New season announced at Capitol Theatre

The Capitol Theatre, which is based in the heart of Manchester, has an exciting autumn term performance season coming up.

The Capitol Theatre offers a huge variety of diverse productions, from an emotionally powerful Russian set play, showing the juxtaposition of oppression and freedom, to British plays exposing relevant societal issues that are present in this day.

A soulful performance focusing on a blighted Irish family and the influences they face internally and externally surrounding their life is also being performed.

The student actors, who are studying their BA (Hons) acting degrees based at the Manchester School of Theatre at Manchester Metropolitan University, are offering an array of spectacular performances starting this autumn term, beginning with their performance of Brezhnev’s Children by Olwen Wymark from Wednesday, October 15 to Saturday October 18.

Deeply moving

The deeply moving piece, Brezhnev’s Children, adapted from the novel ‘The Women’s Decameron’, is set in a rundown maternity hospital in Moscow during the mid-1980s.

The mothers are held in an isolation ward against their will, separated from their babies and the outside world due to a spurious “infection”.

The women tell their stories and eventually form a bond, which enables them to defy their oppressors.

Set against a background prior to the moment when Mikhail Gorbachev came to power, this play creates an absorbing atmospheric feel, which moves audiences.

Double header

From Wednesday, November 5 to Saturday, November 8, The Long Road and Five Kinds of Silence will be performed. A night of two performances written by Shelagh Stephenson, the two plays create a thought provoking evening.

The Long Road exposes the reality of teenage violence in society whilst also showing the trauma of a mother trying to understand her murdered son’s killer, focusing on her journey of trying to seek peace out of forgiveness.

The play evolved out of research with prisoners by Synergy Theatre Project, in collaboration with The Forgiveness Project, which allowed the organisation to be able to place issues of forgiveness, reparation and restorative justice out into the public arena.

Five Kinds of Silence is a depiction of what happens behind closed doors. Billy controls his wife and two adult daughters to the extent that they cannot leave the room without asking permission, but one day his family shoots him dead. The harrowing scenes focus on abuse but also the affect that abuse has on the mind, creating an emotionally raw and diverse piece of theatre.

Family drama

The final play, which runs from Wednesday, December 3 to Saturday, December 6, is Dancing at Lughnasa by Brian Friel.

The play is set in County Donegal in the early 20th century with The Mundy family at the centre of this story. The family are ashamed of Jack, who has abandoned the practice of orthodox religion.

The play focuses on family unity and the various difficulties they have whilst trying maintain unity and harmony.

This semi-autobiographical play provides an eye-opening piece of theatre that shows external and internal influences on families trapped in their own domestic situations.

Booking details

The Capitol Theatre is located in the Mabel Tylecote Building, which is situated at the corner of Oxford Road (B5117) and Cavendish Street on the MMU All Saints Campus.

The All Saints campus is well served by public transport, with frequent bus services travelling to and from the city centre. Each performance starts at 6pm on Thursdays and 7.30pm all other days. If you wish to purchase a ticket for these plays, you can buy tickets from the box office in the Mabel Tylecote Building, which is open during the evening of the performance (cash only).

To reserve a ticket, the box office number is 0161 247 1360 or you can buy tickets online at http://www.capitoltheatre.mmu.ac.uk/tickets/. Ticket prices are £8 for a full price ticket and £5 for concessions. On Thursdays’ students ticket prices are £2.50 and for MMU School of Theatre student and alumni tickets are £1 (this option not available online).