The Library Theatre Company’s first site-specific production, an adaptation by Charles Way of Charles Dickens’ Hard Times, which ran in June 2011 in Murrays’ Mills in Ancoats, has won the Best Design award in this year’s Manchester Theatre Awards, which were announced on Wednesday 14 March.
The production’s design team – Library Theatre Company in-house designer Judith Croft, Lighting Designer Nick Richings, and Sound Designer Peter Rice – brought the sweat and grime of 19th century industrial England vividly to life in the most appropriate and evocative setting possible, a former Victorian cotton mill.
Directed by Chris Honer, the Library Theatre Company’s Artistic Director, Hard Times ran for four sell-out weeks. The production presented the company’s technical team with a huge range of challenges – prior to the LTC moving in to prepare the mill for public use, for example, the building had no running water.
Nonetheless, the team overcame every possible obstacle to realise their ambition of making Hard Times one of the most impressive productions seen on the stages of Greater Manchester in 2011.
You can find a list of all this year’s winners here