A £2m project to restore the traditional windows and façade of the Grade II listed Manchester Opera House has been completed. The work began a year ago and has included extensive repairs to the render, brickwork, windows and ironmongery fixings, alongside replacement of rainwater conduits to refresh the landmark’s façade, ensure a more historically-authentic exterior and safeguard the venue for the future. The updates are part of a total £4.5m investment made across both the Opera House and its sister venue the Palace Theatre this financial year. As well as the exterior refurbishment, a wide range of other work has been completed to maintain and upgrade the Opera House interior, including star dressing rooms, backstage and lounge areas, and toilets on every level. The Palace’s dimmer system and auditorium ventilation system have also been extensively upgraded. Both theatres have remained open throughout. Robin Hawkes, theatre director at the Palace and Opera House said: “The Palace and Opera House have been jewels in the heart of Manchester’s cultural fabric for many generations, so I'm delighted we’ve been able to refresh the beautiful Edwardian exterior of the Opera House as part of a wider suite of works.” The project’s architect, Ian Edwards, said: ‘’It’s been a fulfilling project to work on and we hope that visitors to Manchester enjoy seeing the Opera House returned to its original splendour.’’ Originally named the New Theatre when it opened on Boxing Day in 1912, the Opera House has been through several iterations, being renamed the Opera House in 1920. It has also been used as a cinema during World War II, then a bingo hall, before being restored and reopened again as a theatre in 1984.

The 2024 Horizons Festival of new theatre, performance, visual art, film, music community events and family-friendly workshops, returns to HOME Manchester from June 21-23. The theme of this year's festival - organised by HOME and Community Arts North West (CAN) - is Our Planet, Our Home, co-curated with the Arts and Migration Network of displaced local artists, an expansion on the theme for this year’s national Refugee Week. The festival will showcase work by locally-based artists and supports artists from refugee backgrounds. The programme includes a new theatre work and a dance piece by sanctuary-seeking women from the voluntary organisation, Afrocats. Families can enjoy music and dance performances and a visual art exhibition, as well as textiles by children, young people and adults recently settled in the UK through CAN’s community programme, . There will also be creative workshops and a family-friendly film screening in association with Celebrating Syria. Counterpoints Arts’ critically acclaimed No Direction Home comedy show features stand-up comedians from refugee and migrant backgrounds. Tebu Muziki will entertain evening audiences in HOME’s ground floor cafe with an eclectic mix of African Jazz and Afro fusion. The festival also includes films, including a newly-commissioned short film by Valeriia Lukianets, who came to the UK from Ukraine in 2022, and visual art commissions across the building - for example a banner made by a group including forced migrants working with textile artists Kate Rothery and Vicky Richards. Full info on all aspects of the wide-ranging festival here

Maxine Peake, Sarah Frankcom, Imogen Knight, with Daisy Johnson MAAT, Factory International production Aviva Studios, Manchester May 17-26, 2024; 1 hr 10 mins Spare a thought for members of the audience at Robin/Red/Breast who go home to a pretty cottage in the country. My house is in a town and it’s new enough not to have (many) cavities for scrabbling mice or wasps’ and birds’ nests, but I still tiptoed in, wondering what was going to creep out of the walls and invade my body. The pervasive anxiety at the heart of this powerful horror story starts to rise, of course, before you arrive at your seat. Will you find a car park, how do you pay, whereabouts in this busy cultural complex is the theatre? And why am I being given headphones? Maxine Peake, who plays Norah, the city dweller “escaping” to the country, is no stranger to horror. Along with co-creators Sarah Frankcom and Imogen Knight she has a fine track record when it comes to spooky and weird. Robin/Red/Breast has been taking shape for about five years, since they first came across the original John Bowen play that was part of the renowned BBC TV drama strand Play for Today. During that period they also collaborated on a part-reading, part-recital of Kay Dick’s novel They, the very definition of Dystopian, which chilled our bones at the cathedral-like John Rylands Library in Manchester. The Warehouse space at Aviva Studios is well suited to horror (and no, no cheap gags here about building costs or bench seats.) The theatre-in-the-round staging that has been carved out for this production manages to be both intimate and unsettling, with the cavernous black hole that is the roof disappearing into space, allowing composer Gazelle Twin’s music to drift eerily away into the ether. The constraint of our dark, featureless surroundings was heightened by the ambient sound – the gentle twittering of birds – a stark contrast, recalling sunlit uplands but in fact confirming the surrounding impenetrable woodlands. The central themes of the play were all there in the opening few minutes. A ten-strong female coven of a village brass band (frankly, scary all by itself) marches implacably to surround the bones of the cottage – a clever design (Lizzy Clachan) whose sparse wooden frame both imprisons and provides windows. Then Norah awakes to bloodied sheets, her uncontrollable body asserting its power and forcing her to signal her fertility to the world as the bedding dries on the line. The village has - of course - been raising a sperm bank for this very moment. Tyler Cameron, in his first professional stage role, plays Robin, who skips on to the set wielding an axe, the ripped male equivalent of a vestal virgin wafting ribbons. Tricky to be provocative with an axe, and the imagery is a tad heavy-handed, but we get the message... The fact that that message arrives in part via headphones may seem like a gimmick, but they fulfil their purpose – a further restraint that adds strangeness, but more importantly puts the audience inside Norah’s head. The control they exercise is starkly epitomised when, like a well-drilled troupe, we removed them simultaneously. The time-shift that brings this perpetual female dilemma into the 21st Century works less well; perhaps because unwanted pregnancy – self or friend or family – is in every woman’s life and really doesn't suit this kind of therapy group exposition. Afterwards we emerged blinking into the sunshine, wondering where we had put the car keys, whether we would find the car park and... what would be waiting for us when we got home. More info and tickets here

Know your theatre: Wales’ largest producing theatre opened in 1976 next to County Hall, in a complex opened by the Queen. The theatre has a proud history of major productions with star international names. Theatr Clwyd productions are seen throughout the year both in Wales and on UK tours. Appointed as artistic director in 2023 Kate Wasserberg, formerly artistic director of new-writing company Stockroom and Cardiff's The Other Room, is overseeing an ambitious, £35m redevelopment project to create a large extension at the front, including a new three-storey foyer and restaurant, bar and cafe. The building has three performing spaces and a multi-purpose function room, and though the redevelopment will massively upgrade facilities, the theatre spaces won't be changed. The main Anthony Hopkins Theatre is a single-raked tier seating up to 569, with five wheelchair spaces. The Emlyn Williams Theatre is a flexible studio space for 147-250. Studio 2, built to TV broadcast standards, can hold up to 120 for performance events and is used as a second rehearsal space. The theatre also has a small cinema (capacity 113) and a large function room used for gigs (capacity 240). Theatr Clwyd Address: Raikes Lane, Mold, Wales CH7 1YA Phone: General inquiries and box office: 01352 344101 (line open 10am-6pm) Facilities: The theatre complex is large, containing theatre spaces and other events and refreshment facilities. The theatre website is here . Disabled visitors are well catered for with wheelchair access to all floors, disabled parking spaces, an induction loop for hearing aid users, some "relaxed" performances when audience movement and noise are acceptable, and facilities for visual impairment. See here for details. Parking: Once in the Mold area prominent signage points you to the theatre complex. Currently, an underground car park is closed but parking is available on a tiered open air car park. Avoid parking immediately in front of the building. Online box office: Go here if you haven't booked online at Theatr Clwyd before, or find the show on the website and follow the bookings link. Email box.office@theatrclwyd.com with queries.

Know your theatre: Clonter Opera Theatre, Congleton Clonter, sometimes called ‘the Glyndebourne of the North’, is on a working farm in the Cheshire countryside, not far from the Jodrell Bank radio telescope. Clonter began as informal gatherings in a barn, with seating on bales of straw. Today the venue has a 400-seat theatre (though a former hen house is still part of the backstage facilities), and a well-established programme of events. Clonter notably showcases young operatic talent, but also jazz and folk. Front of house now offers sufficient accommodation for the entire audience to enjoy a meal under one roof, either before or part-way through the performance (ordered from the house caterer or your own picnic), which is something even Glyndebourne cannot offer. Expect to meet the Cheshire set in full cry (especially after imbibing during a long interval) as your fellow opera-buffs, but this stage frequently offers future international stars in the making, so it can be worth it... Address: Swettenham Heath, Trap Rd, Congleton CW12 2LR Phone: General inquiries and box office: 01260 224514 (10am-4pm Mon-Fri and performance days). The theatre is large, the building boasting separate rooms of various sizes, allowing it to function as a theatre and for corporate hires and schools use throughout the year. The theatre website offers a range of accommodation choices for long-distance visitors. Disabled visitors are well catered for Facilities: Parking: There is a drop-off point outside the theatre entrance, and free parking. Eight bays close to the main entrance can be reserved for those with reduced mobility. Online box office: Go here if you haven't booked online at Clonter before, or here if you have. You need to open an account for online booking.

Know your theatre: Opened in 1887, the Coliseum was one of the oldest British theatres still operating, and was much loved by its loyal supporters – perhaps more so since its demise in March 2023. Once a circus, in the 1930s it was briefly a cinema before becoming the members-only Oldham Repertory Theatre. It was said to be one of the most haunted theatres in Britain, and a famous stage death occurred there in the 1940s. By the 1950s-60s the resident company helped to form the careers of Coronation Street stars Jean Alexander, Pat Phoenix, Roy Barra-clough, William Roache and local girls Barbara Knox and Anne Kirkbride. In 1978 it became the Arts Council and local authority-supported Oldham Coliseum, offering a mix of professional productions of its own and other touring shows, It was famous for its massively-popular annual pantomime. Plans for a new building were scrapped in late 2018 and the withdrawal of an Arts Council "NPO" grant in late 2022 led to the theatre's closure in March 2023. Plans are supposedly in place for a smaller replacement within three or so years, which might not retain the name. Coliseum Theatre, Oldham (closed Mar '23) Address: Oldham Coliseum Theatre, Fairbottom Street, Oldham OL1 3SW Phone: Facilities: Parking: Some on-street metered parking. Bradshaw Street car park is nearby, with a concessionary rate after 6pm. More information here Online box office: