The Lowry's new season has got the lot
September – December 2010
When the curtain goes up on The Lowry's exciting and diverse 10th anniversary Autumn/Winter season it will cater for every taste - from Christmas family fun to thought-provoking drama and dance and theatre on a barge.
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 to the North West 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 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. The brash and bawdy world of Hogarth’s London also comes to Salford with the Royal Opera House’s Pleasure’s Progress, a Will Tuckett commission for ROH2 featuring a parade of larger-than-life characters.
Two modern classics will arrive in the North West for the first time. After a sell-out success at the National Theatre London, Alan Bennett’s latest smash hit play The Habit of Art comes to The Lowry. Direct from the West End is ENRON, the tale of one of the most infamous scandals in financial history. Up-and-coming 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.
Families will be hooked on The Lowry’s Christmas show, Peter Pan – A Musical Adventure. Stunning scenery, swashbuckling sword fights and breathtaking flying, accompanied by soaring music from a 14-piece orchestra, make this the must-see seasonal treat. Another family favourite is Room on the Broom, a spellbinding new adventure from the creators of The Guffalo, adapted from the best-selling book written by Axel Scheffler.
The première Slave – A Question of Freedom, a shocking real-life story of the modern slave trade, comes from Manchester-based company Feelgood Theatre Productions. The harrowing tale of a woman from Sudan is brought to life by storytelling, music and dance. 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. The fortunes of war are brought into focus by Druid theatre company from Ireland with the moving classic The Silver Tassie charting the passage of two young footballers through the horrors of the Great War.
Just up everyone’s street will be the official Coronation Street 50th Anniversary Celebration. Corrie!, a world première written by Jonathan Harvey, takes a light hearted look at 50 years of the country’s best-known neighbourhood.
The Lowry is floating a great idea – theatre on a canal barge. Down at the Castlefield Basin will be Metra Theatre to perform Chekhov’s 3 Sisters on the Bridgewater canal. Improvisation and interaction with the audience will provide a unique theatrical experience, 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 be Cinderella created by Matthew Bourne. Contemporary dance at its best comes with Rambert Dance Company who add their special magic to the world première Awakenings, based on the book by
Dr Oliver Sacks. Blaze: The Streetdance Sensation bursts into the theatre 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. This family-friendly show is jam-packed with clowning, acrobatics, juggling, trapeze, aerialists and much more.
A certain crowd-pleaser is one of the most inspiring musicals ever written, Evita, by Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Strictly Come Dancing’s Craig Revel Horwood and 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. 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.
No festive season would be complete without Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and the Manchester Library Theatre Company deliver their magical take in a show for audiences aged six and up. 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.
The Studio season has an eclectic programme of productions designed to showcase the very best in contemporary, cutting-edge theatre from some of the country’s hottest companies. Developed with The Lowry Studio is The Play That Killed Me a story of hope and sacrifice, about finding beauty and truth in strange places, the bonds of love and friendship that see people through the most agonizing of situations. Grisley, ghastly and gruesome is a new adaptation of the tale of the demon barber of Fleet Street – Sweeney Todd - His Life, Times and Execution - humour doesn’t get much darker than the cabaret, music and puppetry from Finger in the Pie. After its success at last years Edinburgh Fringe, Territory a touching and humorous explanation of youth, penned by 19 year-old Salford-Born Reuben Johnson arrives in the Studio.
This season there’s more music and comedy than ever before. Side-splitting nights of laughs come from the likes of Sean Lock, Julian Clary, Ardal O’Hanlon,Jenny Eclair, Ross Noble, Kevin Bridges, Reginald D Hunter and Stewart Francis. The music line-up includes the R&B legend, Roberta Flack, Soft Cell’s Marc Almond and a rare UK date from Nils Lofgren. Italian composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi also arrives for a special solo concert.
In the Galleries, photographer Philip Townsend captures the sixties as they swung in his new exhibition, Mister Sixties: Philip Townsend’s Portraits of a Decade. Documenting the people, the style and the musical revolution, this vibrant collection of images including The Rolling Stones’ first ever photo shoot, demonstrates how close to the action he was.
Also in the Galleries is Unlocking Salford Quays: The Inside Story. This special exhibition charts the history of this massive community-led heritage project and gives visitors the opportunity to ‘unlock’ the past of Salford Quays with a whole host of fascinating artefacts and stories about the rich industrial heritage of the area, plus artists’ drawings and models for our new Quays Sculpture Trail.
The Lowry celebrated its 10th anniversary on 28 April 2010 and has spent 10 years delighting, engaging and challenging both local and national audiences with the very best in visual art and performance. The Lowry Centre Trust is a not-for-profit charitable organisation and registered charity (no. 1053962). All income supports our world-class Theatres and Galleries programme, the care and display of the LS Lowry Collection and our life-changing Community and Education work. The Lowry’s Chief Executive, Julia Fawcett was awarded an OBE for services to the Arts in the Queen’s 2010 New Year Honours list.
Posted on Monday, 05 July 2010 under News Theatre Press