Bolton's Octagon Theatre has a busy 2024 spring-summer season, kicking off with Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey (March 1-23, 2024) in a new adaptation by Zoe Cooper, one of several co-productions – this one with Orange Tree Theatre, the Stephen Joseph Theatre and Theatre by the Lake.
Houdini's Great Escape (April 3-6), from comedy company New Old Friends, in association with Yvonne Arnaud Theatre, brings physical comedy, a touch of chaos and unbelievable magic illusions.
Classic comedy is next, in John Godber’s first big hit and northern favourite, Bouncers (April 9-20). A new production from the playwright's own company takes audiences back to the 80s, when disco was king and everyone lived for the weekend.
Hit musical Little Shop Of Horrors arrives April 24–May 18, in a co-production with New Wolsey Theatre, Theatre by the Lake and Hull Truck Theatre.
This new staging of the devilishly delicious sci-fi musical about a person-eating plant is directed by the Octagon’s artistic director, Lotte Wakeham.
Testmatch (May 23-June 1), another co-production, this time with Orange Tree Theatre and English Touring Theatre (ETT), is a new play by Kate Atwell that explores the mythology of fair play when cricket’s past and present collide. It's set during the present day, at Lord’s for the Women’s Cricket World Cup, and early 19th century India.
Bram Stokers best-selling novel gets an unusual retelling in the new comedy, Dracula: The Bloody Truth (June 11-29 ) – another co-production with Stephen Joseph Theatre, directed by their artistic director, Paul Robinson.
With leading physical comedy theatre company La Nevet Bete and writer John Nicholson (who penned previous Octagon hits The Hound of the Baskervilles and The Time Machine), it tells how three years after the iconic gothic novel was released, Professor Abraham Van Helsing is not happy. He knows the truth - the bloody truth - and is about to share that with audiences,
Next year's Christmas show is a new musical adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s classic The Jungle Book (November 22, 2024-January 4, 2025).
But before all that, the Octagon will bring its current season to a close with a new production of George Orwell’s iconic drama, Animal Farm (February 1-24, 2024), adapted for the stage by Ian Woolridge and directed by Iqbal Khan. Next season also has the monthly Comedy Club, a wide range of music, children's shows and a celebration of some of some of Shakespeare's biggest characters in Barrie Rutter's Shakespeare's Royals (March 10). Octagon artistic director Lotte Wakeham said: “We're heading into 2024 with a bang, with an incredibly exciting and varied new season."
More information and tickets here