Salford pub The King’s Arms reopens its theatre in August with a series of music-orientated Saturday Night Specials after a massive refurbishment during lockdown.
The current red brick building opened in the 1870s, replacing an earlier King’s Arms pub built in 1807 on the opposite side of Bloom Street. Tables and chairs have been added to the domed theatre space upstairs (pictured below) to make it COVID safe and create a cabaret environment.
Former office space has been replaced by a new performance area named after Salford-born songwriter Roger Quigley, who died in August 2020.
The pub will still major in drama: The College of Deviants Live on August 9 is a free night of scratch theatre hosted by Cameron Jones and including performances from independent artists across the north.
Bernadette Szabo’s new play, Maybe It’s Life (August 12-13) explores what death and the concept of afterlife may look like. It is directed by Adam Cachia and stars Christopher Wollaton and Hannah MacDonald.
The Other Side (August 26-27) from Kahlo Theatre – formed by two graduates of the Manchester School of Theatre – is set in a dystopian reality where the world has split in two.
Both the theatre and the new Roger Quigley room will be performance spaces during the Greater Manchester Fringe in September.
For details and tickets go here.