The curtains at Oldham Coliseum will fall for a final time this Friday, but ensuring it goes out in style, the theatre has announced a very special closing event featuring an ensemble of famous faces and loyal friends.
Featuring script-in-hand performances by over 20 actors from 11 Coliseum productions, comedians, and some very special guest appearances, Encore marks the final event to take place at the storied Fairbottom Street theatre. The venue is famed as a theatrical training ground that saw the likes of Bernard Cribbins, Roy Barraclough and Minnie Driver tread its boards, along with much of the original cast of Coronation Street.
Despite a passionate campaign to save it, the historic venue will lower its curtains for a final on Friday, March 31. In November, it became the biggest theatre outside of London to lose its £600,000 Arts Council England (ACE) subsidy, in a funding shake-up that sent shockwaves through the arts community.
Read more: “It will echo off the walls when the lights go out”: Oldham Coliseum's powerful last word
Following the loss of its Arts Council National Portfolio Organisation (NPO) status, and the loss of third of the theatre’s income from 1 April, Oldham Coliseum Theatre announced it would have to close it's doors for good. The Coliseum was one of three regular producing theatres in the Greater Manchester city region, working with over 150,000 individuals per year across its performance, community and participatory activities.
On Friday, the theatre will welcome a string of special guests including Doctor Who star Christopher Eccleston and long-term Coliseum campaigner and actress Maxine Peake, who will perform excerpts from Dave John's stage adaptation of 'I, Daniel Blake'. The adaptation of Ken Loach’s 2016 film was due to run at the Coliseum in June and July this year.
Christopher and Maxine will perform alongside Elizabeth Twells, who was last seen at the Coliseum in 2022’s 'Beryl', directed by Coliseum Artistic Director and Chief Executive Chris Lawson. A nod to the theatre's popular annual pantomime will see cast members from across the years including Liz Carney, Ian Crowe, Sophie Ellicott, Sam Glen, Shorelle Hepkin, Kaitlin Howard, and many more also return to the stage.
Meanwhile, smash-hit Coliseum production 'Brassed Off' will feature with William Travis and Diggle Band, and Lauryn Redding will perform 'The Parting Glass' from 2018’s world premiere musical Bread & Rose. the Coliseum’s own Gracie Fields will also perform songs from 2016’s Our Gracie, and Liz Carney will perform a number from 2010’s 'Up On The Roof'.
On top of this, Coliseum dramas from recent years will feature with excerpts from 'The Kitchen Sink' with Sam Glen and William Travis, and 'Beryl', with the full production cast. Encore will also feature sets from local comedy heroes Justin Moorhouse and Steve Royle.
The variety show has been put together in just two weeks since the Coliseum received confirmation of closure at the end of the month, and tickets sold out just half an hour after going on sale. Alongside the beginning of the redundancy process for all staff, the Coliseum’s team came together to plan a one-night-only event to give audiences a final opportunity to embrace the theatre and its special place in Oldham, Greater Manchester and the national theatrical landscape.
Encore will be proceeded on Thursday 30 March with 'An Evening with Kenneth Alan Taylor' in which the Oldham theatre legend will share stories from his many decades at the Coliseum both on and off stage. Last week, touring theatre company ThickSkin performed 'How Not To Drown', a child asylum seeker’s harrowing true story of coming to the UK' at the theatre. It was timely given the current political situation, but it also the last play to be performed on Oldham Coliseum’s stage.
On being the last theatre company to perform in the historic space, Daniel Cahill, one of the actors in the play said: "It's bittersweet because I grew up wondering if I would have the opportunity to play in these venues, so to play in one of the greats, it’s really sad to think no one else will get to do that again.
"However, it makes this performance so important and special, every word and every scene matters because it will be the last show to echo off the walls when the lights go out.”
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