After next week’s opening of a revival of A View From the Bridge, Bolton Octagon moves closer to home, from February 19 to March 21, with Hindle Wakes written by Stanley Houghton and directed by David Thacker; a funny and compelling Northern play depicting life, love and social expectation in a small mill town just before the outbreak of the First World War.
One of the first plays to have a working class female central character, it was considered to be hugely controversial when first performed.
From March 26 to April 18, associate director Elizabeth Newman will take on Noël Coward’s comedy Private Lives.
A flirty and thrilling play about rekindled romance in ‘30s Paris, The Ancient Secret of Youth and the Five Tibetans is a world première by international award-winning playwright Jim Cartwright, and will be showing from April 30 until May 23. A daring production about three old friends who discover the secret of youth, The Ancient Secret... will be an intimate and progressive collaboration between writer and director.
From June 4 to July 4 is the fast-paced, farcical Noises Off, written by Michael Frayn and directed by David Thacker. The production will be David’s last in his role as artistic director, and is about the backstage shenanigans of a theatre company in the throes of ‘putting on a show’.
The venue is also staging a variety of touring and studio shows.