Hope Mill Theatre Archives - Page 3 of 6

Manchester LGBTQ+ Theatre Company return to Hope Mill Theatre

7Jun

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Manchester LGBTQ+ Theatre Company return to Hope Mill Theatre

Manchester based LGBTQ+ theatre company Green Carnation make their return to the stage this October with a new production of Philip Ridley’s scorching psychological thriller, ‘Vincent River’. Green Carnation Company, whose mission is to tell queer stories through quality theatre, will return to Hope Mill Theatre from Wednesday 12th to Wednesday 19th October to premiere their first production since the pandemic. The play, ‘Vincent’ River’, is a tense, heart-breaking, and at times darkly humorous thriller examining hate crime, loss, prejudice and sexuality in a tense game of cat and mouse set in London’s East End. Green Carnation began its life in 2018 when it was founded by Manchester based co-directors Dan Ellis and Dan Jarvis (aka ‘The Dans’) to produce Alexi Kaye Campbell’s time-tr...

11May

By Louise KershawNo Comments

North West

Passion – Hope Mill Theatre

‘Die, Fosca! Die’ was the call from the auditorium in response to the first production of Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Passion’ in May 1994. Theatre trolling alive and well before the internet even existed. Who would have known? No such reaction from the audience gathered in a packed Hope Mill Theatre this evening I can assure you, but I will come back to that… Based on Tarchetti’s 1869 novel Fosca, Passion is one of the few projects that Stephen Sondheim himself conceived. When it first opened on Broadway in May 1994 it was admired by critics but not by audiences who were utterly repelled by the character of Fosca, the woman with whom Giorgio eventually falls in love. Unattractive, manipulative, obsessive, relentless in her pursuit of this younger man, audiences refused to believe that th...

Jane Hair: The Brontes Restyled – Hope Mill Theatre

6Apr

By Brian MaddenNo Comments

North West

Jane Hair: The Brontes Restyled – Hope Mill Theatre

A salon in the village of Haworth, West Yorkshire is an unlikely location for a play to be set. However, we soon meet the stylists; Emily, Charlotte and Anne and finally it all becomes clear. This is a modern day look at the Bronte sisters written by Bradford lasses Kirsty Smith and Kat Rose-Martin. From the get go the characters are instantly likeable and have their own unique personalities. However, before going on with the review I must state on the night I watched the production the actor who plays Charlotte was isolating due to Covid-19. However, instead of cancelling the performance the ladies ploughed on and the stage manager stepped up to read the role of Charlotte, and she more than delivered. The action really starts when a post appears online from a ‘Lizzie G’ (any gue...

30Mar

By Paul ClarkeNo Comments

North West

Vagina Cake – Hope Mill Theatre

Making friends at university can be a risky business as four friends have found out as they run round the stage pandering to the unreasonable demands of an unseen ‘The Duchess’. In between Laura Harper’s warm, funny but very perceptive new work unpeels the power and complexity of female friendships as Fraggle, Dipsy, Mumps and Mary migrate from their relatively carefree twenties into the much choppier waters of their thirties. Harper has based Vagina Cake on extensive chats with women of different generations, and the regular gales of laughter from the mainly female audience proved she has nailed the inevitable changes in friendships that start when you are essentially still a big child. The first half centres around a disastrous wedding sketching out each of the women’s ro...

Passion starring Ruthie Henshall to play 4-week run at Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester

18Mar

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

Passion starring Ruthie Henshall to play 4-week run at Hope Mill Theatre, Manchester

Full casting is now announced for Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine’s Passion this May: Dean John-Wilson (Steven Spielberg’s Masters of Air, Apple TV; Aladdin) will play Giorgio, the man who finds himself at the heart of a passionate love affair, alongside Olivier nominated Kelly Price (What’s New Pussycat?, Birmingham REP; A Little Night Music, Menier Chocolate Factory and Garrick Theatre) as Clara. The cast is completed by Adam Robert Lewis (The Phantom of the Opera, Her Majesty’s Theatre), Charlie Waddell (South Pacific, Chichester Festival Theatre), Danny Whitehead (Wicked, UK tour), Dalton Harris (The X Factor), Ray Shell (Starlight Express, The Lion King), Steve Watts (As You Like It, Cheek by Jowl), and Tim Walton (Matilda the Musical, RSC). They join the Olivier Award winner and mus...

My Favourite Place in the Whole Wide World – Hope Mill Theatre

3Mar

By Lou SteggalsNo Comments

North West

My Favourite Place in the Whole Wide World – Hope Mill Theatre

Trauma can have impact people in many different ways – some people grow and flourish from the ashes, some people can see their life, and the things that bring them comfort, cruelly collapse and leave them shattered. Award-winning playwright Ian Townsend explores this journey along with themes of sexual identity, self-esteem and the very human craving of connection with others in his newest work, “My favourite place…”, directed by James Schofield. In and amongst a simple set of stacked black and orange-striped boxes, we meet J and Ruth, two people who have endured their own childhood traumas, and who, through a cleverly executed moment of serendipity, are thrust into a most unlikely friendship. The script is very much a tale of two halves. In part one, we watch each character lay o...

9Feb

By Paul DownhamNo Comments

NEWS

1974 Productions return to Hope Mill

Following their success with the 2019 tour of Ian Townsend’s multi award winning play All The Bens (sold out dates, Greater Manchester Fringe Award for Best Drama, Nominated for Best Actor, Best Revival and Oldham Coliseum Pick of the Fringe), 1974 Productions are proud to present Ian’s new full-length play My Favourite Place In The Whole Wide World. Longlisted for the 2019 Bruntwood/Royal Exchange International Playwriting Competition, this beautiful new play tells the story of Ruth (Claire Eden) and J (Ben Kenzie), two people in search of love and purpose in a world of confusion and loss. We watch Ruth and J grow from children to adults and see how they’ve been influenced by events and circumstances. Shot through with humour, My Favourite Place In The Whole Wide World is an engagin...

11Jan

By Craig HepworthNo Comments

Blogs

In The Spotlight

Hello North West End Welcome to my new weekly column here on the site, where I will talk all things theatre from local to touring, West End to Broadway and more. My name is Craig, and I am a playwright and director here in wonderful Manchester and also the co-owner of the long running theatre production company Vertigo. I am thrilled to be able to spend a little time with you each week with this column and share what's going on in the theatre world. So, with that said, I thought it might be best to bring you up to date with all that's going on around the world in theatre when it comes to everybody's least favourite party guest... Covid. It's been a dreadful two years for the theatre industry, and today we are still fighting to figure out a way to move forward in this new normal...

28Nov

By Peter RuddickNo Comments

North West

The Wiz – Hope Mill Theatre

There are a few big secrets in musical theatre. One of the biggest is that aside from one overwrought and over-covered number there’s not a lot of great music in The Wizard of Oz. It’s not the only retelling of L. Frank Baum’s original story, so why is it considered a classic when The Wiz remains unknown to many? Unknown despite having more songs, better music and a lot more heart? Why have there only ever been three professional UK productions of The Wiz on stage? Why has it never made it to the West End, whilst a lordly revival of the Judy Garland movie was deemed worthy of a primetime TV show? Important questions. I will leave the answers to others except to say there was something incredibly powerful about taking a seat in the Hope Mill Theatre in front of a sparse stage and a...

19Oct

By Katie LeicesterNo Comments

North West

Forgotten Voices – Hope Mill Theatre

The adaptable Hope Mill Theatre hosted the one woman show inspired by the life of Eva Moorhead Kadalie the wife of Clements Kadalie first black national trade union leader from South Africa. Shareesa Valentine whose stage and tv credits include Band of Gold, Hollyoaks, The Syndicate, Dumping Ground and Last Tango in Halifax played Eva a strong South African woman who was reflecting on her life and the transitions through the voices in her head that had been forgotten or suppressed that made her the female she was just before she was about to embark on the last journey to a new life in England with her son Victor. ‘Forgotten Voices’ was written by David Moorhead the grandson of Eva who stated in an interview "My grandmother was glamorous and warm hearted but beneath lay a complex pers...