News from the North West

Published: 26 February 2012
Reporter: David Chadderton

All-star Cabaret for Cancer at Royal Exchange

Morag SillerManchester's Royal Exchange Theatre will host a charity cabaret evening on 11 March in aid of cancer research.

Hosted by Sally Denyer, Julie Hesmondhalgh and Mark Addy, there will be singing from Jane Horrocks, Dean Andrews of Life On Mars and Charlie Dale of Casualty. Also appearing will be Anthony Cotton and Graeme Hawley from Coronation Street and Jeff Hordley from Emmerdale, plus there will be live music from Jackie Clune, Steven Wilkie, Ian Buckle, comedian Kate Robbins, actor Kieran Cunningham, Eimear Bradley and actor Ian Bartholomew, twenty children from Salford’s Stagecoach and The Manchester School of Samba and Manchester Light Orchestra and magic from Peter Moran.

The event was organised by actor Morag Siller, who was diagnosed with stage three breast cancer after filming for Eternal Law last year. It will raise money for cancer research at The Christie, the Genesis Foundation in Manchester and Beechwood Cancer Care in Stockport.

Siller said, "seeing the work that some of these charities do at first hand, has made me see that life doesn’t have to be all doom and gloom and that there are so many people out there making cancer easier to live with. It’s invaluable to quality of life."

Tickets cost £35, which includes wine and a buffet.

Salford One Play One Day to be repeated—in two venues

One Play One Day was an event held at the Black Lion in Salford last year in the "24-hour play" format in which, in this case, six new, short plays were written and staged in just one day by six directors and 25 actors.

The event was such a success—people were being turned away at the door—that One Play, One Day II will be held on the weekend of 17 and 18 March, but this time there will be a unique collaboration between the Black Lion and the King's Arms, the latter the home of popular fringe theatre venue Studio Salford.

Performances will begin simulaneously at the two venues with half of the fifteen-minute plays performed in each place, and then the actors will switch theatres in the interval and perform them again.

Tickets are £5 and can be booked through www.futureartists.co.uk and www.kingsarmssalford.com.

Organised Chaos call for scripts

Organised ChaosNew writing company Organised Chaos has opened its 2012 call for scripts and is looking for new, unperformed works of up to an hour in length with a cast of up to six actors suitable for performance in a studio space.

The company is looking for two scripts to tour in the north west in 2013 and already has guaranteed dates in April of that year at The Lowry. There is a £10 administration fee for submitting a script, and the closing date is 30 April.

For more information, see http://www.organisedchaosproductions.co.uk/scriptcall.html.

New play about Beatles manager to première in Liverpool

Brian Epstein, courtesy of Liverpool EchoThe life of former Beatles manager Brian Epstein is to be celebrated in a play to be premiéred in Liverpool in November at the theatre that bears his name.

The play Epstein written by Andrew Sherlock and directed by Jen Heyes is a one-man multimedia show with live music that will be performed at the Epstein Theatre, formerly the Neptune Theatre, on Hanover Street from 15 November to 1 December.

Director Jen Heyes said, "Epstein will transport our audiences back to the swinging sixties, a time when Liverpool was bursting with the Merseybeat. It’s a musical and visual journey through Brian’s life and told by the man himself."

NW productions

Sitcom writing team Laurence Marks and Maurice Gran follow up their successful Dreamboats and Petticoats 60s nostalgia jukebox musical with Save The Last Dance For Me, which will be at Manchester's Opera House from 27 February to 3 March.

Saturday Night And Sunday Morning - Perry Fitzpatrick as Arthur SeatonThe Royal Exchange Theatre in Manchester will present a new adaptation of Alan Sillitoe's novel set in 1950s Nottingham Saturday Night and Sunday Morning written and directed by Matthew Dunster from 1 March to 7 April.

The Forest from Fevered Sleep for ages five and over will be at Nuffield Theatre in Lancaster from 29 February to 3 March after a sold-out run at Sydney Opera House.

The Dancer and the DevilRogue Theatre's The Dancer and the Devil, written by Anna Maria Murphy, will be at the Unity Theatre in Liverpool on 28 February.

Opera North will be at The Lowry in Salford from 29 February to 3 March with Bellini's Norma, Handel's Giulio Cesare and Puccini's Madama Butterfly.

At the Frog and Bucket comedy club in Preston, Thunder Road theatre company will present Your Name Here, described as "a 10 act fusion of monologues, straight theatre, stand up and sketch comedy", with snacks and the chance to vote for the best performance on 1 March.

LOL (lots of love)Dance company Protein Dance will perform LOL (lots of love) at Knowsley Leisure and Culture Park in Huyton on 31 March, plus there will be workshops for local schools on 29 March and a schools matinée on 30 March.

John Graham Davies's Beating Berlusconi will be at Blackpool's Grand Theatre on 4 March. Also at the Grand, Leslie Ash and Brooke Kinsella will star in All The Single Ladies from 1 to 3 March and Grand Youth Theatre Company will perform Prince of Denmark as part of the National Theatre Connections programme in the Lawrence House Studio from 29 February to 2 March.

Black Box Theatre reinterprets John Steinbeck in O' Mice and Men at Preston's New Continental on 29 February and 1 March.

Matthew Bourne's Nutcracker! will be at The Lowry in Salford from 20 to 24 March.

At Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal, Blackeyed Theatre will present Steven Berkoff's adaptation of The Trial by Kafka on 29 February, Icarus Theatre Collective will perform The Tragedy of Macbeth on 1 March and Engine House will perform Red Riding Hood by Mike Kenny with music and songs by Julian Butler on 3 March.

Stuff and Nonsense Theatre Company will perform its adaptation of children's story The Enormous Turnip at Waterside Arts Centre in Sale on 3 March.

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