Oldham Coliseum Theatre today announces a thrilling new staging of Shakespeare’s Macbeth that will turn one of the town’s most iconic nightclubs into a charged world of power, ambition and violence.
Directed by the Coliseum’s new Creative Director Nick Bagnall, this is a landmark moment for the theatre. Nick’s first production in the role sets out his vision for the Coliseum’s future.
Macbeth runs at Liquid & Envy, Oldham, from Friday 23rd October to Saturday 7th November, with press night on Tuesday 27th October. The 19-performance run is the most ambitious production the Coliseum has staged since it began programming in temporary and site-specific venues and is a clear signal of the scale and ambition of the theatre’s next chapter as refurbishment of its historic home on Fairbottom Street continues.
Feared, respected and rewarded for his capacity for violence, Macbeth knows how to play the game. He has spent his life making other men powerful. Now it is his turn.
Staged inside a reimagined nightclub, the production pulls audiences directly into the workings of Macbeth’s mind, exploring ambition, masculinity, power and identity through a contemporary Oldham lens.
For Nick, Macbeth was the only choice for his opening production with the Coliseum. “Macbeth asks profound questions about power, identity and what it means to be a man,” he said. “Those questions feel urgent in a proud industrial town like Oldham that is navigating huge social and economic change.
“I want to blow the dust off Shakespeare. This isn’t about putting the play on a pedestal, it’s about creating an experience that grabs people by the throat, whether they have seen Macbeth ten times or never encountered it before. We want people who have never set foot in a theatre to walk into Liquid & Envy and feel this story belongs to them. Staging Macbeth inside a working Oldham nightclub creates its own intrigue.”
Nick has relocated the action to a gritty late-1970s world of gangsters, casinos and shifting social codes.
The production is steeped in the sights, sounds and social codes of Oldham in the late 1970s, when the town’s clubs, mills and streets were charged with change. The result is a Macbeth that feels closer to a night out than a night at the theatre, without losing the force of Shakespeare’s language.
Music and the supernatural sit at the heart of the production, with Nick drawing on the traditions of close-harmony vocal groups to create an otherworldly presence that stalks Macbeth throughout the evening.
Martina Murphy, Chief Executive of Oldham Coliseum Theatre, said: “This is a huge moment for the Coliseum. Nick’s Macbeth is uncompromising, thrilling and unmistakably of this place, and it announces exactly the kind of theatre we intend to make.
“As we continue our journey back to Fairbottom Street, we are determined to keep creating ambitious work that surprises audiences and reaches people wherever they are. Macbeth demonstrates that the Coliseum isn’t waiting for its building to return before making theatre of national significance.”
Access and inclusion
Access has been designed into the run from day one. The two-week season includes a relaxed performance, an audio-described performance, a captioned performance and two performances interpreted in British Sign Language.
Macbeth performance schedule
October
· Friday 23rd 1.30pm (preview)
· Saturday 24th 1.30pm and 6.30pm (previews)
· Monday 26th 7pm (preview)
· Tuesday 27th 7pm
· Wednesday 28th 7pm
· Thursday 29th 1.30pm and 7pm
· Friday 30th 6.30pm
· Saturday 31st 1.30pm and 6.30pm
November
· Monday 2nd 7pm
· Tuesday 3rd 1.30pm and 7pm
· Wednesday 4th 7pm
· Thursday 5th 1.30pm and 7pm
· Friday 6th 6.30pm
· Saturday 7th 6.30pm
Tickets for Macbeth are available on the website here - £15 concessions; preview £20; Oldham/local price £25; and Standard £28
Liquid & Envy: Retiro Street, Oldham OL1 1SA
