Manchester’s Library Theatre prepares for its final season in its familiar home

Jan 14 2010 Flintshire Chronicle

THE first North West regional production of David Mamet’s drama Glengarry Glen Ross and a revival of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest are two of the highlights of the Library Theatre Company’s spring 2010 season in Manchester.

It will be an historic season for the theatre, as it will be the company’s last in its home for 58 years, the Central Library in Manchester city centre, which opened in 1952 with a production of The Importance of Being Earnest.

All four Library Theatre Company productions in the season – a modern American drama – a classic Oscar Wilde play – a new Manchester-set drama, and a Neil Simon comedy – demonstrate the types of play which have made the Library Theatre one of the country’s most respected producing theatres for more than half a century.

The company enters a new chapter in 2010 as it begins life on the move with regular productions at the Lowry in Salford and non-theatre sites across Manchester before moving to its new home in a refurbished Theatre Royal on Peter Street, a stone’s throw from the Central Library, in 2014.

The spring 2010 season commences with the previously announced Re:Play Festival, a celebration of work seen at small-scale venues in Manchester and Salford in 2009, which takes place from January 26 to February 6.

Neil Simon’s touching comedy, I Ought to be in Pictures, a charming tale of reconciliation between a film-writer father and his long-lost daughter, a wannabe actress, runs from February 11-27.

Leading new writing company Out of Joint are regular visitors to the Library Theatre, and their production for 2010, Andersen’s English, by twice-Booker Prize nominated author Sebastian Barry, recreates a fractious encounter between two great 19th century story-writers in Hans Christian Andersen and Charles Dickens.

The cast features Niamh Cusack as Catherine, Charles Dickens’ wife. Andersen’s English plays at the Library Theatre from March 2-6.

Chris Honer has directed two David Mamet plays in his time as Library Theatre artistic director, Oleanna (1995) and Speed-the-Plow (2006).

Glengarry Glen Ross, regarded as the great American playwright’s best-known work, is the powerful story of a group of cut-throat real estate salesman who will do almost anything to close the deal. It runs from March 12 to April 3.

The Library Theatre is proud to produce Manchester writer Cathy Crabb’s Beautiful House, the hit of last year’s Re:Play Festival at the Library Theatre.

So that their seriously ill daughter can spend what might be her last months in her childhood home, Ronnie and Bridgette have vacated their dream house in Delph for a Salford tower block. Are Otis and Paula, in the flat below, the neighbours from hell?

This affectionate drama runs between April 22 and May 8 and will be directed by Noreen Kershaw.

The annual Queer Up North International Festival returns to Manchester in May, and the festival features two shows at the Library Theatre – Road Movie presented by Starving Artists and MUST – The Inside Story presented by Peggy Shaw in collaboration with the Clod Ensemble.

The Library closes its near 60 years at the Manchester Central Library with a revival of The Importance of Being Earnest, Oscar Wilde’s peerless satire of Victorian morals, which will be directed by Chris Honer between June 5 and July 3.

Tickets for all the productions are on sale at the theatre box office on 0161 236 7110, or via the theatre’s website at www.librarytheatre.com.