After last summer's acclaimed adaptation of Charles Dickens's Hard Times in a disused Manchester cotton mill, the city's Library Theatre is going even further up in the world with this summer's site-specific performance on the fifth floor of an office block.
Manchester Lines will be performed, to audiences of 100 at a time, at Number One First Street, part of the development where the Library Theatre Company's new home, which it will share with Cornerhouse, is due to open in 2014.
In a lost property room in central Manchester, en route to somewhere, eight people explore their own personal journeys.
The play will be directed by site-specific theatre specialist Wils Wilson and written by award-winning poet, playwright and novelist Jackie Kay (Red Dust Road, Trumpet), with music from Errollyn Wallen (Opera North, Orchestra of the Swan).
A specially assembled community choir will also be featured, reinforcing the company's aims of widening participation.
The cast comprises John Branwell (currently appearing in Bolton Octagon's touring production of Alfie); Bettrys Jones (from TV's Skins); Claire Brown (Holby City, The Bill); Anne Kidd (Tutti Frutti, Monarch of the Glen, River City); Amelia Donkor (Doctors, The Bill, Holby City); and Tachia Newall (Coronation Street, Waterloo Road).
Designer Amanda Stoodley faces the task of transforming the office to a fully-fledged performance space in which the audience, as was the case with Hard Times, will be integrated with the actors, and—on this occasion—hundreds of items of lost property!
Details: www.librarytheatre.com