Library Theatre New Season Announced

Our Artistic Director Chris Honer has announced the new Autumn 2012/ Winter 2013 programme from the company, to be presented at The Lowry in Salford.

The three productions are Richard Bean’s smash-hit award-winning comedy The Heretic; Dominic Cooke’s acclaimed adaptation of Arabian Nights for Christmas 2012, directed by Amy Leach and presented in-the-round; and in the new year, a revival of Bertolt Brecht’s epic war drama Mother Courage and her Children.

“I’m delighted that we’re giving Manchester and the North West the chance to see Richard Bean’s brilliant and provocative comedy The Heretic,” says Chris, “and I’m particularly looking forward to directing Brecht’s masterpiece Mother Courage in the Spring. And Christmas should be a real treat with Amy Leach directing this wonderful version of Arabian Nights.”

The Heretic won the prestigious Evening Standard award for Best New Play in 2011, sharing the prize with Bean’s One Man, Two Guvnors, and is a hilarious black comedy about a climate change sceptic. The production runs between Thursday 27 September – Saturday 13 October 2012. For more information and to book tickets, please click here.

The Heretic is followed by Arabian Nights, which will be directed by Amy Leach, who is from Darwen, near Blackburn. “My mum used to bring me to see shows at the Library Theatre often when I was younger,” she says, “so I’m over the moon to be working for the Library now.”

Adapted by Dominic Cooke, the Artistic Director at the Royal Court Theatre in London, Arabian Nights is a richly imaginative, enthralling and funny delight that will keep children and adults alike spellbound. The Lowry’s Quays Theatre will be specially converted to an in-the-round space for the production – not to be missed! Arabian Nights runs between Friday 30 November 2012 – Saturday 12 January 2013. For more information and to book tickets, please click here.

The Lowry’s Spring 2013 production will be a revival of Bertolt Brecht’s anti-war epic Mother Courage and her Children. The bloody battlefields of the 1618-1648 Thirty Years’ War provide the setting for this astonishing tragedy of war, considered by many to be one of the most powerful dramas of the 20th century. The production runs between Thursday 21 February – Saturday 9 March 2013. For more information and to book tickets, please click here.

Returning for the sixth year is the company’s annual re:play Festival, between Monday 14 – Saturday 26 January 2013, which brings together under one roof the best productions seen in Manchester and Salford’s non-theatre spaces over the previous 12 months, as well as presenting a range of developmental opportunities for new writers, and new work commissioned specifically for the festival.

Although Manchester Lines is still running at First Street (still some tickets available here), the company can announce that early plans are already in hand for next year’s site-specific production, Manchester Sound – The Massacre, which will draw together the story of the Peterloo Massacre in the city of August 1819 and the heyday of Rave – Madchester 1988-1991. The production, written by Polly Wiseman, and directed by Paul Jepson, is scheduled for June 2013 at a venue to be confirmed, in Manchester City Centre.

Finally, don’t forget the norfox young people’s theatre company, whose next production is Gargantua by Carl Grose, at the Capitol Theatre at Manchester Metropolitan University on Friday 10 and Saturday 11 August 2012. For more information and to book tickets, please click here.