While the future of a permanent theatre building for Oldham continues to be debated - will it be a new building, or will the original historic Oldham Coliseum in Fairbottom Street be rescued? - the team keeping the flame alive is bringing a 160-seat, pop-up theatre to the town centre from April 27-28, with a free welcome weekend (10am-4pm, both days). Coliseum at the Roundabout, in the car park of the town centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall, will be home to a variety of live events and an artistic programme focusing on work made in Oldham. Free events this weekend include a drumming workshop, Mr Bubbles and a beatshop workshop. Over the coming months there will be opportunities for local community groups to use the space. Exisiting Coliseum groups, including Full Circle for the over 50s, Culture and Chips (an open group for discussions about arts and culture), and Roma Connections Ia project for Roma women), will also meet there. Cultivate, the Coliseum's week-long festival for anyone keen to get into the different areas of theatre, will be held and local theatremakers will be given a small budget to develop and showcase their work through Crafted at the Coliseum. August will see the return of the Khushi Festival. Named after the Urdu word for happiness, Khushi is an annual festival showcasing work by Oldham’s South Asian communities. More info here

While the future of a permanent theatre building for Oldham continues to be debated - will it be a new building, or will the original historic Oldham Coliseum in Fairbottom Street be rescued? - the team helping keep the flame alive is bringing a 160-seat, pop-up theatre to the town centre over the summer, launched with a free welcome weekend this Saturday/Sunday (April 27-28,10am-4pm, both days). Coliseum at the Roundabout, in the car park of the town centre's Queen Elizabeth Hall, will be home to a variety of live events and an artistic programme focusing on work made in Oldham. Free events this weekend include a drumming workshop, Mr Bubbles and a beatshop workshop. Over the coming months there will be opportunities for local community groups to use the space. Exisiting Coliseum groups, including Full Circle for the over 50s, Culture and Chips (an open group for discussions about arts and culture), and Roma Connections (a project for Roma women), will also meet there. Cultivate, the Coliseum's week-long festival for anyone keen to get into the different areas of theatre, will be held and local theatremakers will be given a small budget to develop and showcase their work through Crafted at the Coliseum. August will see the return of the Khushi Festival. Named after the Urdu word for happiness, Khushi is an annual festival showcasing work by Oldham’s South Asian communities. More info here

Joan Littlewood Blackeyed Theatre Company Theatr Clwyd, The Mix April 23-27, 2024, 2 hrs This production is a timely revival to mark 60 years since Joan Littlewood's iconic production, which actually celebrated its 60th anniversary last year - the show has been touring since last September. The original Oh What a Lovely War aimed to capture the futility of warfare in World War I - waged by generals with little clue what they wanted to achieve and how it would affect the millions of volunteer and conscripted soldiers being manipulated by them. "Lions led by donkeys" was the famous phrase. This production did this admirably, yet was less successful in capturing the blind devotion to King and country that saw millions take the King's shilling merely because everyone else was doing so. The cast - Tom Benjamin, Tom Crabtree, Harry Curley, Alice E Mayer, Ghioma Uma and Euan Wilson, each playing multiple roles - is excellent. They are full of energy and enthusiasm and demonstrate copious talent, moving seamlessly from acting to playing various instruments. The team shows great imagination and sensitivity, interacting strongly with the audience. Stand out moments include the rendition of Keep the Home Fires Burning by Gioma Uma, and the ramping-up of tension as the show tells the events of the famed football match in the trenches between opposing forces in 1914. It helps if you have a working knowledge of the events of World War 1. The action is so fast-paced at times that some of it is hard to follow, and while the statistics, cleverly displayed at the entrance to a trench, are shocking, sometimes they are hard to read. The roots of this production lie in the original production, improvised by Littlewood and her famous company Theatre Workshop. The action here captures the not-terribly-subtle satire of the original, with the same clown costumes, make-up and end-of-the-pier-show style that was still popular in the 1960s, and the same nostalgic songs - It’s a Long Way to Tipperary and I Don’t Want to be a Soldier among them - to increase the pathos. Even if you don't pick up every last nuance, this play is an excellent watch, no less effective at highlighting the savagery of war and the seemingly inconsiderate attitudes of the powers that be than it was 60 years ago. It leaves the audience in no doubt about its intentions. More info and tickets here

Know your theatre: Royal Court Theatre, Liverpool The Royal Court is the largest producing theatre in the Liverpool City Region, an historic art deco Grade II listed building, extensively modernised and refreshed. The theatre has developed its own unique style, producing eight plays a year, mostly comedies and musicals with a Liverpool theme, and a largely local cast and crew. Pre-show dining, cabaret-style stalls seating and a range of drinks are served before and after the show – a feature of a night out at the Court. The site has been at the heart of Liverpool culture for nearly 200 years, first as Cookes New Circus in 1826, renamed the Royal Court Theatre in 1881 but destroyed by fire in 1933. Rebuilt as an art deco showpiece, it reopened in 1938, with exemplary acoustics and sightlines and the largest revolve outside London. Astaire, Gielgud, Richardson, Olivier, Yul Brynner, Margot Fonteyn and Ken Dodd all appeared here; Judi Dench made her acting debut here in 1957 and is a patron of the theatre trust, having supported the £12m restoration campaign that over the past decade has created new foyer space, provided lifts to all parts, a 150-seat basement venue and new technical facilities, bars and toilets. Further improvements are still in the works. Address: 1 Roe Street, Liverpool, L1 1HL Phone: General inquiries: 0151 702 5890. Box office: 0151 709 4321 ​ ​ As we suggested above, a main feature of the 1,100-seat Royal Court is its auditorium layout. There are traditional seating rows in the circle and balcony, but cabaret-style seating in the stalls, at which meals are served for many of the shows (arrive an hour early minimum if you have ordered such). The Royal Court prides itself on its friendliness and social atmosphere, and apart from its local approach to theatre runs several groups, including a community choir, a playwriting group and even a gardening group to keep theatre planting tidy. There are extensive youth attractions too, including a youth theatre company. Facilities: Parking: Nearest parking is St Johns Shopping Centre car park which is £5.00 after 6pm for up to six hours. If not travelling by car, the theatre is close to Lime Street station and next to the Queen Square bus station. Timetables can be found here Online box office: Tickets can be bought online by finding the show here and following the links ​

Know your theatre: Contact Theatre, Manchester The most unusual-looking theatre building you’ll ever come across, Contact has undergone more radical changes of direction than your average performing arts organisation. Built as the performance space for Manchester University Drama Department, it was briefly used by the ‘69 Theatre Company before that became the Royal Exchange Theatre Company. In 1972 the building became home to the Manchester Young People’s Theatre, aka Contact, a sadly now little-remembered repertory company under the likes of Richard Williams, that presented many of Alan Bleasdale’s stage successes and gave young actors such as Mark Rylance and Rick Mayall early roles. The set-up later changed again to take Contact back to its young people's theatre roots, and a rebuild in 1999 produced the highly-distinctive current ventilation chimneys. Now fully open again after a £6.5m re-vamp in 2020, the emphasis is even more on young people doing it for themselves. Contact’s aim is to enable young people to change their lives through the arts as well as enabling audiences of all ages to experience new shows. Contact is the leading national theatre and arts venue to place young people at the decision-making heart of everything. Young people aged 13-30 lead the organisation, working alongside staff in deciding the artistic programme, making staff appointments and acting as full board members. Pic: Joel Chester Fildes Address: Contact Theatre, Devas Street, Oxford Road, Manchester M15 6JA Phone: Box office 0161 274 0600 (Mon-Fri 10am-5pm), General inquiries 0161 274 0646. Facilities: This fascinating - not to say quirky - architectural edifice near the university has a main 320-seat auditorium (Space 1) and an 80-seat studio. The redevelopment has produced new performance spaces, a new recording studio, an arts and health development space, new offices for organisations to hire and a new café/bar. The work also contributed to the building's emphasis on sustainable development: Contact is reckoned to be in the top one per cent of the North West's most environmentally-friendly buildings. Parking: Contact doesn't have its own parking, but visitors can use the university car park, which is directly outside and subject to charges. Online box office: Go here and follow the booking route to your show choice

Know your theatre: The most beautifully-located profes-sional theatre in the UK, Theatre by the Lake traces its origin to 1948 and a team of theatre enthusiasts who created a 225-seat mobile theatre to take live performance around post-war Britain. The convoy of trailers arrived in Keswick for the first time in 1961, but by 1975 was unfit to tour, so the company successfully took up residence by Derwentwater. In 1996 the convoy was uprooted one last time, to be replaced by the current permanent structure, the last theatre built in Britain in the 20th Century and the first to be built – at a cost of £6.5m –with the help of the national lottery. The theatre opened in August 1999 with Charley’s Aunt . There are two stages, a 400-seat main house with a central rake that has excellent sight lines, and a 100-seat studio. The main house is large for its seating capacity, high and wide, with a stage capable of holding big shows. In the main house the company presents a busy programme of now mainly wide- appeal co-productions (partnering with theatres including Bolton Octagon and Stephen Joseph Theatre, Scarborough) throughout the year and a wide-ranging series of studio shows. TBTL also hosts a variety of festivals and visiting companies. The theatre has a loyal local audience, alongside the many tourists who enjoy a night of theatre after tramping the fells. Theatre by the Lake, Keswick Address: Theatre by the Lake, Lakeside, Keswick, Cumbria CA12 5DJ Phone: Box Office: 017687 74411 (9.30am-7.30pm/6pm non-performance nights). Admin: 017687 72282 (9am-5pm). Catering: 017687 81102 (9am-9pm). Also available by email . The theatre is currently closed but expects to reopen in autumn 2021. Facilities: A modern theatre with modern sensibilities when it comes to loos and disabled facilities. Avoid the main theatre side seats if you can, despite their lower cost. The adjacent restaurant is open 10am-3pm daily, and a tourist attraction in itself, with views across the lake. When the theatre reopens allow plenty of time to dine as service can be slow – though there is that view to look at... Parking: The theatre is located off Lake Road and is indicated on brown tourist signs throughout the town. Lakeside car park (Allerdale Borough Council, pay and display) is next to the theatre, and in summer gets very busy, so allow plenty of time to park. Charge is £1 from 7pm-7am. Before 7pm charges vary. Go here and follow the booking route to your show choice. Online box office: