Spring and Port Wine – Octagon Theatre
When the Octagon Theatre announced it was producing 'Spring and Port Wine' as its first show of 2023 I jumped at the opportunity to make the short trip to Bolton to review. In the two years since its £12 million refurbishment, and under the Artistic Director Lotte Wakeham, the Octagon has quietly been adding to an already strong reputation as one of the most interesting and innovative theatres in the north of England. With 'Spring and Port Wine' they have brought a quintessentially Boltonian story back to its roots, delighting this partisan opening night crowd into a raucous standing ovation at the conclusion.
Writer Bill Naughton is often wrongly categorised as part of a group of playwrights who came to prominence in Britain in the early 1960's', the 'angry young men', responsible for...