Edinburgh and non-Edinburgh coverage; upcoming anniversaries: National Theatre, Royal Exchange & Bury Met 50th, Manchester Literature Festival 20th, BTG 25th
News, reviews, features and podcast on theatre across the UK
The British Theatre Guide Newsletter
No 1227: 31 August 2025
Editorial
The weather has certainly turned more autumnal since the surprisingly sunny bank holiday weekend a week ago, when the last of the Edinburgh festival events had their final performances.
August has been a busy month for us as, on top of more than 150 Edinburgh reviews, we have published 42 other reviews in a month in which most regional theatres traditionally go dark.
Similarly, we released two podcast episodes focussing on three Edinburgh Fringe shows plus another with the editor of Scotland’s The List magazine, but between those, we had an episode on the Classic Thriller Season in Nottingham and The Wedding Present Musical in Leeds. So that’s five new episodes in a month, which might be a record for us. We also now have reviews of the productions mentioned in the latter two plus one of the Edinburgh shows we featured.
We don’t have a new episode this week; I’ve taken a bit of a breather from interviews, but I have a couple more almost lined up and a few more possibilities, so do subscribe to the podcast to be sure of not missing them when they come out. One of them, like The Wedding Present one, is with someone whose work I’ve grown up with, but not in music or theatre, so that will be exciting if it comes off.
I seem to be getting a lot of invitations to anniversaries at the moment, particularly here in the North West. My invitation to the National Theatre’s 50th birthday bash next year, if there is to be one, has yet to arrive, but I have been invited to the launch of the Royal Exchange Theatre’s 50th anniversary season, as it also opened in 1976. I remember having the leaflet for its 10th anniversary season on my bedroom wall; it featured Rex Harrison, although in the end he never appeared.
If you want to know more about the formation of the Royal Exchange, its founder, Braham Murray, explained it when I interviewed him in 2011; that interview was released as an episode of our podcast after his death in 2018. One of my favourite lines in all of our interviews is when he said he received a call following the 1996 IRA Manchester bomb saying, “I'm afraid we're going to lose the matinée”. In the end, the theatre was closed for a couple of years and the face of the city changed, many have said for the better.
Also celebrating its half-century is The Met—not the New York opera company, but the theatre and music venue in Bury, Greater Manchester that has played a significant role in the region’s culture, and it will be celebrating with a special event next month, on the same evening that the Manchester Literature Festival is celebrating its 20th anniversary, which is unfortunate planning.
2026 will also be British Theatre Guide’s 25th anniversary. Maybe it’s a bit premature to mention it as we don’t hit our 24th until November, but still. We had a small get-together at the National Theatre on our tenth birthday (maybe they’ll offer to have a joint do when we become exactly half their age) two years before I took over BTG, which is still the only time I have met some of our reviewers.
When we turned 20, we were still in lockdown so couldn’t do anything to celebrate—well, not together anyway.
Perhaps our silver anniversary should be the excuse for our next get-together.
Lolita Chakrabarti, Daniel Krikler, Charlotte Mills and Hannah Saxby will be in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Wendy and Peter Pan at the Barbican.
The WayWord Festival for kids will return to the Chester theatre with eight days of events and a line-up including Jacqueline Wilson and Rose Ayling-Ellis.
Actor Joanna Scanlan has received an honorary degree from Leicester’s De Montfort University—more than 30 years after leaving her job as a drama lecturer there.
Lolita Chakrabarti, Daniel Krikler, Charlotte Mills and Hannah Saxby will be in the Royal Shakespeare Company production of Wendy and Peter Pan at the Barbican.
John Lyons, best known as Det Sgt George Toolan in A Touch of Frost, will be in Jack and the Beanstalk, the 2025 panto at Chesterfield’s Winding Wheel Theatre.
John Lyons, best known as Det Sgt George Toolan in A Touch of Frost, will be in Jack and the Beanstalk, the 2025 panto at Chesterfield’s Winding Wheel Theatre.
The WayWord Festival for kids will return to the Chester theatre with eight days of events and a line-up including Jacqueline Wilson and Rose Ayling-Ellis.
Yen (Divided Culture Company) - Octagon Theatre, Bolton, –
Only Human (Vaudeville Productions, Michael Vine, Andrew O’Connor, Paul Sandler and Derren Brown for Only Human Productions Ltd) - The Lowry, Salford, –
Little Women (Lee Dean and Daniel Schumann, Pitlochry Festival Theatre, The Belgrave Coventry and Blackpool Grand Theatre) - Salisbury Playhouse, Salisbury, –
Sherlock Holmes and the Hunt for Moriarty (Blackeyed Theatre In association with Theatre Royal Winchester and South Hill Park) - Theatre Royal Winchester, Winchester, –
