Oldham's Coliseum Theatre, like so many struggling regional theatres, having been 'in the dark' for more than 2 months, are facing severe financial hardships and the very real possibility that they might not be able to reopen again, if and when the lockdown comes to an end. In the meantime however, we are all trying to remain positive with many theatres sharing content online. The Coliseum is doing just that, and is presenting a series of podcasts celebrating Oldham and new writing.
The first podcast in this series was a retrospective to 2012, when the Coliseum ran a festival for local writers, no matter how old or how experienced, to write a short play (or monologue) inspired by Oldham. The only remit was that the play had to be only 100 words' long. For this podcast, The Coliseum asked several local actors and actresses to perform a selection of the submissions. 17 plays in total were chosen, ranging from novice first-time writers to exprienced professionals, and ranging in themes and styles just as varied.
The 17 were introduced by Oldham Coliseum's Artistic Director, Chris Lawson, and began with Ian Kershaw's childhoood recollection of his 1980's school swimming lesson. The selection ended with a piece of performance poetry from Julie Hesmondhalgh about local suffragette heroine, Annie Kenney, and read by Hafsar Aneela Bashir.
I'm not going through all 17, but the selection was apt, and there was a kind of thread to the order too which helped to keep the podcast flowing. All the performers had clear and articulate voices, even if they were using a local accent, and the variety of both voices and play styles made for a very interesting and highly pleasurable listen.
My personal three favourites though were, 'Back To The Digs After A Show' by Christine Mackie, 'First Job: Benjamin Lees, Westwood', by Violet Barrow, and 'Throwing Clogs' by Steve Greenhalgh.
It is hoped that those who listen to these podcasts will be able to make a donation, no matter how small, to The Coliseum, to try and keep the cogs turning for the future of live theatre!
Reviewer - Matthew Dougall
on - 21/5/20
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