CityLife

The Lowry: Autumn / winter season 2010

Twelfth Night

When the curtain goes up on The Lowry’s 10th anniversary autumn/winter season, they are hoping there’ll be something there for everyone, from Christmas family fun to thought-provoking drama and dance.

There’s even, would you believe it, theatre on a barge!

After a sell-out success at London’s National Theatre, Alan Bennett’s latest smash hit play The Habit Of Art, which reflects on growing old, on creativity and inspiration, on persisting when all passion is spent, and, ultimately, on the habit of art, is coming from October 5-9.

Also due, and completely unmissable, is the brilliant Enron, the tale of one of the most infamous scandals in financial history. Writer Lucy Prebble and director Rupert Goold mix classic tragedy with savage comedy to cast a new light on the current financial situation in this production by Headlong, running from October 19-23.

To mark the beginning of a new partnership between The Lowry and the Royal Opera House, the season contains the first major artistic collaborations between the two organisations.

The Royal Ballet visit with Step By Step, an hour-long programme of highlights from the Company’s eight decades of history at Covent Garden’s Royal Opera House.

The show, on October 21, marks the opening of a landmark exhibition, Invitation To The Ballet, which tells the story of Ninette de Valois one of the greatest figures of 20th century ballet, while the brash and bawdy world of Hogarth’s London also comes to Salford with the Royal Opera House’s Pleasure’s Progress, commissioned from Will Tuckett. That’s running from October 22-3.

Stunning scenery, swashbuckling sword fights and breathtaking flying, accompanied by soaring music from a 14-piece orchestra, are in the air for Peter Pan – A Musical Adventure (December 8-January 1).

Another family favourite is Room On The Broom, a new adventure from the creators of The Gruffalo, adapted from the best-selling book written by Julia Donaldson (October 26-31).

The wonderful Manchester-based company Feelgood Theatre Productions have the world premiere of  Slave – A Question Of Freedom (November 23-7), a shocking real-life story of the modern slave trade in which the harrowing tale of a woman from Sudan is brought to life by storytelling, music and dance in Feelgood’s uniquely groundbreaking, multi-national style.

Meanwhile, the madness of love is explored in a ground breaking new look at Shakespeare’s comedy classic, Twelfth Night, from Filter, in association with the Royal Shakespeare Company (November 1-6).

The fortunes of war are brought into focus by MEN Theatre Award-winning Druid Theatre Company from Ireland with the moving classic The Silver Tassie (September 14-18), charting the passage of two young footballers through the horrors of the Great War.

World Cup jokes nein danke, as this is one of Sean O’Casey’s greatest plays and for this production Druid has put together one of their biggest ever company of actors as Garry Hynes directs a cast of 19, including M.E.N Theatre Award-winning Aaron Monaghan and Derbhle Crotty.

Then there’s the world premiere of the official Coronation Street 50th anniversary celebration Corrie! (August 12-21), with writer Jonathan Harvey taking a light hearted look at 50 years of the country’s best-known neighbourhood.

Corrie! follows the fortunes of two of Weatherfield’s finest families, the Barlows and the Platts, and features all your favourite characters past and present including Ena Sharples, Hilda Ogden, Hayley and Roy, Richard Hillman, Jack Duckworth, Bet Lynch, Steve, Karen and Becky and many more.

Relive those magic moments from ‘the Street’ – see the tram run over Alan, Tracy kill Charlie, Todd kiss Nick, and Gail marry Brian, Martin, Richard and Joe!

The Lowry is also floating the idea of theatre on a canal barge. Down at the Castlefield Basin, Metra Theatre will be performing Chekhov’s 3 Sisters on the Bridgewater Canal (September 18-24).

There’ll be improvisation and interaction with the audience, combining intense and entertaining storytelling with a mix of excerpts from Chekhov’s text.

Also on the Quayside will be a major new community and heritage project called Unlocking Salford Quays: The Inside Story.

The new sculpture trail supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund tells the history of the area through artwork and the memories of local people.

The must-have ticket for dance aficionados will doubtless include Cinderella, created by Matthew Bourne (November 23–27 November), with music by Prokofiev.

Set in London during the Second World War, Matthew’s interpretation of Prokofiev’s haunting score has, at its heart, a true wartime romance, as a chance meeting results in a magical night for Cinderella and her dashing young RAF pilot, together just long enough to fall in love before being parted by the horrors of the Blitz.

It was first seen in the West End in 1997, but has now been now completely revised in a new production created to commemorate the 70th anniversary of the London Blitz. 

Meanwhile, one of our greatest dance companies Rambert Dance Company will add their special magic to the world premiere of  Awakenings, based on the book by Dr Oliver Sacks (September 22-4).

Blaze: The Streetdance Sensation bursts into the theatre on October 1 and 2 mixing nightclub vibes with West End production values and featuring some of the best street dancers in the world.

Cirkus Cirkör, one of Europe’s top names in contemporary circus, bring their wildly eccentric show Inside Out to the north west from August 30-September 1 . This family-friendly show is jam-packed with clowning, acrobatics, juggling, trapeze, aerialists and much more.

Pretty much guaranteed to be a crowd-pleaser is Evita, by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber (September 6-18), while Strictly Come Dancing’s Craig Revel Horwood and the show’s musical supervisor and orchestrator Sarah Travis bring two musical sensations this season, the Watermill Theatre’s Spend Spend Spend! and Chess.

The first tells the rags-to-riches story of Viv Nicholson, a coal miner’s wife from Castleford who won £152,319 on the pools in 1961, the biggest sum ever won at that time (October 12-16).

Written by Tim Rice and ABBA’s Bjorn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, Chess sees two of the world’s greatest chess masters battle it out at the World Chess Championships, but their greatest contest is for the love of one woman (October 26-30)

Of course, no festive season would be complete without Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and the Manchester Library Theatre Company deliver their magical take on the classic tale in a show for audiences aged six and up, running from December 3-January 8, having already taken up their residency at the Quays Theatre with Tom Stoppard’s Arcadia (September 23-October 9).

Adding to the festive cheer will be The Life And Adventures Of Santa Claus based on the book by L Frank Baum, the author of The Wizard of Oz.

This fun story from the Big Wooden Horse company follows the early life of Santa Claus and runs from December 27 to January 3).