and family-friendly creativity in one of the North West’s most joyful festivals.

Free entry
Mrs Dalloway at HOME
TheatreManchester
Mrs Dalloway at HOME

Jen Heyes and Kit Green breathe thrilling new life into Virginia Woolf’s modernist classic with an inventive theatrical reimagining.

From £16.20
Woodhill at Lowry
TheatreSalford
Woodhill at Lowry

LUNG turns real testimony into an unflinching piece of theatre about loss, accountability and the crisis facing Britain’s prisons.

From £13.00

Culture Guides

Food and Drink in the North

Squeeze the most out of these final weeks of summer thanks to our mid-August guide to food and drink in Manchester and the North.

Exhibitions

Our latest exhibition picks include a lost recording of the Strangeways protest, Manchester's first sound art festival, and queer archives revisited.

Matt Spratt.
Music

Aphex Twin-endorsed electronica, an eight-hour organ marathon and the most exciting band in Ireland's current folk revival all feature this month.

Woodhill by LUNG Theatre.
Theatre

Contemporary performance, verbatim theatre, dark comedy and a bold vision of Gaza - an eclectic mix for the start of autumn.

Emily Lloyd-Saini as Grace in Space and Harrie Hayes as Lieutenant Strong in Horrible Science
Family things to do in the North

Whether you’re after storybook theatre, museum wanderings or illusion-bending play spaces, there’s plenty to keep curiosity ticking through winter and beyond.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Cinema in the North

There's no shortage of great films out at the moment, whether you're looking for the latest blockbuster, that hot arthouse flick fresh from Cannes or a cosy classic.