CityLife

Kevin Bourke's 2009 theatre highlights

CIRCUS MAGIC: Quidam

AT this time of year it’s traditional to look back over the previous 12 months.

However we’ve already done that with our Theatre Awards so, instead, we’re going to look forward to some of the likely theatrical highlights of the coming year ahead. 

If the 2007 Manchester International Festival was anything to go by then a lot of great work is likely to be seen at this year’s event in July.

We only know only a few of the shows so far but one of them is Everybody Loves A Winner, created by Neil Bartlett, and running at the Royal Exchange from July 1.

There’s already real excitement about Prima Donna, the new opera written by Rufus Wainwright. Inspired by – but “not based on”, Rufus insists – Maria Callas – the show will run from July 10-19 at the Palace Theatre.

In fact only last week (he adds in a name-dropping, jet-setting sort of way) I was being excitedly quizzed about Rufus’ show backstage at Cirque du Soleil’s show Quidam in Brussels, which means I can also certainly recommend that particular show which will be re-tooled especially for its season at the M.E.N. Arena in March.

If, like me, you can’t get enough of gravity defying acrobats, awe-inspiring aerial acts, contortionists, rope-jumpers, a balancing duo and clowns that are actually funny, then the magical world of Quidam should be for you.

Less to my personal taste, but likely to float a lot of people’s boats, is We Will Rock You, the worldwide smash hit musical based on the music of Queen and written by Ben Elton. Defying critical brickbats, it’s been running with great success for years in London and but we’ll be able to see it at the Palace from March 20 until June 6.

There’s another chance to see the wonderful show Blonde Bombshells Of 1943 at The Lowry from January 20. Written by Alan Plater, this was a huge hit at the Bolton Octagon and won an M.E.N. Theatre Award as Best Production in 2006.

Also returning to The Lowry after enjoying enormous success there earlier this year is Calendar Girls, running from March 16-21 and pretty well certain to sell out, I would say. 

As ever, The Lowry is are bringing in some of the best touring shows from all over the world next year. A likely highlight is the RSC’s collaboration with Kneehigh Theatre, Don John. Inspired by Mozart’s Don Giovanni, it’s set in England in 1978 during the Winter of Discontent and runs. It’s running at the Lowry from March 3.

Also from the Kneehigh stable is Emma Rice’s brilliant and hilarious staging of Noel Coward’s Brief Encounter which you can see at the theatre from March 24.

Opera North’s season at The Lowry starts on February 25. Among their shows are Tosca and two George Gershwin pieces, shows, Of Thee I Sing and its sequel, Let ’Em Eat Cake.

Most likely to attract cartloads of attention though is Skin Deep on February 26. It’s the world premiere of a satirical operetta marking a unique collaboration between David Sawer, whose From Morning To Midnight was a great success for English National Opera a few years ago, and broadcaster Armando Iannucci.

Of course I can’t mention that without drawing to your attention Opera Della Luna’s HMS Pinafore at The Lowry from March 23.

Their production of The Mikado earlier this year entertained even non-fans of Gilbert and Sullivan so hopes are high, as they are for Sir Peter Hall’s Where There’s A Will (from March 17). One of our most distinguished directors, Hall helms this French farce for the ever-inventive English Touring Theatre.

One of the most astonishing theatrical experiences of the past 12 months was undoubtedly the National Theatre of Scotland’s Black Watch.

They’re returning with a co-production with the equally  thrilling Donmar Warehouse, called Be Near Me (from April 28).

Based on the novel by Andrew O’Hagan, it’s directed by the great Ian McDiarmid. His appearance in the Donmar Warehouse production of Pirandello’s Henry IV at the Lowry won him the Best Performance in a Visiting Production M.E.N. Theatre Award.

You’ll probably need to book early too for the Philip Pullman adaptation, His Dark Materials, running at the theatre from April 23.

Birmingham Royal Ballet are making two visits to The Lowry.

In March/April, they’re offering Pomp And Circumstances and Sylvia, while July sees them returning with two mixed bills, Love And Loss and Sir Fred And Mr. B.

Without new writing, theatre is inevitably in trouble and The Library Theatre is to be congratulated, then, for bringing back Re:Play, its selection of some of the best new productions seen in non-theatre spaces over the last year or so. It runs from January 20 and is highly recommended.

Inevitably – and quite rightly – the selection includes several exciting shows first seen at this year’s 24:7 Festival, which is running next year from July 20-26.

The Royal Exchange, which deserves a great deal of the credit for popularising Canadian writer Brad Fraser, brings a new Fraser production, True Love Lies, to the main stage from January 28.

There’s also the world premiere of Haunted, a play by Edna O’Brien, that will star Brenda Blethyn, opening on May 13.