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Dateline: 1st June, 2006 New Seasons in Manchester Three theatres in the Greater Manchester area have announced their new seasons.
Royal Exchange Theatre, ManchesterThe Royal Exchange celebrates its 30th anniversary this autumn, and its autumn and winter programme has been designed to reflect the company's styles and influences over its history. The season opens in September with a brand new adaptation of Elizabeth Gaskill's novel Mary Barton, set against a backdrop of industrial Manchester in the 1840s scripted by Rona Munroe and directed by Sarah Frankcom. This is followed in October with August Wilson's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, which tells the story of a recording session with blues legend Ma Rainey, her band members, and the white producer and agent who made themselves wealthy through Rainey's records, directed by Jacob Murray. Ben Keaton returns to the Royal Exchange for another Christmas production (he has starred in Exchange Christmas productions in the past of Harvey and Animal Crackers). This time he will appear in Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac in a new adaptation by Anthony Burgess, directed by Greg Hersov. The main house season will conclude with a revival of Noel Coward's The Vortex, directed by Jo Combes.
Library Theatre, ManchesterThe Library's autumn season will begin in September with the north west premiere of Alan Ayckbourn's Private Fears in Public Places, a study of the lives of six lonely urbanites who devise varying ways of coping with the absurdities of modern life. Following this, Out of Joint will visit with its new co-production with the National Theatre of The Overwhelming by J T Rogers, directed by Max Stafford-Clark, set in Rwanda in 1994 just before the country imploded in bloody genocide. In October, associate director Roger Haines directs Vieux Carré by Tennessee Williams, set in a boarding house in the French Quarter of New Orleans between winter 1938 and spring 1939 about a group of disparate characters, one of whom, known only as 'the writer', is reputed to have been Williams himself. Rani Moorthy returns to the Library in November with a new piece, Too Close to Home, directed by Iqbal Khan, set during a 24-hour period as a Muslim family gathers during Ramadan to pray and break the fast. The Library's Christmas show this year is The Golden Goose, adapted by Charles Way. Following this is artistic director Chris Honer's production of Tom Stoppard's Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead in February and March 2007. Other productions will be announced later.
Coliseum Theatre, OldhamThe Coliseum is kicking off its new season in spectacular style with a production of the musical Sweet Charity by Neil Simon, Cy Coleman and Dorothy Fields, directed by artistic director Kevin Shaw. This is followed in October by The Mortal Ash by Richard Cameron, about the family on the estate that no one talks to but everybody talks about, directed by Robin Herford. Compass Theatre brings an adaptation by Stephen Jeffreys of Hard Times by Charles Dickens to the Coliseum in October, followed by a touring production of Ray Cooney's Funny Money. The Coliseum's Christmas production this year will be Cinderella by Mark Chatterton and Sarah Nixon, directed by Kevin Shaw. The first production of 2007 will be of Terry Johnson's Dead Funny, set at the time when Benny Hill and Frankie Howerd both died. This is followed at the end of February with a production by Feelgood Theatre of Stephen MacDonald's play about first world war poets Wilfred Owen and Siegfried Sassoon, Not About Heroes. In March, Red Shift presents Get Carter by Ted Lewis, adapted and directed by Jonathan Holloway. Reporter: David Chadderton Please note that all three Archive indices are very long and will therefore take some time to download.
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