Since its world premiere in 2017 the show, by The Old Vic’s Artistic Director Matthew Warchus, has been seen by almost a million people in London, America and Australia, and across the globe as part of OLD VIC: IN CAMERA in 2020. But this is the first time UK audiences will have had a chance to see it outside London, where it will also run for its tenth consecutive year at The Old Vic.

“To now be able to share the joy of this production with the Lowry and its audiences makes this year a truly special one,” says director Matthew  Warchus. “I am immensely proud of the impact it continues to have on audiences – whether it be their first time seeing the show or one visit of many”.

This production sees Charles Dickens’ famous tale of Ebenezeer Scrooge, adapted for the stage by Jack Thorne (His Dark Materials, Harry Potter and The Cursed Child), and audiences can expect a big-hearted show full of music and festive cheer.

“We know North West audiences are in for something very special this festive season and everyone at the Lowry is delighted to be welcoming the show to Salford and presenting it on our Lyric stage,” says Lowry’s Chief Executive, Julia Fawcett.  “It’s the first time the show will have been presented in the UK outside of London – a real landmark moment for theatre in the region. We’re absolutely thrilled to be working with The Old Vic – one of the UK’s leading theatres – to present their landmark production of A Christmas Carol – one of the most exciting, joyous and moving Christmas productions you’ll ever see”.

Matthew Warchus’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ comes to Lowry, Salford from 11 December 2026 to 10 January 2027.

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Kuchipudi is an incredible form of dance. What drew you to it?

Payal: “So I started training in Kuchipudi when I was four. I did not have much of an understanding of what the dance style was at that time; I got started into it by my parents. But it’s a South Indian classical dance form. If I were to draw a parallel with something you may be familiar with, it would be ballet — not stylistically, but in terms of its structure and the discipline it requires.

“It’s replete with footwork and hand gestures. It’s a way of communication and storytelling. We use a lot of facial expressions to communicate ideas and tell stories, really using the whole body. Rhythm forms the backbone of it, and it’s very rich musically — they go hand in hand, of course. I mean, music and dance naturally go together, so that’s essentially what Kuchipudi is.”

What inspired you to create this work around motherhood and miscarriage?

Payal: “It’s a combination of several factors. I’m at that stage where I’ve been contemplating motherhood myself, but I’ve also watched others on their own journeys. The work I make usually stems from a place of curiosity — that’s my entry point into any project. It comes from feeling like I don’t know enough about a particular idea or subject, and wanting to explore it further. Motherhood is not just a simplistic term. It is a landscape of emotions. I make work that I feel needs to be spoken about.

“For me, dance is the medium I choose because it gives me a way to discover and better understand that subject matter. Then I invite people onto that journey with me — I share it with the audience, who can take part either as spectators or participants, depending on how the work unfolds.”

Do you think it’s easy to cover powerful topics through art and dance?

Payal:“I don’t know if it’s easy, but I would certainly say that it’s my way. It’s my medium, it’s the medium that I know best, it’s the medium where I can express myself to the best of my ability. So that’s my medium. Dance helps me express myself best. I think there are a lot of things that remain unsaid. Art is a great way of telling people things. I think art remains with you, even when you leave a performance. The performance stays with you for a long time. And that is the beauty of art. That is the impact that art has on people.”

How long have you been working on ‘Just Enough Madness’?

Payal: “It was born, I think, somewhere around 2019. So, it’s been a long, long time. There were gaps in between, but it was always there in my mind. Even while I was working on other productions, there would be times when I would revisit it and then just let it simmer in the background and then come back to it. It’s been through different phases. It’s been re-researched and redeveloped, and now we’re finally doing this pilot tour with hopefully a more extensive tour next year.”

How can you convince someone to come watch?

Payal: “I think everyone has either been a witness to motherhood or experienced it themselves. You know, we’ve either seen our own mothers or watched a sister, a wife, or a friend go through the journey of motherhood. And if you are someone who has witnessed it or been on that journey yourself, I would just say: come see a glimpse of yourself in it, and come to recognise the emotional labour, the rigour that a woman goes through. I’m not talking about the physical aspect so much — I mean the more unsaid truths of motherhood. Yeah. So I think it’s really a way of celebrating motherhood in the truest sense of the word, not just superficially.”

Just Enough Madness & Caught in the Net of Rebirth is at Lowry, Salford on Tuesday 31 March 2026.

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Blending absurdist comedy with reflections of ambition, creativity and what comes next after a goal has finally been achieved, the show has been described as “demented, meticulous, oddly moving” and a comedy that feels like “a genuine work of art.”

Anastasia Tirca meets him to find out more about the origins of the show, the strange journey behind it and what audiences can expect when the curtain rises.

What is the main message you want audiences to take from the show?

Joz: “It’s such a stupid show. I’m a character comedian and the things that I most like are just really stupid.

“One of the big things we were trying to do was just make something that people would find very silly. But it’s also kind of about wishing your life away, I guess. Like the idea of it is that I play a character who has been working on his life’s work and throughout the show, it’s sort of vague, but he is promising to unveil it for the first time during this show. As it goes on, it becomes clear how much that’s cost him and how much he’s driven himself insane with the idea of doing this amazing thing.

“It is sort of talking about the way in which we put so much of our lives off into the future – once I finish doing this thing or once I’ve got that ready, then I’ll finally be able to do everything else. So it’s sort of about that state – what will it take for us to actually start living our lives kind of thing?

“The show does all that under the surface of something that is just very, very much about chaos and about nonsense”.

Does the comedy reflect the reality of the story the way it should?

Joz: “I mean, for me, my favourite comedies are the ones that while laughing at it and while being in hysterics at something, it also managed to make you actually think about something in a new way. And I think comedy can make you do that in ways better than drama can.

“I really love making stuff that sits in that middle ground where you’re watching something very stupid and for some reason you’re being made to think about this bigger picture as well. I really like exploring those crossovers. When an audience is laughing, then I think in a way they are more receptive to the idea that when it turns out to be about something meaningful, it sneaks up on us more”.

What can you share about the process of writing and creating the show?

Joz: “It is a solo fringe show and the myth of those things is always that they’re very driven by one person. When you go to the Fringe, it’s all posters with one person’s face and one person’s name on it. So the show is like, Joz Norris. I did write and perform it, but this gets in the way of the fact that it’s still a product of such a collaborative process, because I had a director, and I had a consultant on it, who did a lot of story input and design input. So, I did write the material, but even then, that becomes part of a conversation with the team where we talk about other people chucking ideas for jokes or they’ll go, this bit should be streamlined or it would be funny if this bit went more in this direction.

“It’s technically written by me, but I always think the fringe in particular is quite bad at reminding people that there’s a whole team of people around things”.

Do you think taking it to the fringe has altered the show in any way, and did you modify it for the tour and the Lowry performance?

Joz: “It’s the model that I know, I started doing the Fringe years ago, I’m most comfortable with making shows that fit that format and I’m most comfortable knowing how to position something with that audience. But I think the more you do it, the better you get at learning how to make something that could speak outside of that as well, because the Fringe is amazing, but it’s a bit of a weird bubble. It has so much importance for the comedy industry.  So with this show, I think the fact that we’re now touring theatres with it and it had a nice enough run in Edinburgh to kind of to create that momentum to take it on tour. In Edinburgh, everyone’s already primed for something very chaotic and absurdist and stupid. The way in which it unfolds sort of plays out differently with different audiences. You can give a show a whole other life after the Fringe, because normally I do the Fringe and then I chuck the show in the bin and then that’s it. So taking it out to other cities around the place has been really cool, really fun.

“It wasn’t its first ever performance at the Fringe, but it was its first kind of launch.
It is my 1st time performing at the Lowry. I directed a show that launched there a couple of years ago. Eddie Hearst, who is an amazing comedian based in Manchester did a show, which was developed with the Lowry and premiered there at the end of 2024. I’ve worked with the Lowry before and was up there quite a lot helping develop that. But I’ve never actually performed there. So I’m really looking forward to it”.

What inspired you to write this?

Joz: “All of my shows end up being character comedy shows where I play a character with my name who is quite similar to me and in some ways it could be a stand-up show. The stuff that’s happening in the show is so stupid that it’s obviously fictional. So the things that happen to my character in this show are very much imaginative, absurdist, stupid things. But it was based on the feeling of once I’ve managed to complete this thing, then my life will carry on.

“I made a show in a literalising way, to try and tell myself to stop having that feeling. It is sort of a way of reminding myself how pointless it is to get stuck in thinking that way. Any stand-up is basically comics playing a version of themselves, so the character also has my name.

“It’s a one-man show, although there’s sort of offstage voices and things that we don’t see. It’s more of a narrative than a stand-up show.

“My background is mostly stand-up. I started doing it in University and then it just became what I did. I was like: I’m going to London and work it all out. I hopped from temp job to temp job for a while, until I had enough of a stable career in comedy that was what I did”.

How do you find doing this show with no ensemble? How is that different?

Joz: “It takes a while getting used to it because particularly the stuff I grew up with loving the most was TV comedies, which obviously are lots of characters interacting with each other. So the way my brain automatically goes towards finding things funny is that I very often make characters have phone calls in shows or talk to somebody off stage or trying to put them into dialogue with things. I think I’ve also got better in the last few years with having a team around a show, so it feels a bit less isolated. I’ve got an amazing tech and a tour manager who goes around with me and it’s so good on the timings of everything. So it’s nice when there’s a family of people around a show in a way, and it slightly insulates against the fact of it’s just you on stage for an hour.  Part of the team was John Britton who was the director. Miranda Holms was the creative consultant and script consultant. James Hingley was the technician. Grace Gibson did movement direction on it, because there’s a little bit of dancing in it, she taught me just how to dance well enough to get away with it”.

What goal do you want to reach with the show?

Joz: “I think with this particular show, it already surpassed so many goals for it because it had such a lovely run in Edinburgh and this thing of being able to take it on the road and meet more audiences. I think that’s always the hope with a show is you just keep finding new ways to reach more people with it, which this one is in the process of doing.

“We would like to film it because once you’ve taken it to all the venues that want it, then comes the thing of how do you preserve it so that it’s not just something everyone remembers? So I think we might try and film one of the performances. There is also a bit of me that wants to try and explore the idea of it as a feature film as well. But obviously making a film is another mountain to climb. So I think it’s nice that there’s a blueprint for something.

“I think this is my best show yet. I always hope that every show I do feels like it’s an evolution from the last one. I think by the time you finish a show, you can always see what you couldn’t see while you were inside it, which then means the next one, you’re sort of deliberately going in the right direction. We’re doing about 12 dates in 12 places around the UK.  Which is great and I feel very happy with that and it’s my 1st tour around the UK. This is show number 7 that I have done overall, but 3 of them are probably in the comedy theatre space”.

Do you think the comedy  aspect of the show transmits the message that you want to the audience to gain in the correct way?

Joz: “I’m never precious about exactly how I want audiences to leave and it tends to be either because of the way in which the show is structured and because of what happens towards the end. People either leave at the end just very hysterical and giggly, because the ending is very stupid and dumb. Or it becomes so stupid by the end that there’s almost a glimmer of pathos in it or actually meaning something. So sometimes people leave, weirdly moved by it and they come up to me and say: thank you so much. I really don’t have a preference on those 2 things. I think both are really valid responses. When I see people just leaving very giggly and trying to calm down after losing it for a bit, then I find that really lovely. And when I see audience members who took something away from it I am a bit touched”.

Joz Norris: You Wait. Time Passes is at Lowry, Salford on 24 Aril 2026.

The post Joz Norris on getting silly and serious in You Wait. Time Passes appeared first on Quays Life.

Taking on the iconic role of the titular crime-solver in ‘Inspector Morse: House of Ghosts’, Tom Chambers admits to being daunted at the prospect of following in the footsteps of John Thaw from the much-loved TV series. “But it’s a thrilling challenge,” he smiles, “and it’s a delicious treat for anyone who is a fan of Morse, like I was and indeed have been throughout the decades.”

For most theatregoers ‘House of Ghosts’will be a brand-new story full of surprising twists and turns. It was written in 2010 by Alma Cullen, who (along with Anthony Minghella and Danny Boyle) was one of the original writers on the ‘Inspector Morse’ TV show when it premiered in 1987. Cullen’s play enjoyed a small tour and a Radio 4 broadcast, but the UK tour marks the first major production of the first-ever Morse story on stage.

Reunited with director Anthony Banks after ‘Dial M for Murder’, Chambers says: “Morse is such a fantastic brand and we’re both really excited about the fact that the audience is going to see something that the vast majority of them won’t have seen before. And given that Alma was one of the original writers, he’s very much the Inspector Morse that we know and love.”

The ITV show has been hailed by Radio Times as the greatest British crime series of all time and it inspired the equally beloved spin-offs ‘Lewis’ and ‘Endeavour’. In ‘House of Ghosts’ a chilling mystery unfolds when a young actress suddenly dies on stage during a performance and Detective Chief Inspector Morse and his sidekick DS Lewis are called in to investigate, as what begins as a suspicious death inquiry takes a darker turn when they uncover a connection to sinister events in Morse’s own past at Oxford 25 years earlier.      

As for why he’s both thrilled and daunted about heading the cast for the tour, Tom says: “The thrill for me is in the dialogue and the writing, the camaraderie between Morse and Lewis and their relationship – where you have that classic thing of him putting Lewis down but with a sense of irony or jest and sometimes despair.

“So it’s great fun but daunting too, because you know that an audience is going to want to see something in the style of what they’ve seen before. They don’t want to see something that’s completely, shockingly unexpected, although there’s a different kind of energy to the setting because we’re back in 1987 where there are no mobile phones and it’s all analogue.”

Born in Derbyshire, the actor attended the National Youth Music Theatre, studied at the Guildford School of Acting and came to fame as Sam Strachan on ‘Holby City’. His theatre credits include the musicals ‘Top Hat’ and ‘Crazy for You’, as well as the thrillers ‘Murder in the Dark’ and the aforementioned ‘Dial M for Murder’.

Asked why he feels murder mysteries are so popular, especially on stage, Tom muses: “We are curious creatures, aren’t we? We like a puzzle, we like a challenge and the stimulation that goes with it. And in the theatre, of course, everyone is in the same space, in the dark, watching the mystery unfold on stage.”

Now 48, Tom adds with a smile: “I’m not necessarily someone who’s really modern and really cool, and I think Morse is like that too. He’s not necessarily chivalrous, because he can be quite hard at times; he can harsh, very black and white and very honest. He says it how it is, but he does have a sort of gentlemanly manner about him. I like playing that and exploring it.”

Tachia Newall plays Detective Sergeant Lewis and says of the character: “He’s pretty down-to-earth and hard-working. He loves his family and he’s usually thinking about getting home to his wife and kids, but he also wants to get to the bottom of the mystery.”

Is Tachia anything like that? He laughs: “I’m probably quite different because I wouldn’t say that I’m relatively chill. I’m down-to-earth, but I’m a little bit nutty. People will tell you that I’m very excitable.”

The banter between the characters is fun to play. “Lewis is really loyal to Morse and Morse in turn respects his views, even if he gets exasperated by him at times. Morse is from quite an educated background, while Lewis’s accent leads people to believe he’s not that well-educated by comparison.”

Born in Manchester, Tachia grew up watching ‘Inspector Morse’ on TV but is avoiding rewatching episodes now. “With most acting jobs that I do, if there’s been a previous iteration then I tend to stay clear of it until the job’s finished, just because I don’t want to try and emulate anything that’s been done before.”

Best known as Bolton Smilie from ‘Waterloo Road’, Newall is pleased to be reunited with Tom. Their paths crossed when Chambers did a stint on the show in 2009. “I hadn’t seen him since, so it’s good to be back in the room with him. He’s a cracking lad and he’s not changed at all. He’s still got that playful bounce about him.”

Tachia’s theatre credits include ‘Macbeth,’ so is ‘House of Ghosts’ a doddle compared to doing Shakespeare? He laughs. “I wouldn’t say it’s a doddle! This is a complex show, with complex timelines. It’s maybe easier emotionally for me, but it’s still challenging. And I just love being on the stage. With theatre, it changes every night. Just having a live audience in front of you, it brings you to life because anything can go wrong and you’ve got to be on your toes. You’ve got to be able to bring it back around.”

Murder mysteries are popular, he feels, because: “They’re such an escape from everyday life and you get to unpick things. You get to go on this journey with the protagonists, and you get to go ‘So they did it? Amazing!’.”

As for whether he’s make a good DS in real life, Tachia reckons: “Probably not. I think frustration might get the better of me. If I hit a brick wall, I might find it difficult to jump outside the box and view things from a different angle.”

Having helmed ‘Dial M for Murder’ as well as ‘The Girl on the Train’, ‘Gaslight’ and ‘Strangers on a Train’, director Anthony Banks is well-versed in stage thrillers. Summing up the appeal of Morse and Lewis in ‘House of Ghosts’, he says: “They are ordinary people who, by chance or by accident, have found themselves in these jobs as policemen working for Thames Valley police. They’re told to follow the rules, but people love them because they are messy, accident-prone individuals who are just doing a job. They’re not superheroes.

“There are various little asides where they kind of go ‘You know, we could be doing something else’ but I think that’s why people like them so much – because they recognise their faults and they are modest, and they don’t seek approval in the way that some heroes in fiction do.”

When Anthony read Cullen’s play his first thought was that, having worked with Tom on ‘Dial M for Murder’, he’d be the perfect actor to play Morse. “John Thaw is from Manchester and Tom is from the North, so there was that connection, plus he’s around the same age that John was when he started the TV series. Tom has a presence on stage that the audience warms to.”

Then there’s Tachia, about whom the director says: “I met him and immediately thought ‘I’ve found my Lewis’. He’s Mancunian, so he brings a very fresh sound to the character in a slightly working-class and very on-the-nose, straight-down-the-lens kind of way.”

Cullen’s play is interesting, he continues, because: “It’s a feminist piece of writing. Wherever possible she brings into focus what professional life was like for women in Oxford in the 1980s. Very few women held the position of head of department or professor or chair even. These were very changing times and Margaret Thatcher was running the country, but there was a massive amount of work to be done in terms of equality between the sexes. Unfortunately I think there’s still so much work left to be done on that front.”

As to why he feels it’s timely to stage the play now, Banks recalls gifting his father a book about the making of the TV series back in the 80s, in which the author of the Morse books Colin Dexter talked how the world had gone sour, people were going from one crisis to another and the Inspector was just trying to make things a little better.

That memory prompted his decision to revive a play that is set in 1987 and was first performed 15 years ago. “Now here we are, the world has gone a little sour again, we do seem to be moving from one crisis to another, and here’s this guy who wants to make things better. That struck me as a story that audiences would enjoy today.”

Inspector Morse: House of Ghosts is at Lowry, Salford from 7-11 April 2026.

The post The greatest British crime series of all time gets a stage makeover appeared first on Quays Life.

“Every year we did a show for the Stage Golfing Society. They did a ‘70s variety show and asked if I would do Eric Morecambe,” Jonty Stephens says. Sat buttoned up and thickly-bespectacled in the Lowry theatre bar, he could break into the act at any moment. Next to him, equally crisp with an easy grin, fellow actor Ian Ashpitel perches on his seat.

“And I said, well, I need an Ernie,” Jonty carries on. “And I looked over at the bar – it was the summer, and Ian had his shorts on because we’d been playing golf – and I saw his little, short, fat, hairy legs like Ernie Wise and thought, ‘he’s perfect’.”

Ian and Jonty have known each other for 43 years, only a year less than the original Morecambe and Wise. Self-confessed ‘anoraks’, the pair have built a joint career in bringing comedy’s greatest dynamic duo back to life. Following a string of sellout West End plays and an Olivier nomination, a special run of their latest show ‘Eric & Ern’ will come to the Lowry theatre this March, in celebration of the comedians’ 100th birthdays this year.

Cramming in classics from ice cream-police sirens to Mr Memory, ‘Arsenal!’, ‘Eric & Ern’ also teases a smattering of original material, based on the work of original joke-writer Eddie Braben. With the flick of a curtain and a guaranteed grand piano (if you know, you know), the show promises to bring love, sunshine, and laughter as it skips its way to the Salford stage for both old and new fans alike.

“The comedy and the writing is good,” Ian says. “It’s excellent, it’s timeless. It wasn’t cruel or horrible, it wasn’t crude, it wasn’t political. It looks easy and funny, and it should do.”

The original run of the show was a sellout, to rave reviews cheering nostalgia-done-well. With a list of gleefully manic, mischievously smug performances behind them, ‘Eric & Ern’ shapes up to be a variety act revived, promising a song, a dance, a string of gags, and if past performances are to be believed, a mystery stooge ripe for humiliation. “If this is living in the past,” one reviewer said of the 2022 run, “it is certainly a fun place to be.”

“It’s an exciting thing,” Jonty says. “The die-hard Morecambe and Wise fans, who grew up with Morecambe and Wise, bring their children or their grandchildren now. You get three generations of the same family, sat in the front row, all laughing at the same thing – that’s just so rare now.

“We’ve done a few [original] bits and bobs and people go, ‘Oh, I loved them when they did that’. And I say, ‘Well, they didn’t do that – we really did that!’. But it’s still very true to Morecambe and Wise.

“We’re in continual touch with the family, and they’ve been supportive of everything we do. They’ve seen the show, they know what we’re doing, they know what we’re including – and in fact, they’re coming to see it in Morecambe!”

In keeping with the spirit of authenticity, ‘Eric & Ern’ has already been put through the wringer of trial and error – and now stands “in the best shape it’s ever been”, according to Ian. That said, for the benefit of the audience, the pair insist there’s a line to be drawn between going through the motions and a faithful rendition.

“We’ve often talked about it,” Jonty says, “we were inspired by a live video of Eric and Ernie live at the Fairfield Halls in Croydon in the ‘70s. And we watched and watched and watched it and tried to do every mannerism, every little tick and be faithful to that, and of course we soon discovered that you’ve got a live audience in front of you that may not laugh at something that they got a laugh for at Fairfield.”

Jumping in, Ian draws an invisible string with his hand. “Tring to move your hand on a line literally drives you insane. [This show] is abandoning that,” he says. “That’s an impression, and what we’re doing is a portrayal – we’re portraying these ‘characters’. As actors, we’ve studied them as characters, and then added onto that is all the other information we’ve come up with.

“[Morecambe and Wise] were very different sorts of people, which works, because they’re a bit like me and [Jonty]. We’re like the ying and yang of each other, and I think Eric and Ernie were like the ying and yang of each other. That’s why they worked. That’s why we work.”

The pair have come far since their early golf club days, and their even earlier days in acting school where they were routinely asked if they were a double act (to which they would answer, in unison, ‘no’). Having since exploded as the UK’s most successful Morecambe and Wise duo, neither see themselves hanging up the jackets just yet.

“We are Eric and Ernie, for this set amount of time, and then after this, we’re still actors trying to do other things,” Ian says. He smiles: “But we never had a clue it would be this successful or last this long. This is our baby.”

“Without the talent of Morecambe and Wise, we wouldn’t be doing it,” Jonty nods. “We shine a light on that talent, and for that moment, that two hours that you’re in the theatre, we hope people forget where they are and all the horrible things that are going on in the world, and we take them away from that and they have a good old laugh.

“They were loved, so hopefully if we do a good job, we get a bit of that love from the audience. We’re very lucky in that respect: it’s wonderful to do.”

It must be an incredible feeling to get to perform with your best friend, too. “Yeah, it is,” Ian laughs. “He’ll be here in a minute!”

‘Eric & Ern’ is at Lowry, Salford from 24 to 28 March 2026.

The post “You get three generations of the same family, all laughing at the same thing – that’s just so rare now” – Jonty Stephens appeared first on Quays Life.

Now arguably the biggest showdown in pop history has opened a new front – on the stage, with ‘The Battle’ transporting modern-day audiences back into the midst of what has been described as ‘the sweaty mid-90s carnage of the Battle of Britpop’.

Blur verses Oasis, art school intellectuals verses plain-speaking working-class lads, South verses North. The battle lines that were drawn then are revisited here in writer John Niven’s swaggering and audaciously funny story.

But while the production is infused with the sounds of the Britpop era, anyone expecting a 90s jukebox musical or a live gig may be in for the first of several surprises.

“We’re much more interested in the drama of their lives than in the drama of the music,” explains ‘The Battle’ director Matthew Dunster. “Really, it’s a play about friendship and ambition, and how the latter might break the former.

“When John thought about the events, in his mind he thought it could be like a sweaty David Mamet play where people were in rooms, and the emotional temperature is ramped up a little bit more with each scene.”

Thus, this battle unfolds not on amp-stacked stages in front of thousands of music fans, but on the fringes of award ceremonies, in recording studios, pubs and dressing rooms, beyond VIP ropes and at home behind closed doors.

Dunster was approached to join The Battle’s creative team early on and has worked closely with first time playwright Niven to recreate the intense, simmering sense of rivalry and rising tension underpinning the real-life 90s clash which spilled over from the charts and tribal fan factions and into the wider public consciousness.

It’s an era both know well – Niven as a former A&R  (Artists and Repertoire) man in the record industry and Dunster as a music fan who was there in the middle of it.

“As soon as I heard ‘Battle of the Bands’ it transported me straight back,” says the director, who reveals he saw Oasis play their fourth ever gig when they supported his friend’s group at The Hurricane Club in Oldham.

As for the ‘battle’ itself, he says he bought both singles and “was more excited about the event and the competition than taking sides.”

“I think I was probably emotionally team Oasis,” he admits, “but artistically I thought at that point that Blur were streets ahead. Then in the next 12 months, Oasis released ‘(What’s the Story) Morning Glory?’ and from that point on…it was all Oasis.”

Meanwhile actor Mathew Horne was a music-mad 16-year-old, although he too maintains he didn’t mind who won the chart-busting head-to-head.

“It probably sounds like an actor being diplomatic, but from my experience, everybody I know was both Blur and Oasis,” says Nottinghamshire-raised Horne, who plays the late Blur manager Andy Ross, the man who signed off the decision to release Country House on the same day as Oasis’s Roll With It.

“My record collection is of equal size, and the number of times I’ve seen Blur and Oasis are the same too. And I think the outcome of the battle for number one didn’t really matter. What mattered was our movement, the thing we were part of, was suddenly seen by everybody.”

It means that alongside decades of storytelling experience, both director and actor bring with them first-hand knowledge of the cultural phenomenon that was Britpop.

Horne has also, rather like his character, found himself in the position of a kind of paternal figure to the young cast, some of whom weren’t even born when the real-life showdown took place and have scant knowledge of the time – a fact which, it turns out, has also informed the creative approach when revisiting the events of 30 years ago.

Dunster recalls: “When I was auditioning people I’d ask: ‘did you know about this?’, and they didn’t. They said: ‘I know about Blur and Oasis because my dad’s into them, but I didn’t know about this battle’. So, the audience (too) could be very split in terms of who knows the outcome and who doesn’t.”

But whether or not theatregoers already know what ultimately happens, he says “I think you’ve just got to play the stakes of the characters on stage. And they get increasingly wound up and neurotic and frazzled by the competition they’ve found themselves locked in. It’s the biggest thing any of them had ever been part of.”

Saying that, he adds: “Having been to see Oasis last year in Heaton Park, it was incredible how there was a real mix of people, from 16 to 65, and everybody seemed to be as into it, and everybody seemed to know every word to every song.

“It would be great if we had a similarly broad range of ages (in the theatre). That would mean people will get different things from it. I’m not afraid of the nostalgic side of it: that’s really good fun, exploring a moment in time.”

Meanwhile Horne, who also saw the Mancunians on their triumphant 2025 reunion tour, points to the current “huge zeitgeist of 90s nostalgia”. And it’s true that right now the music, fashion and culture of the final decade of the 20^th Century is certainly enjoying a resurgence.

Between those who lived through the era, the music of the time being sought on streaming platforms and shared on social media, and with rappers Drake and Kendrick Lamar keeping the grand tradition of the music feud alive, ‘The Battle’ should hopefully resonate with everyone who sees it.

“At the end of the day if you have even a passing interest in music, which most people do, there’s something in there for you,” Horne says. “I’m really excited to see what people think.

“I hope we deliver for audiences on a nostalgic level. And I also hope that we deliver for them in terms of making a really funny piece of theatre – one with a huge, hilarious twist.”

The Battle is at the Opera House, Manchester from 17 to 21 March 2026.

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“Salford is always the other city,” she says. “It has a confusing, complex identity that is often squashed, forgotten, or associated with negative things, because it is quite a complex place.”

The twinned history of Manchester and Salford’s manufacturing, engineering, and the arts give way thanks to the split of the River Irwell, from which has grown two separate identities that define the two cultures – or not, according to many. Now back in Salford, Emily is once again exploring the veins of their background, and – alongside fellow artist Chris Alton – is recapturing Salford’s identity, one stitch at a time.

“I make banners for quilts, and a lot of it is about celebrating identity,” Emily says. “We wanted to work with a Salford audience to create a banner and pick out areas of that that offer identity from a past history, while looking forward and trying to figure out what it means to be from a very specific place.”

The Salford Voices banner exhibition comes from a collaboration between the artists and the residents at the Broughton Community Centre, and marks the centenary of Salford’s city status. Nine banners are now on display at the Salford Museum and Art Gallery until this summer, with each piece providing references to local history, landmarks, greenery, and community.

One banner in particular – larger than the others – is set to be a cultural centrepiece in the museum. “There’s a rose-ringed parakeet on the left-hand side,” Emily says, “to celebrate and represent the recent migrants in Salford who have made it their home. And just like the rose-ringed parakeet, there’s a book that represents Salford being the first city to have a library.”

Throughout the project, the residents were taught textile and sewing techniques while contributing their own ideas on what makes Salford, Salford. Following a period of what Emily describes as “weird warmup activities” – including drawing one piece in a group or with one’s eyes closed – they noticed key themes appearing time and time again. “From all the group activities that we’d done, we came up with the key ideas that kept re-emerging,” they say.

“Then Chris worked on the design, and we presented it to the group to make sure everyone was happy with it, and then we began sewing together.”

Work on the banner project went forward alongside a host of other projects celebrating the anniversary. The wider Salford Voices exhibition, created by Art with Heart, includes a special Centenary Celebration Book which will be specially displayed with the banners, where visitors can write and reflect on what they think Salford may look like a century into the future.

Following the enthusiasm of the Broughton Community Centre residents, Emily says their reactions only cemented their view that the arts are “a fundamental part of being human”.

“Everyone should be given permission to be creative on the daily, as regularly as they want,” they say. “More often than not there’s people that had a love [for art] as a child, and then just haven’t been given the space – or haven’t felt they have permission – to continue.

“This group was largely quite creative, but many in different ways that they wouldn’t see as ‘art’ – there were a lot of crocheters and knitters. There was one person who used to sew quite a lot, but hadn’t done so in years, and had really lost the confidence and felt like it wasn’t something she could do anymore. It was really nice to see her get back into it and build that confidence back up.”

Far broader than the effect the project has had on the Broughton Community Centre residents is the affect it will have on other Salfordians who come to visit. Thanks to access consultant Ada Eravama, steps have been taken to ensure the exhibition is accessible for people with visual impairments through texture displays and audio descriptions influenced by the residents’ input. When the exhibition finishes in early May, the banners will be toured across the region to be enjoyed by as many people as possible.

Given the ever-present flurry around Salfordian heritage, it’s easy to wonder what crowds may be encouraged to consider at the exhibition. According to Emily, however: “It’s open to interpretation.

“I’d like it to be a space for [Salfordians] to reflect on their identity in their community, who makes up the city, and about how diverse and unique it is. I want them to try and think about the people around them, because as the banner says, there’s strength in community.

“It’s very vibrant and full of lots of different colours and textures, so hopefully people could bring a bit of colourful joy with them as well.”

Art with Heart’s Salford Voices Exhibition at Salford Museum and Art Gallery is free and drop in – running from Saturday 21 February to Sunday 10 May 2026.

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“I’ve lived an extraordinary life! I really have. I’ve done some amazing things and I’ve been very lucky,” says Cheryl.

Cheryl has so many stories to tell, and after trialling this format of event on cruise ships she is excited to bring it to Manchester and share her memories with audiences in an intimate setting. “Fans can expect honesty. I’m unfortunately to my detriment a very honest person!

“I’m giving it a try, opening at The Lowry, which is very nerve-racking, but I’m really looking forward to it!” However, Cheryl admits that she may struggle to include everything, “I can’t pack it all in!

“I’ll talk about Bucks Fizz, and I’ll talk about my TV days, but there will probably be things from an audience point of view I won’t talk about, so the QnA will be their opportunity to ask me questions that might not be on my list of things to talk about”.

Bucks Fizz won The Eurovision song context in 1981 with the feelgood hit ‘Making Your Mind Up’, which Cheryl says was ‘absolutely the highlight’ of her career. The group then went on to have three number one hits and oppportunities to play all around the world.

“It was wonderful, and we did everything first class! We flew first class, went to the best hotels, we were travelling in limousines, but what they didn’t tell us is that they would recoup that money out of royalties. I’m glad we didn’t know or we never would have done it.”

Although Cheryl has accomplished some incredible things, on this occasion she intends to take audiences through both the ups and the downs of her life. “There will be a lot of laughter. There will be a lot of laughter but also be prepared for tears.”

One of those sad incidents, she recalls, is when members of Bucks Fizz were injured in a coach crash in 1984, an experience that has stuck with her all these years later. “It’s like it happened to somebody else, but it was me that woke up in hospital. It’s really weird when something like that happens to you”.

After a successful career in the music industry, Cheryl ventured into the world of television presenting. “I left Bucks Fizz in the nineties because I was pregnant, and I thought I can’t have my kids and take them on tour and go around the country gigging, whereas TV was like a proper job,” she explains.

Cheryl then spent a lot of time in Manchester as television presenter, “I’ve got a lot of personal ties with Manchester, a lot. The Funny Side, My Secret Desire. A lot of BBC shows I did were filmed in Manchester.”

Cheryl is optimistic about this tour and willing to ‘take it nationwide’ if it goes well, she insists that the group is still where her heart is.

“I’d like to go all around the country. It would be nice to think I can expand on these three dates and do a proper tour. But I will still be fizzing, there’s no way this is gonna take priority, because Fizz is my happy place.

“Making Your Mind Up and Bucks Fizz opened so many doors to me and gave me so many opportunities that I am so grateful for. In the show at the Lowry, I can talk about them and relieve them. That’s the joy of it, that’s the joy of my career, that’s why I love it so much and I don’t want it to stop.”

Wearing Cheryl Baker is at Lowry, Salford on 25 March 2026.

The post Cheryl Baker on her 50 years fizzing from Eurovision success appeared first on Quays Life.

For Jack, Queer Contact is about far more than a programme of events. He describes it as a coming together of “different genres, different sexualities, different ethnicities and different people in general.” At its heart, he says, “It’s really celebratory and fun. It’s a safe space for queer people, and it’s a vital part of pride in Manchester.”

Running for more than 16 years, the festival has become a long-standing fixture in the city’s cultural calendar, and Jack believes it remains a vital platform for queer creatives in Manchester. The programme has been desiged to ensuer there is something for everyone, spanning theatre, cabaret, film, live art and even line dancing, alongside bustling market stalls showcasing work from local queer makers.

And Jack promises this year’s festival is the best yet. “This year we’re running over two weeks, and we’ve got a real range of shows,” he says. From solo shows to cabarets and the returning live-art shows, Jack knows that the Queer Contact festival is worth as much of a visit now as ever. “We’re trying to represent as many different people as we can within the festival and get everyone together to have a really good time”.

The festival has grown into a cornerstone of the city’s cultural calendar. For Jack, its continued presence is more important than ever. “It’s the political culture and how we as a country are feeling less welcoming and less inclusive. I think there’s been a lot of really negative, damaging things happening to the queer community,” he says. “Although it’s not an activist space, specifically this festival, it’s about having that opportunity to come together and to celebrate and to be joyful.”

Although the festival has been going for years, there’s no plans for it to slow down, as Jack and the team constantly evolve and adapt the festival. “It’s definitely ever changing. It doesn’t feel stale, it feels current,” he says.

When it was revealed last year that Manchester Pride had entered liquidation, the state of queer recognition and celebration in Manchester felt uncertain. But Queer Contact has always distinguished itself as an entirely different space to celebrate the LGBTQ community, the festival remaining firmly arts focused. “Queer Contact’s specifically an arts festival… it’s very art specific based. It’s a very inclusive space. It’s very representative of the wider community,” Jack explains. “We’re trying to get as many things within the festival as we can so that everyone could feel seen.”

Accessibility remains central to the festival’s ethos, says Jack. With tickets starting from £3, and some events free, the aim is for festival-goers to celebrate queer talent without financial barriers, during a time where the cost of living continues to bite. “We really want people to be able to feel like they can come and see work and come and enjoy it and come and celebrate with each other,” Jack says. “We also offer Pinch tickets, these are our lowest priced tickets available and people can get them with no questions asked. It’s really about recognising who we’re here for.”

As a queer man himself, Jack recognises the importance of working on Queer Contact, and what it means for him personally to be able to showcase this exceptional talent over these two weeks. “This was the first arts festival I ever went to when I moved to Manchester,” he recalls. “It was the first time I ever saw such a wide range of what different queer art can be.”

There is an amazing display of talent within the queer Manchester community, and it’s important institutions, like Contact, have spaces for these talents to be recognised and upheld. “It’s important that everyone can feel seen,’ says Jack, “There’s work on display that speaks about my life.”

Jack recognises the cultural context of queer people in Manchester, and shares how he hopes Contact can offer more opportunities and events for the community that steers away from nightlife and partying. “Partly what drew me to Manchester was the queer community. Queer culture is often focused around the gay village, drinking and partying, and that kind of hedonistic lifestyle. Manchester definitely offers that. But I also think the city offers so much more than that for queer people,” he says.

There is a sense of belonging and familiarity for queer people in Manchester, something the festival hopes to also achieve. “We provide that space where anyone can come and feel like they’re safe”. Over two weeks, the showcase includes a solo show, an ‘anti Valentine’s cabaret night, an art market supplied by queer art makers, and queer-run western and country dancing. It’s jam-packed with something for absolutely everyone, so every single person attending can feel heard. “If we don’t put on artists that are representative of the entire community, then that community doesn’t feel seen.”

Queer Contact runs from 12–21 February 2026.

The post Queer Contact returns with a line-up showcasing the diversity of queer creativity appeared first on Quays Life.

Inspired by Lewis Carroll’s iconic character from Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the company takes the audience on a magical journey of imagination and self-discovery, with Dominic Coffey and Robbie Ordoña sharing the role of the Mad Hatter.

Choreographed and created by Artistic Director, Joss Arnott, in collaboration with the dancers, this multimedia production pushes the boundaries of solo dance by combining it with storytelling, original music and animation in an immersive family theatre show for ages 5+.

Although it has been a long journey in the making, there is more ambition to come for ‘Meet the Hatter’. The show forms part of a trilogy of shows for Arnott, that is yet to be completed. And there are plans for an international tour.

Anastasia Tirca meets him to find out more.

What does it mean to you for ‘Meet the Hatter’ to be an anniversary production?

Joss: “It’s been a long time coming really. I’ve always wanted to venture into multimedia for the last few years and I felt that naturally the work that we produce has always been described as really cinematic and very visual anyway. It’s always been in the back of my mind that I just wanted to delve into the digital world with this anniversary production and ‘Meet the Hatter’ was the perfect choice.

“For the show itself, we’ve gone really small scale with the set, but try to create a large scale spectacle. So the only set that we have is a gauze that’s from ceiling to floor, wing to wing, and everything is projected onto this gauze and interacted with the performer. It’s very immersive in that sense and it’s been really interesting to see what the possibilities are with a digital performance.

“We have two performers who share the roles, but it remains a solo show. They are Dominic Coffey and Robbie Ordona and we’ve been in rehearsals with both”.

Why did you pick the Mad Hatter when you started creating this show?

Joss: “The whole concept of multimedia was the real starting point for us. And when we were thinking about if we’re going to tell a narrative story, we thought what characters could create this kind of spectacle. As well as, what if it’s going to be a solo show? What kind of character could really hold a space for an hour? The Mad Hatter has always been really fascinating to me and what you can do with the Hatter. There have been loads of interpretations over the years, but we spent a lot of time thinking about what makes this character unique and how can we make him relevant. We did a lot of development work when we were making the show with kids in schools and making sure that what we were creating was really relevant for our target audience.

“In the show, there’s subtle nods to different characters. We have a rabbit animation, we worked with an animator for that. There are reminders to characters in the original books. When we were developing the show, we were doing a lot of our research, in schools, community groups and not everyone actually knew the story of Alice in Wonderland. But it was great because we could reinvent a new story, we could reinvent the character.

“Dom and Robbie are amazing and they’ve done a lot of theatre and acting as well as dance. So their performance quality is everything they can offer rather than just their dancing skills”.

What inspired you when creating and structuring this piece?

Joss: “The whole multimedia side of things has been able to elevate our work and this piece is heavily driven by narrative. We incorporated 12 different scenes in the piece. Each scene has its own landscape, environment, visual concepts. We dive into what is really exciting and different about each of the scenes and how we can be transported to different places. So it was quite limitless, which was amazing, but challenging at the same time because it was so open. We really had to narrow down the parameters of actually what we want to do and what we want the audience to feel.

“It is quite a long time for one person to be on stage by themselves, but it’s quite interesting that both of the dancers say that they don’t feel by themselves because the show is so immersive for them and it’s interactive with the digital screen, the music and the lighting.

“I mean, we spent about 2.5 years in development and then in creation. We spent the majority of last summer making the show and finally, we premiered in September. Now we’re just coming to the end of our first tour and we hope to go on tour for the next couple of years”.

How has the show evolved since its premiere?

Joss: “It’s the first time that I’ve made a solo show, which at the beginning, I felt quite nervous about, the challenges and how that’s going to be different than working with a big ensemble. It’s just been really amazing to have to see how the audience reacts to it and also the developing of the stylistic movement qualities of the work that are very branded to our classical contemporary work. We’ve had such a good time on tour and by seeing what works, everything is always in development.

“We have been funded by the Arts Council, England and project grants as well which have made us feel supported throughout the production.

“This is our 2nd work in a trilogy of works that are targeted for children and young people. We created Tinman in 2022 and then toured that for two years whilst the Hatter was in development. Now we’re developing a new, indoor version of Tinman, a 20-minute version”.

What do you want to achieve and express with this performance?

Joss: “Our target audience has been 5 to 11 with this show, but it’s been really great to see the amount of adults that are coming up to us and being able to find relevance within the show as well. I think it’s just really giving people a positive experience.

“There’s a lot of emotional, pathways and journeys within the show and people are able to say that they’re feeling that and that they’re able to project their own experiences onto it. Considering there is a gauze on stage, where sometimes the performer is either behind it or in front, it is good to know that there is not that disconnection when the performer is behind the gauze.

“No matter where people have come from or like what their experiences have been, they can still enjoy it. It’s 65 minutes straight through as well, so no intervals. We wanted to keep it full length, as opposed to stopping in between and then having to pick it back up again”.

What did you enjoy most about the process of this show?

 Joss: “I think that the team has been amazing. Whether they’ve been lighting designers, multimedia, artist, drama, dancers, there’s just been a lot of people involved in the creation of this show. It does have quite a universal meaning of being able to find your community and find your belonging and purpose in the world and overcoming loneliness, so to see actual feedback come back from audiences saying they completely got that, that was great for me. It has been really lovely to know that we’re actually sharing something that has meaning”.

 If you could say anything to your audiences, what would you say?

 Joss: “I feel people should come and see the show because it is real escapism. It’s a very cinematic spectacle. Regardless of which space it’s in, whether that’s small scale, mid-scale, large scale venues, it is still very relatable. I think it creates a lot of dialogue between the audience and the performer and it’s just a really lovely experience for people to be able to witness that, and share that with their families”.

What is the main message of the show?

Joss: “The concept is exploring the Hatter’s sense of belonging and acceptance in society and his longing for connection and community and companionship. Realising that he’s not alone and that people can be there the whole time.

“The idea, that he is very much an outsider and the importance of being different and using that as a superpower rather than seeing it as a negative. So I think that’s quite important for young kids in the chaos that is the world at the moment to be able to see themselves having superpowers – that their own individuality is something that makes them special”.

Meet the Hatter is at Z Arts, Manchester on 14 and 15 February and Heywood Civic Theatre on 20 and 21 February, 2026.

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