It was a moment many hoped would not come to fruition, but on Friday night the curtains at Oldham Coliseum fell for a final time.
"We are not leaving like this," said a artistic director Chris Lawson, as he struggled to hold back tears. "In a minute we will fill this room with applause."
Gathering the evening's cast and crew on stage, and holding the hands of the Coliseum's former artistic directors Kevin Shaw and Kenneth Alan Taylor, he looked out into the auditorium as audience members rose to their feet, a rapturous applause filled the room and the curtains, very slowly, fell for one last time.
