Party Night

The theatre stages of Greater Manchester are groaning a huge variety of top quality talent at the moment, there’s something for everyone to see and Oldham Coliseum is no exception. Currently my ears are ringing with the sound of an auditorium full of laughter at our current production of Noël Coward’s Hay Fever as the central Bliss family make life intolerable for their weekend guests – to our excruciating delight of course.

 But we also have one eye on the fabulous upcoming touring production of Sebastian Faulks’s novel Birdsong, the West End hit comes to the Coliseum on Monday 1 July for one week only. I also hear that the cast of a much-loved tea time soap opera will be joining us to cheer on one of their own who is starring in the play.

The stage-adaptation of the widely cherished book, which came thirteenth in a 2003 BBC poll to find the nation’s favourite book, tells the story of a young Englishman in pre-war France. His idyllic life is interrupted by the outbreak of WWI and he finds himself in the midst of horrors of the Battle of the Somme. Birdsong’s setting precedes Hay Fever by a mere ten years but they could not be more of a contrast to one another – we certainly do like variety here.

For the more youthful among us with eyes on a long holiday after their current exams there is still the opportunity to come along to any of our shows for just £5 if you are under 26. 

Some of the young people we work with here aren’t giving themselves a break however. They’re busy planning the week long Shake It UP! festival, beginning Monday 22 July, where the Coliseum will be totally under their control.

Among everything else going on we are also gearing up for our season launch announcement. If you want a sneak peak and a free night of entertainment on us then we are throwing open our doors on Monday 24 for a very special launch party. While it’s a free night on us to say thank you for supporting the Coliseum, booking is required if you’d like to join us - ring our Box Office on 0161 624 2829 to confirm your attendance. I’ll be on stage to introduce the new season followed by some special musical entertainment and exclusive skits from Sue McCormick of Ladies’ Day fame as well as the multi-talented Bernard Wrigley. 

Also excitingly the theatre will be launching a new scheme at the Season Launch. I will be able to tell you more on the evening, but in a nut shell we currently have a golden opportunity for our loyal audience to show their love and support for what we do. The Arts Council are currently matching everything we manage to raise, pound for pound for a limited time. So you’ll be doubling your money. In fact more than that: £100 in a year becomes £125 with Gift Aid, then £250 overall! So any support given for the work on the stage, growing new talent and in our local communities will have more than twice the impact!   

See you at the theatre,

Kevin Shaw

Artistic Director

Theatrical Bliss

This week the Coliseum plays host to the lovably monstrous Bliss family of Noel Coward’s classic HayFever. Coward’s perennial favourite comedy of manners, or even bad manners, has been taking shape over recent weeks in a hugely enjoyable rehearsal period. It’s great to be able to fill the stage with a nine strong cast for this production and we are welcoming back some familiar faces to the theatre.

Jackie Morrison and James Simmons are back with us as the eccentric host couple Judith and David Bliss, having previously played the leads of Amanda and Elyot in Coward’s Private Lives which received fantastic reviews back in 2011.

Bringing the inappropriately named Bliss family to life has been a joy for me with smiles and laughter all around from the cast as the ridiculous theatrical arguments of Coward’s scripted barbs are tossed back and forth between the irritable family members and their unassuming guests.

We all know people like the Bliss family in Hay Fever – people who are inexcusably rude, but fun, and they get away with it, the sort of people who invite you round for a drink only to be horrified when you actually arrive and point out they have no tonic for your gin.

The playwright himself described Hay Fever as: “One of the one of the most difficult plays to perform that I have encountered… it has no plot at all, and remarkably little action”. That may well be true but the talented cast we have assembled fill our auditorium with hilarious dynamism and verve. Besides, we all enjoy a challenge here.

Despite Coward’s own analysis the play has stood the test of time and has been an audience favourite since it was first conceived in 1924. It’s a superb script for a summer’s eve too and the Pimm’s will be flowing at the Coliseum as the Bliss family reluctantly open their house to their guests - thankfully we shall merely be onlookers, safe from the callous toying of the unfeeling hosts.

The whole process of putting the fun into dysfunctional with this close-knit cast really transfers an impetuous energy onto the stage. And what a stage it is, designer Dawn Allsopp has excelled in creating a traditional idyllic English country house – the setting for the Bliss’s tortuous theatrical games as they heartlessly pull the rug out from under their unwitting guests’ feet.

See you at the theatre,

Kevin

Artistic Director 

Breaking Boundaries

This week we welcome an energetic touring production BreakThe Floorboards to the Coliseum. This dance comedy drama is a strikingly original one which comes to us from Rifco Arts in a co-production with Watford Palace Theatre. Rifco Arts are the young company who created the Britain’s Got Bhangra musical which received rave audience reviews when it was here last November.

Break The Floorboards tells the tale of Zain, a teenage Muslim lad who simply wants to dance despite disapproving peer pressure and his two left feet. Rifco Arts specialises in developing high-quality theatre which reflects the contemporary British Asian experience. 

This light-hearted drama explores the complexities of our multi-cultural society whilst also playing on the universality of people reaching for their dreams. The current trend for talent shows like Britain’s Got Talent demonstrates that when it comes to appreciating talent we are all equal and the Break The Floorboards cast have talent in spades.

I think part of popularity of the talent show on television in recent years is our desire to see something unique and willing people on to succeed for having the ability to do something exceptionally good which others cannot do.

Theatre is very much the same but it’s immediate and all happens right before your eyes rather than as a more detached experience via our television screens. Whilst each performer spends years honing their skills each production is crafted in a few short weeks. 

Having a gifted bunch of performers on stage before your eyes doing things that you can’t necessarily do offers us that chance to celebrate the art of performance. Theatre is still as attractive to us as it has ever been because it offers us that sense of escapism in a very immediate form as well as creating a sense of occasion when going to see a show.

It’s a pleasure for me to see audiences participate in a shared sense of enjoyment having stepped through the Coliseum doors for what may be their first or fiftieth time. 

What people do day-to-day may not necessarily be what we want to do for a living, but those moments of celebration in seeing someone succeed and make it big is something we can all relate to. 

It’s my job to make sure that the Coliseum continues to put that talent on stage for you to see and enjoy.

See you at the Coliseum.

Kevin

Artistic Director 

Any Volunteers?

 Every week Oldham Coliseum Theatre's Artistic Director, Kevin Shaw, writes a column for the Oldham Chronicle. 

In honour of National Volunteering Week, one of our volunteers, Laura, took over the column - here's what she wrote:

"I am proud to be a volunteer at the Coliseum, and since it’s soon National Volunteering Week, Kevin has lent me his column to celebrate the contribution of volunteers here in Fairbottom Street. 

I’ve been a volunteer here since January, and since arriving I’ve been working with the busy day-to-day work of the marketing team.  I’m a recent graduate, so I reckon volunteering can only improve my CV.

Not everyone is aware the Coliseum is a registered charity, and like any other charity, volunteers play a vital part in its everyday life, from the front of house staff who make sure audiences for each performance are well looked after, to people like me who help out with the marketing team or elsewhere behind the scenes.

I had wanted to volunteer at the Coliseum for some time, not least because I love coming here, and partly because it’s on my doorstep. Since starting I have been here fairly regularly, working around my day job at Oldham’s DW Sports Fitness.

Of course being on the inside I have seen a different side to what makes my local theatre tick. I’ve had the chance to work in new surroundings, meet some great new people and get involved with the ever-growing Oldham arts scene. I have been able to spread the word about future productions by distributing flyers and brochures, and recently I helped the education department to promote First Break, our writing festival.

Helping out here also led me to be part of the Speed of Light performance at Salford’s Media City in March, where I volunteered as a photographer’s runner. Cold but rewarding! 

The Coliseum is a very accessible theatre; local people can easily get involved, and Kevin and his team are happy to welcome those who want to help.

Reasons for helping vary, of course; to learn new skill, perhaps, or to contribute to the community. Volunteering has proved to be very rewarding and has opened my eyes to the hard work involved in running a successful theatre.

I’ve got a lot out of it, and perhaps you would too.

Give it a go: you never know!"

Laura Wild