CityLife

Octagon aiming for the unforgettable

HAVOC: Rafta Rafta is a tale of sibling rivalry and tension

INTRODUCING his first season as the new artistic director of the Octagon Theatre Bolton this week, David Thacker laughingly admitted his ‘approach to selecting a season of plays is a bit like being a guest on Desert Island Discs’.

“I want to share with our audience a wide range of plays that I believe in,” he says.

“The choice is personal but not random and I’m sure you’ll be able to see some thematic links.

“Our mission at the Octagon,” he emphasises, “is to create unforgettable theatre experiences for people of all ages, backgrounds and cultural groups.

“Our conviction that great plays can move, inspire and challenge audiences – if the productions are accessible, intelligent, beautifully designed, brilliantly acted and sensitively directed – is at the heart of the Octagon’s policy.

“We aim to attract the widest possible audience, encouraging experienced theatre-goers to come to the Octagon more frequently and seeking to reach those who, for all sorts of social or cultural reasons, feel that theatre is alienating or forbidding as an art form.”

Drawing in customers from up to an hour’s drive away is part of Thacker’s grand plan to emphasise that ‘the Octagon is, at one and the same time, a community, regional and national theatre’.

“We aim to establish a national, even an international, reputation so that our central endeavour, which is to create high-quality theatre for the people of Bolton and the north west is, realised more effectively.

“This is exactly the right job for me at the right time,” he says, after a career that has included working at the RSC, the National Theatre, the Young Vic, the Duke’s Playhouse in Lancaster, several other regional theatres, the West End, in the USA, Israel and Europe and, for the last 10 years, as a television director.

My first big break came when I was appointed theatre director at the Duke’s Playhouse 30 years ago and I feel fell as passionate and committed now as I felt when I launched my first season there.

“Like then, I’m determined to dedicate the next stage of my life to regional theatre and to the north west.

“And like then, I believe that the way forward for regional theatre is to announce a year-long programme, which confidently declares who we are.”

The first of the new season productions to actually be directed by David is Arthur Miller’s All My Sons.

Over the years, he’s directed many of Miller’s plays and established a close working relationship with the great man.

That production of Miller’s first major play runs from October 1-24 and is preceded by a world premiere of Mixed Up North, a piece of verbatim theatre that’s a co-production with Out Of Joint.

Directed by Max Stafford-Clark, that runs from September 10-26.
 Thacker’s second directing stint is on Ibsen’s Ghosts, running from October 29 to November 21.

“Arthur Miller often told me how much he admired Ibsen,” David says, observing that, after the perceived failure of his first play, The Man Who Had All The Luck, Miller modelled the much more successful All My Sons on Ibsen.

“All My Sons and Ghosts are both plays in which, as Arthur Miller put it, ‘The chickens come home to roost’,” he remarks on continues of his decision to programme the two plays back to back.

The theatre’s festive production will be a new adaptation of Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist (November 27 to January 23). This specially commissioned version, by Deborah McAndrew, features original music and songs. 

David’s many modern dress productions of Shakespeare include: Romeo and Juliet and Hamlet, for the Young Vic; Measure for Measure, for the BBC; and The Two Gentleman of Verona, Julius Caesar and The Merchant of Venice, for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

He starts the new year with a production of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream, set in 1968, running from February 4 to March 6. 

Acknowledging the achievements of Mark Babych while he was artistic director, they’re reviving Mark’s production of And Did Those Feet, by Les Smith and Martin Thomasson (March 11-April 10), which won the M.E.N. Award for Best New Play in 2007(March 11-April 10).

In the context of the current heated public debate about humour, censorship and the freedom of expression David has decided to revive Trevor Griffiths’ Comedians – widely believed to be one of the greatest plays of the 20th century.

The production runs from 15 April 15 to May 8. 

Celebrating the centenary of the birth of Bolton playwright Bill Naughton, David has chosen to present the regional premiere of Ayub Khan-Din’s Rafta Rafta based on Bill Naughton’s play All In Good Time (subsequently filmed as The Family Way).

Set in a terrace street in Bolton, Rafta Rafta tells the story of a newly-wed couple in an Asian family as sibling rivalry and tension between the father and son wreak havoc with the start of their marriage (May 13-June 5). 

The season ends with the award-winning musical The Hired Man, based on the novel by Melvyn Bragg and featuring music by composer Howard Goodall, who has hinted that he might be writing some new songs for this production, which runs from June 10-July 3.

You can get more information and book tickets from octagonbolton.co.uk.