CityLife

Poetry, politics and Day to remember at Library

COUP: Carol Ann Duffy

"WE had already booked it in before the news broke," insists the Library Theatre’s artistic director Chris Honer, of the fact that the theatre’s Christmas show is written by newly-appointed Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy.

An adaptation by of Grimm Tales, by the Brothers Grimm, it takes pride of place in their autumn/winter schedule along with the regional premiere of David Harrower’s new translation of Bertolt Brecht’s The Good Soul of Szechuan, directed by Chris.

The theatre will also host visits from some of the country’s leading touring theatre companies making their north west debuts, including Live Theatre of Newcastle, and a world premiere from international touring company Border Crossings, while Angels With Manky Faces, by leading Manchester community theatre group MaD Theatre Company, plays from August 19-22.

The season begins with a bang and ‘a bit of an old sing song’ with the return of Manchester’s splendid theatrical spoofsters LipService – Sue Ryding and Maggie Fox.

Their brand-new show Desperate To Be Doris also stars Spamalot star Darren Southworth, as a ladies’ nightwear buyer by day and a wannabe Doris Day singer by night.

The production features classic Doris Day songs including Secret Love, Que Sera, Sera, and The Deadwood Stage and also features a community choir specially recruited for the Library Theatre.

Desperate To Be Doris runs from September 23-October 3.

Newcastle-based Live Theatre make their Manchester debut with Motherland, a hard-hitting piece of ‘verbatim theatre’ which dramatises the powerful and moving real-life stories of four women whose lives have been in some way touched by the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Motherland runs from October 6-10.

My Grandfather’s Great War is a moving and atmospheric one-man show by Cameron Stewart, based on the diary kept by his grandfather, a British Army captain at the Battle of the Somme, in 1916, in the First World War.

Nominated for Best Actor in the 2005 M.E.N. Theatre Awards for his portrayal of Philip Larkin, in the Library’s production of Larkin With Women, Cameron Stewart’s My Grandfather’s Great War is on Sunday October 11.

The theatre then welcomes the Shakespeare Schools Festival from October 12-17.

The country’s biggest youth drama festival, the event features four local schools each staging four different half-hour plays each evening.

Out Of Joint are regular and welcome visitors to the Library Theatre and the company’s production this year is Dreams of Violence, by Stella Feehily.

This contemporary comedy about a political activist trying to bring down world capitalism at the same time as juggling a chaotic home life features iconic 1970s TV star Paula Wilcox (Man About the House) and Thusitha Jayasundera (best known as DS Ramani De Costa in The Bill).

Dreams of Violence is at the Library from October 20-24.

Honer will be directing the regional premiere of David Harrower’s translation of The Good Soul of Szechuan, Bertolt Brecht’s resonant parable about how difficult it is to be virtuous in an inhospitable world as three gods look for something positive in poverty-stricken capitalist China. The Good Soul of Szechuan runs from October 30-November 28.

The Library’s reputation for the quality of its Christmas productions is second to none – and this year’s production is Carol Ann Duffy’s adaptation of Grimm Tales, by the Brothers Grimm.

Rachel O’Riordan, who very successfully directed Gates of Gold earlier this year at the theatre, directs a production which runs from December 5-January 23.

The popular Re:Play Festival, featuring productions seen in the city’s smaller non-traditional venues in 2009 but given the chance to be seen by a wider audience on the Library Theatre stage, returns between January 26 and February 6.

While ground-breaking international theatre company Border Crossings presents Re-Orientations, the third part of their breathtaking Orientations Trilogy, from February 17-27 February.

The trilogy tackles issues of gender, sexuality and performance in mythic and contemporary Asia and promises to be a visual feast. 

In addition, the Library Theatre will stage an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The Red Shoes, by the theatre’s norfox Young People’s Theatre Company on August 7-8, directed by Liz Postlethwaite, the theatre’s community and education director.

For tickets or further information, please call 0161 236 7110.