The Ocean at the End of the Lane, the theatre show currently running at The Lowry, is captivating audiences with its haunting production and unnerving plot.
And while it will stay with you long after you leave your seat, the theatre adaptation of Neil Gaiman’s 2013 novel is the must-see show this winter.
Picture Stranger Things meets The Dark Crystal with a peppering of Goosebumps – all of your worst fears and nightmares bound together on stage with absolutely nowhere to hide.
With a 12+ age rating, the story itself is one of memory and grief, and of how we distort our recollections of childhood to hide dark thoughts or times of abuse and replace them with whimsy and adventure.
As soon as you sit down, you are immersed in a dark and empty wood, a backdrop for the mind and somewhere to get lost in.
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The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Credit: Manuel HarlanThe Ocean at the End of the Lane. Credit: Manuel Harlan
The whole set is that of a 12-year-old’s imagination – doors and windows are portals to fantasy worlds, wounds and plugholes lead to the strange and unknown, the outside world is frightening while Dad’s house is cold, chaotic and empty now that Mum is gone.
We first meet Trevor Fox (Dad, Adult Boy) as he returns home as an adult and finds himself in a familiar location, the old farm of his forgotten friend Lettie (Millie Hikasa), where he bumps into Old Mrs Hempstock (Finty Williams) and begins his journey through his memories of his childhood, kicked off with a traumatic event.
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The Ocean at the End of the Lane. Credit: Manuel HarlanThe Ocean at the End of the Lane. Credit: Manuel Harlan
We follow the young boy (Keir Ogilivy) as he traverses his childhood whilst also dealing with life altering changes and a new woman (Charlie Brooks) in his father’s life.
Enter stage consuming puppets that would give your sleep paralysis demon a run for its money, a music score that makes the hair on your neck stand on end and a sense of danger to rival any modern horror film with jump scares to boot.
To go into too much detail would ultimately surrender the magic of this stunning and poignant adaptation, directed by Katy Rudd, which addresses love, loss and hope through the eyes of a child.
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First shown at The National Theatre before moving to the West End, Ocean at the End of the Lane makes its first stop on its UK and Ireland tour at The Lowry Theatre in Manchester.
Travel warning issued as tens of thousands to descend for Manchester Half Marathon
Daisy Jackson
A travel warning has been issued ahead of the Manchester Half Marathon this weekend, with tens of thousands of runners and spectators expected to arrive in the city.
People are being urged to plan their journeys ahead of time, with significant road closures in place from the city centre as far out as Sale.
Road closures – and subsequent bus diversions – will also affect parts of Stretford, Chorlton, Trafford, and surrounding areas.
Around 32,000 people are expected to take part in the Manchester Half Marathon this Sunday, with thousands more coming out to cheer the runners on.
Transport for Greater Manchester is advising people that the Bee Network trams will be the best way to get around over the weekend.
Extra trams will be operating to provide as much capacity as possible.
Road closures and bus diversions will start on Saturday 3 October and continue until the actual race day on Sunday 4 October, lifting fully by 8.30pm.
Tens of thousands of runners and spectators will descend on Manchester for the half marathon
Earlier this year, the Manchester Marathon led to a record-breaking day for Metrolink trams, with the highest number of passengers ever recorded on a single day in the network’s history.
Whether running or cheering, people are advised to use the Bee Network app to plan their journeys and are strongly encouraged not to drive within the affected areas.
Steve Gilholme, Head of Events at Transport for Greater Manchester, said: “The Manchester Half Marathon is another one of those special occasions where the people of Greater Manchester and beyond come together, with thousands of people taking on the challenge and raising money for good causes, while many more will line the route to cheer them on.
“This does mean the city centre and especially trams will be incredibly busy so please plan ahead and give yourself extra time to make journeys.
“The Bee Network app and website will be the best places to get the latest travel information and tap and go contactless payments are the quickest and easiest way to pay.”
You can see all the road closures for the Manchester Half Marathon HERE.
Funded by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), the 14 national museums of the UK are all located in England – including the Imperial War Museum North, and the Science and Industry Museum in our region – and free entry to was first introduced all the way back in 2001, with millions of visitors having benefitted since.
National museums are said to add more than £1 billion a year to the economy, and bring in visitors from all over the world.
In fact, seven of the UK’s 10 most visited museums are national museums, and 7.1 million people visited the Natural History Museum and 6.4 million visited the British Museum in 2025 alone.
The Government has announced that all national museums in the UK will remain free for everyone to visit / Credit: Science Museum Group | Wikimedia Commons
Earlier this year though, the Government committed to working with local leaders and the museum and tourism sectors to explore whether charging overseas visitors could help museums’ finances.
But following this, it’s now believed that charging could deter visitors, and that the impacts and benefits would ‘not be felt equally’ across the sector.
Instead, the free entry will be funded by the £1.5 billion Arts Everywhere Fund – which is providing £760 million for museums – while £600 million of infrastructure funding is supporting national museums and DCMS-sponsored cultural organisations.
The latter funding will be used to address critical maintenance and works to estates, and enable institutions to deliver on their commitments to share collections with visitors from around the world.
The Manc -
1st January 2023 
