Theatre graduates stage cult film

EMILIO Estevez and Molly Ringwald starred in the original – now a group of MMU graduates are taking cult film ‘The Breakfast Club’ to the stage.

John Hughes’s 1985 film ‘The Breakfast Club’ was an immediate and popular hit featuring the hot young ‘Brat Pack’ actors, a driving soundtrack by Simple Minds and some sharp insight into how we see ourselves and those around us.

The First not Last Theatre Company which unites eight young talented graduates from MMU’s School of Theatre says the play is the first of a series of classic films they plan to adapt to the stage.

Director and company founder Annie Wallace said: “Many successful films have tremendous potential to work on stage. The Breakfast Club was a huge hit in the eighties but it read like a stage play with great dialogue and characterisation.”

Updated from 80s

The Breakfast Club, which shows exclusively at MMU’s Capitol Theatre, on Oxford Road, tells the story of a group of teenagers serving school detention on a Saturday morning. The kids from all social backgrounds are thrown into the mix and learn more in a day about their fellows than many teenagers do in a year.

This new stage adaptation of the film displaces the USA for the present day south of England. Very little has changed. The values still hold true. Much of the famous, original dialogue is retained, but obviously adapted for a new time and place.

Added Annie: “The response has been fantastic. People, including me, loved the film and we will be sticking to the spirit of the original, albeit updating some of the language and other aspects.”

The Breakfast Club will be performed from 13-16 September at 7.30pm at the Capitol Theatre, Manchester Metropolitan University, Oxford Road, Manchester.
Tickets are £5, available online, or on the night.

For more information, please contact Annie Wallace on 07951 466291. Also, you can visit the website www.firstnotlast.co.uk

*MMU’s School of Theatre trains around 30 professional actors each year, many of whom go onto successful careers and become household names. Graduates include Julie Walters, Sir Antony Sher, Richard Griffiths, David Threlfall, Bernard Hill, Steve Coogan, John Thompson, Jeff Hordley and Zoe Henry.

Go to www.theatre.mmu.ac.uk