Guides
What's on
Where to go
See all

Guides
What's on
Where to go
See all

Sound Stage

Kristy Stott, Theatre Editor

Book now

Sound Stage

26 March-1 October 2021

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

From £TBC
Sound Stage
Image courtesy of Naked Productions.
Book now

We’re all missing theatre – the live performance, the pre-show excitement, post-show Q&As and interval drinks with friends. Sound Stage is an innovative new initiative that goes someway to recreate a digital theatrical experience for audiences.

Sound Stage is a new project from Pitlochry Festival Theatre and the Royal Lyceum in collaboration with the consistently brilliant and award-winning Manchester-based audio production company, Naked Productions. An exciting, new audio-digital venture, Sound Stage has been designed by theatre-makers and leading technologists, to give audiences a unique online theatre experience.

Designed by theatre-makers and leading technologists, to give audiences a unique online theatre experience.

A series of audio plays, Sound Stage will bring eight acclaimed writers: Mark Ravenhill, Timberlake Wertenbaker, Roy Williams, John Byrne, Jaimini Jethwa, Lynda Radley, Gary McNair and Frances Poet. With one new play released every month through until October 2021, the series starts on 26 March with Ravenhill’s autobiographical, Angela. Ravenhill’s play explores the way in which culture, high and low, had an effect on both his mother’s and his family’s lives.

Each play will not just be presented as an audio recording for audiences to listen to online though; each performance will have a ticketed online première and audiences will be invited to turn up at showtime to find their virtual seats. Audiences will also be able to interact with other theatregoers during the interval and join a post-show Q&A with the creative team. The project aims to recreate the social experience of a trip to the theatre – there’s even a virtual bar where theatre-lovers can mingle.

The project aims to recreate the social experience of a trip to the theatre.

There’s always been a strong connection between audio drama and stage performance – both are shaped by text and storytelling, and both rely on the imagination of the audience to help create a world. Offering the experience of listening to exceptional new audio plays alongside the experience of attending a ‘virtual theatre’, we think that Sound Stage brings an exciting and intriguing new theatrical experience.

Where to go near Sound Stage

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.

Restaurant Orme
Manchester
Restaurant
Restaurant Örme

A hidden gem in the suburbs of Greater Manchester, serving high-level British small plates to a soundtrack of indie rock and roll.

The Abbey
Manchester
Restaurant
The Abbey

Historic Hulme pub with a very good live gig space, brought to you by the very capable team behind YES, Gorilla, Now Wave and Manchester Psych Fest.

Manchester
Bar or Pub
Pigeon Beer Wanderer

Pigeon Beer Wanderer brings wine-level ceremony to Manchester’s new “Beermuda Triangle”, courtesy of Joshua Lightfoot and his crack team of booze experts.

Image courtesy of Unitom.
Castlefield
Gallery
UNITOM Projects

The exhibition arm of Manchester indie bookshop UNITOM is a dedicated space for contemporary visual culture in the St John’s neighbourhood.

City Centre
Restaurant
Portfolio

Portfolio is a Champagne boutique on Manchester’s Bridge Street, offering a set menu of fine-dining small bites.

Manchester
Gallery
Bridge 5 Mill

Bridge 5 Mill is a sustainable event space and community hub on Beswick Street in Ancoats, hosting independent cultural projects and ethical supper clubs.

1853 gallery 1
Manchester
Gallery
1853 Studios

1853 Studios and Gallery is a Creative Studios and community of creative professionals occupying the 3rd floors of Osborne Mill, Oldham.

Deansgate
Restaurant
Podium

Podium delivers high-end, seasonal dishes, largely geared around produce and ideas from the British Isles, but with a few deft twists and turns.

Tai Wu
Manchester
Restaurant
Tai Wu

Long-standing, trend-swerving Chinese restaurant on Manchester’s Upper Brook Street, with a reputation for authentic dim sum and traditional Cantonese cuisine.

See all places

What's on: Theatre

The Bob Ross Effect
TheatreManchester
The Bob Ross Effect at Hope Mill

One of pop culture’s more unlikely icons – the man with the famous perm and ‘happy little trees’ – gets a theatre show. Intrigued? Us too.

From £15.50
Until
FestivalsChester
Storyhouse in the Park

Four open-air productions, films under the stars and frozen cocktails in the park – Chester’s doing summer right.

Free entry

Culture Guides

Food and Drink in the North

It's heatwave time, so set your small talk phasers to 'weather' and get out there and grab some cold drinks and delicious food.

Theatre in Manchester and the North
Theatre

Discover the summer's most rewarding theatre in libraries, pubs, Fringe venues and unexpected spaces across the North.

“the ripple” artwork by Crowns & Owls courtesy of Good Machine.
Music

From post-industrial romance to experimental country, here's a hot new batch of weird gigs in small venues.

Blue triangles with white clouds on them against a beige backdrop. A gold sun is in the middle.
Exhibitions

Five exhibitions worth your time this month - and between them, a lot of ground covered.

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.

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.

See all guides