Cllr. Rowbotham, Big Cyril & Single Issue Politics

by Brian Bamford

ON the 5th, December Carl Faulkner, an independent analyst and investigator concerned about the decline of common decency in local political life, published a video skillfully outlining the attitude of most Rochdale councillors to the importance of democratic procedures in local politics.  The video entitled 'Birds of a feather:  Protecting the Guilty' * and commenting on the Rochdale  full council meeting of Oct. 2018, that  describes in detail how councillors of a Labour complexion gave spirited support to one of their brethren who is a self-confessed fraudster using postal ballots to vote more than once in the last municipal elections in Rochdale.

This artfully designed video superbly captures the depth to which Rochdale politics has sunk, with the now disgraced Council leader Allen Brett calling on the Council to let the culprit fraudster, councillor Faisal Rana, be 'allowed to continue his good work'.  Councillor Brett was responding to a formal motion from the Tory leader of the opposition inviting Councillor Rana to 'just reflect on the positon that he's in and the position that he's put the Borough in'.

The Rochdale Labour councillors are by now well immune to controversy and scandal having endured pantomime politics for decades under the tutelage of such tacticians as Simon Danczuk, Richard Farnell, and now Allen Brett.  Perhaps we ought to mention that at the time the tragedy of Cambridge House was in being as a going concern in the 1960s, Cyril Smith was a big noise in the Rochdale Labour Party.

The now disgraced Council leader Allen Brett is merely the ultimate conclusion of a rather bad bunch.  Alongside him Sara Rowbotham cuts a curious figure as his deputy, it was she who rose to fame when Maxine Peak portrayed her in the 'Three Girls' dramatisation on TV.  She is interesting because she has a following among a campaign group called 'Parents Against Grooming' or PAG.**

PAG supporters were out in force at the Council meeting at which Allen Brett defended the self-confessed fraud Faisal Rana.  But they were clearly less interest on electoral swindling than on the exploits of a dead man in the last century at Cambridge House etc.  Historical memory is not to be ignored, as we know that even today that Spaniards are anxious to unearth the bones of victims of General Franco in the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39.  If the supporters of PAG want to explore and campaign for what they call the 'survivors' of Cyril Smith they are entitled to do so.

What is worrying is that in doing so, and pursuing a single issue, the PAG campaigners  may be overlooking what is now under their own noses:  that is that they themselves may be being used as 'useful idiots' by an ambitious politician to feather her own nest.  I can't say this for certain, but their own heroine Sara Rowbotham has gone on record of making allegations against other Rochdale councillors, yet at the meeting PAG attended Sara had no qualms about joining the 'Roll of Shame' and backing the electoral fraud, Faisal Rana.

In this respect by getting carried away with the virtue signals and grandstanding of these half-baked ambitious politicians aren't you being a bit myopic?   Before you start to 'Look Back in Anger', just consider that I was one of those folding RAP in the cellar on Spotland Road, when in May 1979 the allegations against Cyril Smith at Cambridge House were first about to be put into the public domain.  Also, this Northern Voices Blog together with John Walker former joint editor of RAP; the Westminster Blogger, Paul Waugh; and the much lamented former Rochdale MP, Simon Danczuk,   created the conditions for PAG to exist after Danczuk made his speech in Parliament in 2012 (see the excerpt from the Northern Voices Blog archive in November 2012 below).***

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*    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFFKrkQaKqw&feature=youtu.be

** See the video link in which Sara Rowbotham denounces Councillor Allen Brett entitled

'3 BOYS , A GIRL AND A GROOMER ROCHDALE COUNCIL PART 5': 
PART 5 OF SURVIVORS MATTERS EXPLANATION AS TO WHY ROCHDALE BOROUGH COUNCIL HAVE REPEATEDLY MADE PROMISES TO THEM ONLY TO LEAD SURVIVORS ON THE ROAD TO NOWHERE , WHILST ROCHDALE COUNCIL TRYING TO PORTRAY ACKNOWLEDGMENT AND CHANGE

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9gXUO6bK0qRQxCqmjKBenQ

***   Monday, 19 November 2012

It Was The Voices That Did It!

Cyril Smith - the Legend Falls

LAST WEEK, Northern Voices was party with others to the opening up of a story that has lied in the shadows for decades.   We cannot claim all the credit as we did not do the original research into Cyril Smith:  that was performed by the editors of the Rochdale Alternative Paper (RAP) in May 1979, when they first published the story and were threatened by Cyril Smith's solicitors at the time with a 'gagging writ'.  Private Eye and the New Statesman followed through with reports but the case against 'Smith the Man' was killed before it reached the mainstream media.  Later attempts to resurrect the story also failed because those giving evidence against Sir Cyril Smith lacked the confidence to put their names in the public domain. 

***********

Petition in favour of 'Three Girls' campaigner

MORE than 120,000 people have signed a petition calling for the sexual health worker who advocated for the victims of grooming in Rochdale to be recognised for her work.
The petition asks for acknowledgment of the work of Sara Rowbotham, the sexual health worker played by Maxine Peake in the BBC drama Three Girls, which aired last week and depicted the abuse of girls in Rochdale and their struggle to be taken seriously by authorities.

Three Girls review – a brave new focus on the Rochdale child sexual abuse scandal

By concentrating on the victims rather than the abusers, this powerful drama does what the Rochdale investigation initially failed to do

Rowbotham was the coordinator of Rochdale’s crisis intervention team from 2003 to 2014 and worked with many of the girls who were victims of the Rochdale grooming scandal. She repeatedly raised concerns about vulnerable girls in the community to police and other authorities, which were dismissed.
She worked for a specialist sexual health service in the city and wrote in the Guardian earlier this month that if that service had not been available 'half the evidence that led to mass convictions would never have come to light'.  She added:  'The girls didn’t trust police or social services to help them and I quickly found out why they felt this way, as no one wanted to listen to them.'

For more:
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/may/21/petition-calls-for-recognition-of-rochdale-sexual-health-

Review: 'STREETCAR' to Claustrophobia

A journey through sociological & sexual 'rape'

AFTER her performance as Hamlet in the play of the same name last year, I was wondering how Maxine Peak originally a lass from Bolton would manage to tackle the lead role of Blanche DuBois in Tennessee William's play 'A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE' now being performed at the Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre.  I needn't have worried Maxine rose to the job and took us down into a wounded world of which Arthur Miller described as 'STREETCAR is a cry of pain; forgetting that is to forget the play'.

But how are we to approach such a play mired as it is in the cramped space of a two room sparsely furnished apartment offering us views of a combined living-room and bedroom with a bathroom on the side?  When Blanche from Mississippi arrives to live with her sister Stella and her brother-in-law Stanley, in New Orleans she was already what we would now call 'damaged' by having experienced a marriage to a homosexual man who had just died.  Then begins the disintegration not only mentally of Blanche, but of the relationships of those who come into contact with her, not just Stanley and Stella, but Stanley's workmates, like Mitch.

Rachel Clements, lecturer in drama, theatre and performance University of Manchester, in the program's brochure writes:

'There are reports that in (Elia) Kazan's 1947 production (on Broadway), some audience members cheered as Stanley carried Blanche to the bed to rape her.  Although one hopes this kind of response is now consigned to the past, both Mitch and Stanley's reactions to and judgements about Blanche's sexuality are not so wholly remote.'

And Ms. Clements in keeping with our contemporary 'Women's Studies' addiction continues:

'How far STREETCAR recreates or critiques rape culture sits somewhere between the play, the particular production and each individual audience member.'

That last comment by the academic would worry me if she hadn't concluded:

'But STREETCAR is a social, even a political, play because it works to show us how and why Blanche becomes disbelieved.'

While the play is about an individual's mental condition, and how others relate to how Blanche breaches or disrupts the social order of a tight-knit community, it is also about how the participants can recover social order in the claustrophobic setting in which they all find themselves.

Ms Clements further argues:

'Indeed, the tragedy of the play's closing scene is desperately total:  everyone loses.'

In a real sense by excluding Blanche, everyone loses personally in order to recover social, and perhaps political, order and even sanity.  Because I believe Tennessee Williams is what I would call a grown-up homosexual he is playing-off realism against a more romantic magical approach in the theatre.  Blanche wants she calls magic rather than realism, but being romantic and dancing to music, doesn't prevent Blanche from describing Stanley as a Neanderthal and a Polack*, not to mention dreaming the day away in Stanley's bathroom, playing the radio or drinking his bourbon.  

I'm not a professional drama critic, I'm an electrician by trade, who later became an ethnomethodologist (student of people's studies) at Manchester Poly. in the 1970s, but I can see the predictable sociological destination of a claustrophobic society such as that portrayed in 'A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE'. 

This is not approve of the physical rape of Blanche in any way, but rather to draw attention to her own sociological 'rape' of the lives of the other characters in the play, especially of Stella and Stanley's private life.  One has only to be aware of the underlying cultural, ethnic and clash social-class between Blanche and Stanley in the play to grasp the politics of the play.  Having lived in Spain (Mi casa, Su casa) in part of the last half of the last century where the guest may be privileged over the host; I am also aware that in some cultures Blanche's plight may be seen in a different light than that in more Anglo-Saxon cultures such as England or the USA, and it may well be that even in the deep-south 'in the heat of the New Orleans apartment' the attitude to the 'guest' may be different from ours.

*  The noun Polack in the contemporary English language, is an ethnic slur and a derogatory reference to a person of Polish descent. It is an Anglicisation of the Polish language word Polak, which means a ... Look up Polack, Pollack, Pollock, or Polock in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The Radical North & Melvyn Bragg

TODAY, Melvyn Bragg explores the radical movements that sprang from the North - Chartism, the campaign for women's votes, anti-slavery protests, the birth of the Labour Party.  The programme begins outside Manchester's Midland Hotel where Mr Rolls met Mr Royce.  It's also near the site of the Peterloo Massacre - one of the defining moments in British social history.  People had gathered here in their thousands from the city and surrounding towns and villages - protesting for parliamentary reform. fifteen were slain and hundreds wounded by charging cavalry troops.  Melvyn visits what one contributor Dr Robert Poole describes as Democracy Wall - it runs alongside of the nearby Quaker Meeting House - many people were crushed against it at the time of the Massacre. The wall is the only structure left from the period.  The massacre inspired the poet Shelley to write the Masque of Anarchy, part of which is read for us by the actor Maxine Peake.
Melvyn goes on to describe the rich history of dissent nurtured in the north - the women's suffrage movement, the campaign to abolish slavery, chartism, and the founding of the Independent Labour Party.
Why the north?
Was it Methodism, the size of the population, the isolated landscapes, the topography of the cities or even the weather?

'The Matter of the North'!

MELVYN BRAGG celebrates the history of the North of England in a new Radio 4 show, The Matter of the North:

The ten-part series, began yesterday Monday 29th August, with Bragg delving into stories spanning the end of Roman rule to the present day.

According to Mr. Bragg the North is as much a country as any other geographically defined country.  Melvyn Bragg's program explores the historical, religious & intellectual roots of what became the North of England.

The program begins in the 5^th Century when the Romans built forts in places like Maryport on coast of Cumbria, before the bulk of them began draining away.   

Arguing that the North is as much a country as any other geographically defined country.  Melvyn Bragg's program explores the historical, religious & intellectual roots of what became the North of England.
In the program Mr. Bragg will travel around Northumbria, Cumbria, Yorkshire, Liverpool and Manchester, exploring the pivotal historical moments and cultural contributions from the region, which have helped shape the Britain of today.

The blurb on the BBC website declares:

'This is the story of the North, one that has the history of most countries. The area has twice the economy of Scotland, if it were a country in its own right it would be the eighth biggest economy in Europe, and it’s been the scene of the greatest revolution in the world – the industrial revolution – the retreat of one empire – the Roman military – and the advance of another, the Roman church,'

Mr. Bragg says:    'Invasions from the East by the Vikings, and from the South by their cousins the Normans, the former enriching the English language, the latter marching up from London to destroy much of the North and leaving centuries of bloody rebellion and justified resentment.

'It’s here in the North that the original culture of England was founded after the Romans, the dissent and non-conformism bred great inventions, and that a particular sense of humour was developed... I think it’s a wonderful part of the world and like most people who’ve been born and brought up in the North I feel this is as much a country as any more neatly geographically defined place on the planet... And it’s not a bad time to look at the roots of northernness in this referendum year when there’s been much talk of a North-South divide – there’s no doubt that being northern matters greatly to people in 2016.'

Across the 30-minute episodes, Bragg hears from a cast of northern voices including Dame Judi Dench, David Hockney, Lee Hall, Jimmy McGovern, Ian McMillan, Geoffrey Boycott, Maxine Peake, Frank Cottrell Boyce, Chris Bonnington and Joan Bakewell.

The Matter of the North will broadcast on BBC Radio 4 at 9am (Monday-Friday) from Monday 29th August – Friday 9th September

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Manchester Royal Exchange:

 40th Anniversary Announcement:
THE FUTURE AT 40: THE ROYAL EXCHANGE SEASON ANNOUNCEMENT

THIS September the Royal Exchange Theatre celebrates 40 years of a remarkable exchange with its audiences. Since 1976 the Company has produced unforgettable drama made for a unique theatre in Manchester’s city centre. In 2016 the theatre was named Regional Theatre of the Year, and under the artistic leadership of Sarah Frankcom the Exchange looks towards a dynamic future. This summer Mark Dobson joins as the new Executive Director and a new brand identity marks the next stage for the theatre. An impassioned team of directors, designers, outstanding writers and formidable performers will deliver an ambitious mix of provocative theatre and new plays for an incredibly special year. 

• Artistic Director Sarah Frankcom and Associate Artist Maxine Peake continue their long-term collaboration as they explore the dark world of Blanche DuBois in Tennessee Williams’ unsettling drama A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE from 8 Sept – 15 Oct in The Theatre. 

• Katherine Soper’s 2015 Bruntwood Prize winning play WISH LIST explores life at the bottom of the pile and the helpless uncertainty of zero-hours contracts. A collaboration with the Royal Court Theatre WISH LIST is directed by Exchange Associate Artistic Director Matthew Xia from 24 Sept – 15 Oct in The Studio.

• A global festival of theatre and debate B!RTH takes place from 19 – 22 Oct. Seven new plays by seven female writers from across the world have been commissioned to provoke challenging debate. Developed with The Oglesby Charitable Trust and supported by the University of Manchester B!RTH is part of Manchester’s year as European City of Science.

• The dazzling mind of logician Alan Turing is explored in the city where he worked and died. Director Robert Hastie directs BAFTA winner Daniel Rigby in a major revival of Hugh Whitemore’s BREAKING THE CODE from 28 Oct – 19 Nov in The Theatre.

• Derek Bond returns to the Exchange this Christmas (following his smash-hit LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS) with full-scale musical SWEET CHARITY. This Broadway classic, filled with huge musical hits (Big Spender, Rhythm of Life) and incredible dance numbers choreographed by Aletta Collins, runs from 3 Dec – 21 Jan.

• With accessibility at its heart the Exchange team up with Graeae Theatre Company for Jenny Sealey’s production of THE HOUSE OF BERNADA ALBA with a central performance from the incredible Kathryn Hunter. This translation of Federico García Lorca’s heated tale of family fragility sees Jo Clifford make a welcome return to the theatre and runs from 2 – 25 Feb 2017.

• After talking to 1,580 people YOU, THE AUDIENCE continues with a celebratory event that shares both what audiences have said and what the theater has learnt. The YOU, THE AUDIENCE Manifesto will be launched in the Great Hall on 18 Nov shaping the theatre’s future with audiences.

• OPEN EXCHANGE moves into its second year with 600 members signed up to this ever-growing scheme. Artists from across the North are invited to use the theatre as a networking opportunity, to develop new ideas and to share work. This years supported artists are Mighty Heart Theatre and Testament. 

• Original theatre makers from across the UK present work in the Studio. This season we are joined by Rachel Mars, Action Hero, Soho Theatre & Francesca Moody, Barrel Organ with Lulu Racza, Puppet State Theatre Company, Daniel Bye, Cardboard Citizens and Project O.

Artistic Director Sarah Frankcom said:

40 years ago a group of artists were inspired to take hold of an imposing public building and build a unique theatre in the centre of it. They created a space for Manchester that would present the very best drama it could, with passion and without compromise.

Today, with these strong foundations, we make theatre for a great night out that is contemporary, thought-provoking and will spark conversations which continue long after the show has finished. As we talk to our audience we find out what they want from us and in response we’re creating a theatre that is diverse and inventive, that brings the city together and that reflects its passions as much as our own.

This season I cannot wait to get back into a rehearsal room with Maxine Peake as we explore the complexities of Blanche DuBois in A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE. Tennessee Williams paints beautiful characters but his plays also explode the notion of what theatre can be which is so exciting for our space. I’m thrilled to welcome Rob Hastie to the Exchange with his interpretation of a Manchester story in BREAKING THE CODE. Our seven new commissions for B!RTH have already started an international debate about inequality in healthcare and at Christmas SWEET CHARITY will push the boundaries of our physical space as we bring Broadway to Manchester.  In our first co-production with Graeae, THE HOUSE OF BERNADA ALBA, we create theatre in-the-round which is innovative in its accessibility; The Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting has unearthed some phenomenal voices and continues to be an invaluable platform for new playwrights to reflect the modern world, in our Studio Matthew Xia directs Katherine Soper’s debut play WISH LIST our 2015 Bruntwood Prize winner.

This season we continue to grow Open Exchange for emerging artists, we launch a new membership scheme and reinvent our volunteering programme so our audiences can be more involved. Our Young and Elders Companies continue to inspire us and the work we do in communities across Manchester is expanding as we cement relationships and develop new partnerships. 

We look forward to welcoming everyone to the Royal Exchange this season.

After Hamlet at the Royal Exchange Manchester?

RIDING high on the record breaking success of Maxine Peak's HAMLET – the company’s fastest selling show in a decade - and a big jump in the total number of people seeing its shows, audiences remain at the heart of the newly-announced Spring Summer 2015 Season at Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre.   

Audience numbers are up year on year by more than 46,000, with people experiencing Royal Exchange produced work across the UK as well as in Manchester, at festivals and other venues including Latitude, the Edinburgh Fringe, Shakespeare’s Globe, Theatertreffen in Berlin and community venues in the North West.   

YOU, THE AUDIENCE - the Exchange’s year-long audience collaborative adventure which began this season - weaves through the programme for Spring Summer 2015. An epic conversation and a celebration of audiences, it explores the special relationship between the work that is made and the people it is made for.  

The company is currently gathering a remarkable collection of opinions and ideas from some of the 2,000 people who helped to kick-start the project at the recent Fun Palace Open Day. The Spring Summer Season’s events will include a weekend of outdoor theatre and A NIGHT AT THE THEATRE, a giant sleepover in the module and the Great Hall.  

Launching in Spring 2015, OPEN EXCHANGE will offer a series of attachments, master-classes and other development opportunities as part of the Exchange’s commitment to the next generation of artists and theatre makers.

Artists will have the chance to explore, play and collaborate with mentoring and support from professional teams and access to new rehearsal spaces.    

The new season is the second under the leadership of Sarah Frankcom as the theatre’s sole Artistic Director and is a mix of classics reinvented by the next generation of theatre-makers and world premieres for emerging voices.

She said: “I am really excited about the wide range of new work, artists, collaborations and conversations we will share with audiences in 2015  as we reinvent what our theatre is, and what it might be.”  

The season includes a co-production of a classic adaptation directed by rising star Ellen McDougall; a much loved play re-worked by returning favourites Told by an Idiot; first outings for two Bruntwood Prize winners, a collaboration with the Manchester International Festival 2015 and a Royal Exchange Young Company collaboration with poet and novelist, Jackie Kay.   

The season launches with Olivier-nominated Ellen McDougall directing Jo Clifford’s stripped-back, contemporary adaptation of Leo Tolstoy’s classic novel ANNA KARENINA – a Royal Exchange Theatre and West Yorkshire Playhouse co-production.   

This is the Exchange’s second collaboration with WYP following the huge success of SWEENEY TODD in Autumn 2013. ANNA KARENINA runs in The Theatre from Thursday 19 March to Saturday 2 May 2015 and transfers to Leeds on Wednesday 13 May.   

Anna is the envy of St. Petersburg society. Glamorous and admired, but locked in a loveless marriage, her sudden and passionate love affair with Count Vronsky turns her world on its head and puts at risk everything she has ever known.   

Olivier-nominated director Ellen McDougall makes her Royal Exchange debut with this stripped-back and contemporary version of one of the greatest novels ever written.   

She received an Olivier nomination for her 2010 production of IVAN AND THE DOGS (ATC, Soho, UK tour and Rustaveli Theatre, Georgia). Other recent credits include TELLING TALES (Almeida); PHILOCTETES (Unicorn) SHOWS 1 and 2 (Secret Theatre) for Lyric Theatre Hammersmith; SPRING AWAKENING and IDOMENEUS (Gate Theatre) and NOT NOW BERNARD (Unicorn Theatre and touring).   

Playing alongside ANNA KARENINA, 2013 Bruntwood Prize for Playwriting winner THE ROLLING STONE by Chris Urch receives its world premiere in The Theatre from Tuesday 21 April to Friday 1 May 2015.   

Also directed by Ellen McDougall – and with the same company of actors - it tells a very different story of lovers at odds with society.

Dembe and Sam have been seeing each other for a while. They should be wondering where this is going and when to introduce each other to their families. But they’re gay and this is Uganda and the consequences of being discovered will be violent and explosive.   

The season continues with a blisteringly funny reboot for Arnold Ridley’s THE GHOST TRAIN which runs in The Theatre from Thursday 14 May to Saturday 20 June 2015.   

The production is presented in association with the internationally acclaimed theatre company Told by an Idiot (previous Royal Exchange credits include YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU and TOO CLEVER BY HALF) who bring their trademark wit, flare and theatrical invention to this classic ghost story.   

The production is presented in association with the internationally acclaimed theatre company Told by an Idiot (previous Royal Exchange credits include YOU CAN’T TAKE IT WITH YOU and TOO CLEVER BY HALF) who bring their trademark wit, flare and theatrical invention to this the classic ghost story.    

A group of passengers are left stranded at a remote railway station, facing the prospect of a night in the waiting room. But when the old stationmaster warns them about the phantom train that haunts the tracks after dark, the evening starts to take one chilling turn after another.   

Told by an Idiot Artistic Director Paul Hunter, who directs the production, said: "THE GHOST TRAIN is not normally the kind of play that would be produced in the round. The challenge of staging action that would normally happen off stage and of using every inch of that extraordinary space will be really thrilling."   

2013 Bruntwood Prize Winner YEN by Anna Jordan – which plays in The Studio from Wednesday 18 February to Saturday 7 March – explores a childhood lived without boundaries and the consequences of being forced to grow up on your own.   

It tells the story of sixteen-year-old Hench and thirteen-year-old Bobbie who live alone with their dog Taliban, playing Playstation, watching porn; surviving. Occasionally their chaotic mum Maggie visits, sometimes she passes out on the front lawn. But when Jenny knocks on the door, the boys discover a world far beyond what they know, a world full of love, possibility and danger.   

Anna Jordan’s play was commended for its ‘beautiful empathy, and a humanity which stood out to all the judges’ by Chair of the Judges, Dame Jenni Murray.  

The production is directed by Ned Bennett. Previously a resident trainee director at the Royal Court, his recent credits include SUPERIOR DONUTS (Southwark Playhouse), MERCURY FUR (Old Red Lion) and PIGEONS (Royal Court schools tour).   

The new season will also see the Royal Exchange Theatre and Manchester International Festival collaborate on a new piece of theatre for MIF15. It will be staged in The Theatre from Friday 3 July to Saturday 1 August 2015. It follows on from the acclaimed MIF / RET co-production of THE MASQUE OF ANARCHY - a highlight of MIF13. Further details will be announced in the New Year.   

A full Spring Summer programme in The Studio is also yet to be announced but a major highlight will be BRINK - a Royal Exchange Young Company collaboration with poet and novelist, Jackie Kay.  

Presented by the Young Company and directed by the Royal Exchange’s Associate Artistic Director Matthew Xia, the show will run in The Studio from Thursday 26 March to Saturday 28 March 2015 and asks lots of question such as “What brings you to the brink in your life?” and “When you are so close to the edge - do you take the plunge or retreat?”   

Public Booking for the new season opens on Monday 24 November 2014.   

For further information, please contact JOHN GOODFELLOW (Press & Communications Manager) on 0161 615 6783 / john.goodfellow@royalexchange.co.uk.

 

ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE SPRING SUMMER 2015 SEASON   

The Royal Exchange Theatre presents: 

YEN

By Anna Jordan

World Premiere

Directed by Ned Bennett

The Studio

Wednesday 18 February to Saturday 7 March 2015

PRESS NIGHT: THURSDAY 19 FEBRUARY at 7.30pm   

The Royal Exchange Theatre and West Yorkshire Playhouse present

ANNA KARENINA

By Leo Tolstoy

Adapted by Jo Clifford

Directed by Ellen McDougall

The Theatre

Thursday 19 March – Saturday 2 May 2015

PRESS NIGHT: TUESDAY 24 MARCH at 7.30pm 

Royal Exchange Theatre presents

THE ROLLING STONE

By Chris Urch

World Premiere

Directed by Ellen McDougall

The Theatre

Tuesday 21 April to Friday 1 May 2015

PRESS NIGHT: WEDNESDAY 22 APRIL at 7.30pm  

 

Told by an Idiot and the Royal Exchange Theatre present

THE GHOST TRAIN

By Arnold Ridley

Directed by Paul Hunter

The Theatre

Thursday 14 May – Saturday 20 June 2015

PRESS NIGHT: TUESDAY 19 MAY at 7.30pm

Royal Exchange Theatre / 2015 Manchester International Festival Collaboration

Details to be announced

The Theatre

Friday 3 July to Saturday 1 August 2015

PRESS NIGHT: TBC

Film Version of Royal Exchange Hamlet

FILM VERSION OF ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE’S HAMLET TO BE RELEASED IN CINEMAS

 

SHOOTING has just completed on a film version of the Royal Exchange Theatre’s HAMLET, with acclaimed theatre and television actress Maxine Peake in the title role.

 

The unique and groundbreaking stage production played to sell-out houses throughout its run which ended Saturday 25 October. 

 

The stage production of HAMLET was directed by Sarah Frankcom, Artistic Director of The Royal Exchange Theatre.  Sarah and Maxine have a long and productive collaborative relationship, including their hugely successful MASQUE OF ANARCHY at Manchester International Festival.  Maxine Peake was BAFTA-nominated for her performances in THE VILLAGE and HANCOCK AND JOAN and is also hugely respected for her performances in SIK, RED RIDING and as Myra Hindley in SEE NO EVIL. 

 

The film version of HAMLET is directed by Margaret Williams and produced by Anne Beresford of MJW PRODUCTIONS LTD and Debbie Gray of Genesius Pictures.  This is the team behind a number of projects including the much-praised film version of Britten’s opera PETER GRIMES ON ALDEBURGH BEACH.  Margaret Williams is one of the leading directors in the field of stage-to screen; her film version of WRITTEN ON SKIN (Royal Opera House/BBC) recently won the Gramophone Contemporary Award and the Diapason d’or.

  

Producer Debbie Gray has had a major success in 2014 with the feature film NORTHERN SOUL which reached no 10 in the UK box office chart and no 1 in the DVD chart.  Anne Beresford is known for her work combining music, dance and film for feature film and television as well as feature films such as MOUTH TO MOUTH starring Ellen Page.

 

HAMLET will be distributed in the UK by Picturehouse Entertainment, one of the leading names in Alternative Content.   It is envisaged that HAMLET will open in approximately 200 cinemas in the UK in March 2015.

 

In 2016, the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s death, the British Council will lead an international celebration of the UK’s most well-known cultural figure.  The British Council will engage audiences and learners internationally through modern and imaginative interpretations of Shakespeare’s work. 

 

The film version of HAMLET is supported by The Royal Exchange Theatre, Genesius Pictures, Quidem and the British Council.  The Royal Exchange Theatre gratefully acknowledges the generosity of the following in the making of the film: Oglesby Charitable Trust, Old Trafford Consulting Limited, Martyn & Valerie Torevell and all those who supported the theatre’s recent Catalyst project, including public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England.  

 

For further details contact  ANNE BERESFORD (MJW Productions Ltd) on 020 7713 0400 / 07949 054789 or DEBBIE GRAY (Genesius Pictures) on 07708 407948 and JOHN GOODFELLOW (Royal Exchange Theatre Press & Communications Manager) on 0161 615 6783 / john.goodfellow@royalexchange.co.uk

 

MJW PRODUCTIONS: www.mjwproductions.com

Genesius Pictures: www.genesiupictures.com

 

Production photos from the stage version of HAMLET are available to download from www.royalexchange.co.uk/press

  

 SOME REVIEWS OF THE STAGE PRODUCTION

 

“A triumph of re-invention... remarkable, intimate and intense... without straining for shock value or raising voices unduly, Peake and co make this 400-year-old revenge tragedy come alive in a way you’ve never seen before”  (The Times)

 

“Maxine Peake strikes all the notes of intelligence, intensity and range displayed by the best Hamlets” (Financial Times)

 

“In her Chairman Mao suit and David Bowie hair, Peake uses every part of the stage, every prop, every poise of the body to deliver a 400-year old script as if the words have just come to her” (Manchester Evening News)

 

“Fresh-minted and funny, this Hamlet is compelling” (The Independent) 

 

THE ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE is situated in the heart of Manchester, and is one of the UKs leading producing theatres. The Company attracts some of the most original artists and theatre makers in the country to present an ambitious programme inspired by the world's greatest stories: stories that have the power to change the way we see the world.