For too long, big movies have been confined to the small screen.
COVID restrictions pulled theatre curtains shut in winter and they’ve remained untouched ever since – leaving audiences deprived of a true cinematic experience and digesting blockbusters on Netflix instead.
But now, almost halfway through 2021 – projectors are finally whirring back into life.
Hundreds of cinemas across the UK have announced triumphant comebacks this month – including several independent theatres in Greater Manchester.
To celebrate long-awaited reopening of these venues, British gourmet popcorn specialists at Popcorn Shed have published an interactive map of returning cinemas – which you can view online here.
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We’ve listed them below…
HOME, First Street
HOME
From May 17, HOME returns to action.
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Based at First Street near Deansgate, this multipurpose culture venue has been operating as Manchester’s hub for contemporary theatre, art and cinema since 2015.
With restrictions due to ease further, HOME has announced a reopening programme – pulling back the curtains to reveal a bumper schedule of cinema screenings.
From next week, film fanatics can take their pick from gritty dramas, foreign cinema flicks and new indie releases all being beamed to the big screen.
From the classic red seats to the intimate lighting, EVERYMAN venues are focused on guaranteeing a luxurious viewing experience for audiences.
Two of these plush cinemas are reopening right here in Greater Manchester – including one in Altrincham and antoehr in Manchester city centre (just over the road from the bustling restaurant and bar scene of Spinningfields).
Big screen releases such as Godzilla vs. Kong and Peter Rabbit 2 are scheduled for next week – along with Academy Award Best Picture winner Nomadland.
A full food and drinks menu is also available – with waiter service delivering snacks to your seats.
Established in 2019 and known as “the home of cult films, video games and cool nerd stuff”, The Chapeltown Picture House is the perfect venue for any true cinephile.
Based in Red Bank in Cheetham Hill, this eccentric venue has form for screening classic and cult movies of yesteryear.
And there are some corkers on the list for next week.
The lineup for May 17 onwards includes screenings of Inglourious Basterds, Singin’ In The Rain and all three of The Lord of the Rings films.
After a full year of closure, The Savoy in Heaton Moor will finally be reopening its doors to the public from July 2.
The venue has used lockdown to embark on a major restoration project – transforming the historic building into a swanky independent cinema with 4K digital projection, luxury seats, and a fully stocked bar.
A new programme will be announced during June – with a mixture of new and classic movies expected to appear on the bill.
The best things to do in Greater Manchester this week | 16 – 22 September 2024
Emily Sergeant
September is well underway now, and the cosy season is upon us.
For many people, the end of summer can sometimes mean the end of all the fun, but as we head into autumn, there’s still absolutely no shortage of things for the whole family to be getting up to across Greater Manchester.
Finding it a bit tricky to pick what to do though? We’ve chosen a few of the best bits for another edition of our ‘what’s on‘ guide this week.
Here’s some of our recommendations.
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The Book of Mormon
Manchester Palace Theatre
Monday 16 September – Saturday 5 October
The Book of Mormon / Credit: Supplied
The Book of Mormon is back in Manchester.
Known and loved for being one of the best musicals the 21st Century – and one of the funniest of all time – having scooped up dozens of coveted awards both in the US and here in the UK in its time, The Book of Mormon is currently out on tour, and the Elders have now arrived in our city for an extended stay.
The hilarious production has taken over the iconic Palace Theatre stage until early October, and there’s still chance to grab yourself some tickets too.
Did you see that a massive new vintage clothing store has now opened in Manchester city centre?
ReMarket has opened on London Road, wedged between Piccadilly Markets and Manchester Piccadilly train station, with 6,000 sq ft filled with rails ripe for the rummaging.
From Dickies and Levi’s, to Stone Island and Gucci, there are some serious brands and serious bargains to be found inside, as well as a number of different independent brands – including Bare Necessities, Archive X, 28 Vintage, Cherry Blossom Vintage and Blank Seams.
ReMarket / Credit: The Manc Group
The best way to think of it is as a department store… but for very cool, independent vintage and second-hand brands.
Injecting Hope: The race for a COVID-19 vaccine / Credit: Science Museum Group
More than 100 objects and stories collected during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic are now on display as part of a new exhibition at the Science and Industry Museum.
The groundbreaking new exhibition, titled Injecting Hope: The race for a COVID-19 vaccine, explores the worldwide effort to develop vaccines at pandemic speed, while uncovering the inspiring stories of scientists and innovators around the globe who collaborated to tackle the worldwide COVID-19 challenge along the way.
A groundbreaking new immersive exhibition exploring our relationship with the natural world is now open at Manchester Museum.
‘Wild’ look at how people are creating, rebuilding, and repairing connections with nature, and how the natural world has traditionally been presented and idealised through Western art, as well as looking at some unique approaches to environmental recovery too.
The exhibition will also crucially look at how we can tackle the climate and biodiversity crisis by making the world more wild.
Manc visitors will be able to walk through the iconic Jurassic World gates, explore some richly-themed environments, and encounter a life-sized Brachiosaurus, Velociraptors, and the most fearsome dinosaur of all, the mighty Tyrannosaurus Rex.
Did you see that Bolton has launched its own ‘Hollywood of the North’ TV and film location tours around the town centre?
Merely months after being named Greater Manchester’s new ‘Town of Culture’, Bolton is already proving why 2024 is its year, as the town is celebrating its shiny new title by celebrating all the times it has been chosen as a filming location for dozens of major film and TV productions over the years.
These new behind-the-scenes tours are led by local historian and professional tour guide, Suzanne Hindle, and will feature all of the town’s famous filming spots.
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Bolton Film & TV Tours / Credit: Supplied | BBC
Visitors will get to explore places such as court rooms, cells, and Crescent corridors whilst hearing tales of how the industry adapt these unexpected locations to set the scene.
The National Theatre’s acclaimed production of War Horse returns to The Lowry as part of its all-new UK tour this week, and it’s described as being an “unforgettable theatrical experience” which takes audiences on an extraordinary journey from the fields of rural Devon to the trenches of First World War France.
Based on the beloved novel by Michael Morpurgo, this powerfully moving and imaginative drama, filled with stirring music and songs, is a show of “phenomenal inventiveness”.
Greater Manchester’s iconic heritage railway is currently hosting one of the most unique fine dining experiences in the region.
Running on selected Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays throughout the summer, East Lancashire Railway’s ‘Red Rose Diners’ are described as being “the ultimate first class foodie experience”, as they start with a glass of fizz and stretch over an almost three-hour steam train journey through the Irwell Valley.
The experience includes a four-course dinner with complimentary sparkling wine, followed by tea or coffee and after-dinner chocolates.
Góbéfest is back in Cathedral Gardens this weekend.
Manchester’s original international urban folk music and dance festival will be taking over the city centre greenspace from Friday 20 to Sunday 22 September with a curated mix of bands and solo artists, folk dance troupes, choirs, and so much more.
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Independent food and drink traders will be serving up favourites from around the Carpathian Basin, alongside craft beer, a Hungarian wine stall, a cocktail bar, and a palinka (Hungarian fruit brandy) bar, while there’ll also be free activities in the family tent too – including music and dance workshops, arts and crafts, and storytelling.
Day tickets will set you back £10 each, while children under 12 go free, and you can find out more about this year’s festival here.
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Fancy a free roast dinner this Sunday? Who could say no to that…
We know Sunday roasts very much fall into the ‘if ain’t broke don’t fix it’ category of British food, and rightly so, they’re absolutely glorious – but every now and then, they’re made fresh and exciting again, and that’s exactly what Maray have done with theirs.
Plus, who on earth is ignoring a FREE roast dinner?
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Roast dinner at Maray / Credit: The Manc Group
That’s right, not only are Maray’s incredible Middle-Eastern twists on the classic carvery combination of lovingly cooked joints of meat, exquisitely cooked vegetables, and their take on firm favourites like the potato (the best bit, let’s be honest), but they’re also going to be dishing them out for free.
You can get yourself a roast dinner without paying a single penny for one day only at Maray this Sunday, and you can find out more here.
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Featured Image – The Manc Group | Supplied
Art & Culture
A murderously funny and thrilling take on an Agatha Christie classic – Murder on the Orient Express at The Lowry
Danny Jones
Let’s start off by making two things clear: nailing a tried and true classic well is no mean feat and, two, fans are very precious when it comes to adaptation – Murder on the Orient Express at The Lowry, rather fittingly, barrelled through those obstacles not like a luxury liner but like a freight train.
Yes, the iconic Agatha Christie tale and quintessential ‘whodunnit’ may have ironically been done to death at this point (most recently resurrected on the big screen by director and Hollywood’s Hercule Poirot, Kenneth Branagh), but this new stage production felt much more refreshing than the blockbuster.
Put simply, merely going where many have gone before and expecting results or similar success isn’t a given. Written and adapted by Ken Ludwig and directed by Lucy Bailey, this latest Murder on the Orient Express now on at the legendary Lowry Theatre is a must-see as far as we’re concerned.
What the creators, along with the whole cast and crew, have done with this treasured text is elevate it not just to a play that will leave any theatre-goer walking away satisfied but also restore the true light and shade to the textbook murder mystery that has more high points than we can squeeze into 1000 words.
Credit: Manuel Harlan (press images supplied)
A small but stunning and dynamic set
First and foremost, we can’t begin anywhere else other than applauding what they’ve managed to achieve with the set alone.
It was one of our first big questions going into the performance. How are they going to pull this off and create that sense of motion around the actors on stage? Is it going to look any good? Turns out we had nothing to worry about whatsoever.
Combining nothing more than three movable train cars donned in full Edwardian decor, a few tables for breakaway scenes and clever use of an overhead screen to portray elements like snowdrift weather and even wheels chugging along the tracks, much like the plot, it always felt like things were on the move.
Twinned with excellent use of music and sound effects – both ambient and authentic in the case of Christine Kavanagh as the delightfully devilish Mrs Helen Hubbard, whose late-night sing-song felt like genuinely peaking into someone’s cabin after a few tipples – the whole surround just works so well.
They did a great job of creating these little vignettes within each train window, almost like sitting across from an apartment block and peaking into the living rooms of each flat, people-watching as their stories play out, only with the bonus of these strangers being mic’d up so you don’t have to fill in the blanks.
But let’s not beat around the bush here: even if you’ve seen it a dozen times before, you come for the murder mystery and you stay to see the moustachioed “magician” at work.
The entire supporting cast was wonderful, in truth – we particularly loved the aforementioned Kavanagh and her ‘just the right amount of chaos’; Bob Barrett’s energy as Monsieur Bouc and the permanently frantic Greta Ohlsson, done so well by Rebecca Charles – but Maloney is absolutely masterful as Poirot.
To be honest, besides a couple of accent slips here and there (podody’s nerfect), everyone up on that stage was a joy to watch embody these timeless characters and made for a well-balanced ensemble, but this might be our favourite portrayal of the talented detective since the almighty David Suchet himself.
Whether it be in the expertly delivering lengthy monologues, the many moments of self-deprecation, mourning his youth and always remaining the wittiest player on stage, or breaking up those moments of levity with rare but sudden flashes of frustration that actually catch you off-guard, he was flawless.
Similar to how he keeps every one of the suspects in his pocket from minute one, he had the audience in the palm of his hand for the entire duration and the timbre of that French—sorry, Belgian* dialect barely dips for even a second.
Michael Maloney is the pure embodiment of everything Poirot is and should be. (Credit: Press Image/Manuel Harlan)
The drama is great but where it truly shines is in the laughs
Lastly, speaking of that levity, perhaps the thing we loved most about the whole approach to this version of Murder on the Orient Express is that it isn’t so much a tense tragedy as it is a dramatic comedy.
The chances are that almost everyone in that theatre knows the synopsis of this long-loved tale virtually inside and out, so it was always going to be hard to build really pulse-raising suspense and intrigue, but they manage it by lulling you into those lighter moments and letting the performances shine.
And then BANG: suddenly a big twist, a volta; the crescendo after a period of precisely paced and carefully crafted conversation. It hits you like a gunshot echoing throughout the carriages, a sudden stab to the gut stifled in a quiet train compartment yet still somehow felt from the comfort of your seat.
Everyone gets their handful of one-liners, those comic pauses that dwell just a half-second too long and then some, but it never feels forced or overdone. The full spectrum of emotions is packed into just under two hours and it’s nothing short of a triumph from start to finish.
Without spoiling too much, there is one sound – not even an actual line of dialogue per se – from Maloney when conversing with the Countess (Mila Carter) that we’re still chuckling about now.
We won’t be sold bold as to give this a star rating but let’s just say we wholly recommend visiting what is without a doubt the best thing on at Salford Quays right now.
The applause following Murder on the Orient Express was rapturous and we dare say there’ll be a fair few returning customers.
The Manc -
13th May 2021 
