MIDWEEK COLUMN WEDNESDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2025
- STEVE COOKE AATA
- 3 hours ago
- 9 min read
previews, reviews, interviews, and recommendations with Steve Cooke
MIDWEEK COLUMN WEDNESDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2025
Shed Stories
Preview by Steve Cooke
Uniquely blending theatre, movement and documentary, Shed Stories is a heartwarming performance that brings to life the world of ‘Men’s Sheds’; community groups where people can come together to make, repair and repurpose as well as improve their wellbeing and mental health. Combining real-life interviews with compelling movement, it shines a light on the characterful communities around this growing phenomenon.
Funny, thought-provoking and uplifting, this charming production was created through personal interviews with the people who attend and organise these community spaces across the country. Intimately staged with audiences surrounding the performance, Shed Stories combines powerful tales and captivating movement to tell the stories of people involved in and affected by Men’s Sheds.
Shining a light on community, connection and the little things that keep us going – friendship, laughter… and a nice cup of tea.
Shed Stories is commissioned by Lincoln Arts Centre & Applause Rural Touring, supported using public funding by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, with additional support from: UK Men’s Sheds Association, Harrogate Theatre, Transported, Peterborough Presents, Metal Peterborough and Metal Southend.
There is no adult content in the show. However, the company recommends it for ages 12 and up. Content includes references to long term health conditions, mental health challenges, attempted suicide, and death/grief.
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8th November 2025
Performances at 3pm & 7.30pm.
From £10.00
Rochdale Ukrainian Centre, Mere Street, Rochdale, Greater Manchester, OL16 1AZ
Wheel chair / pram accessible
Hollingworth Lake Heritage Boat Tours
Preview by Steve Cooke
Hollingworth Lake’s Heritage Boat Tours run throughout the year and offer the opportunity to weave your way through Hollingworth Lake’s rich tapestry.
A chance to discover the hidden history of Hollingworth Lake from its beginnings in 1794 to feed the Rochdale Canal, to becoming known as ‘The Weighvers’ Seaport’ and a favourite Victorian tourist attraction through to its role in great sporting achievements and more.
20 minutes will be spent in the heritage timeline room where you will be introduced to the origins of the lake and its rich history over the last 200 years followed by a 25 minute tour of Hollingworth Lake abord the passenger ferry.
This heritage tour is the ideal way to learn about the many interesting facts in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Booking essential, under 16’s must be accompanied by an adult. Sorry no dogs, although guide dogs are welcome.
Next tours: Tuesday 11 November, 1:00pm and Tuesday 25 November, 1:00pm
45m
Hollingworth Lake Adventure & Water Activity Centre, Lakebank, Hollingworth Lake, Littleborough Greater ManchesterOL15 0DQ
OLDHAM COLISEUM THEATRE AND NOT TOO TAME ARE LOOKING FOR YOUNG PERSON ENSEMBLE TO JOIN JIM CARTWRIGHT’S A CHRISTMAS FAIR
Preview by Steve Cooke
A great opportunity for young budding performers!
Oldham Coliseum Theatre in association with Not Too Tame, the team behind a new immersive, site-specific revival of Jim Cartwright’s festive play, A Christmas Fair, are holding open auditions for a Young Person Ensemble. Embracing the period of the current £10m refurbishment of the theatre, the production will be staged in Oldham’s Chadderton Town Hall directed by Jimmy Fairhurst (Artistic Director of Not Too Tame) and will run from 17 December – 2 January.
The producers also announced that Kelise Gordon-Harrison and Paddy Stafford are joining John Henshaw, Samantha Robinson and Dickon Tyrrell to complete the cast.
Not Too Tame and Oldham Coliseum are holding open auditions for a Young Person Ensemble on Friday 7 November in Oldham.
They are looking for young people aged 8-21 who can sing, act or dance/move confidently. Participants must be available from 17 November - 2nd January for the rehearsal and performance period.
Jimmy Fairhurst adds: “You’ll be woven throughout the story, bringing energy, atmosphere, and magic to this bold reimagining of Christmas in Oldham. You don’t need any experience - just enthusiasm, talent, and commitment!”
Friday 7 November from 4.30pm
Oldham Theatre Workshop, JR Clynes Building, Greaves Street, Oldham OL1 1AL
For more information and to register your interest, go to https://www.coliseum.org.uk/get-involved/a-christmas-fair-young-person-open-auditions/
Not Too Tame A Christmas Fair
Cast: Kelise Gordon-Harrison (Lucy), John Henshaw (Caretaker), Samantha Robinson (Veronica), Paddy Stafford (Johnny) and Dickon Tyrrell (Vicar)
Young love might be in the air, the vicar’s distracted, Veronica is rallying her troops to keep things on track, and the caretaker just wants to go home. Will romance blossom? Will secrets be revealed? Or will the Christmas fair go with a bang…?
First premièred in 2012, renowned playwright Jim Cartwright’s A Christmas Fair is a love letter to village life. It tells the hilarious and heart wrenching stories of five characters amidst the buzz, bustle and festive mayhem of setting up the annual fair in the days before Christmas.
Chadderton Town Hall, Garforth St, Chadderton, Oldham OL9 6PY
@oldhamcoliseum
@nottootame
@jimmy_fairhurst
Performance schedule 17 December – 2 January:
Monday to Saturday at 7pm (except 24 & 31 December)
Saturdays at 2pm
Additional Matinees on 24 & 31 December at 2pm
No Performances on 25, 26 December & 1 January
Ticket prices: from £10
Rochdale Music Society Concert - Galina Vale, Guitar.
Review by Shirley Mitchell
Galina Vale has been highly praised in many reviews for her deep fiery performances and exuberant style. Born in the Ukraine of a musical family, Galina was a musical prodigy who started her concert career at the age of eight. Critics have styled her “La Diva de la Guitarra”. She has become a unique personality of the international guitar world.
This was certainly borne out in her performance at St. Michael’s Church on Sunday afternoon 19 October, the second concert of the Rochdale Music Society’s 2025-26 season.
The audience were captivated by this woman, an extremely colourful and dramatic actress, who magically transformed her instrument into seemingly a full orchestra. How two hands, ten fingers could manage to do this was astonishing!
We were treated to thrilling passages, including percussion, counterpoint, sweeping romantic melodies, and passages sometimes at breathtaking speeds. Later, the members of the audience remarked that they had never heard the guitar played like that before.
Also, Galina delighted us with a great variety of pieces in Spanish style, including flamenco, arrangements of classical composers, such as Brahms Hungarian Dance No. 5, Paganini’s Caprice No. 24, and Rossini’s Tarantella.
This was an unforgettable musical experience.
Dancing at Lughnasa
Review by Steve Griffiths
Dancing at Lughnasa at the Royal Exchange Theatre is a play set in 30s rural Ireland with five sisters as the main actors is how the new director , Elizabeth Newman chooses to start her fresh regime. It’s been around since 1990 so hardly groundbreaking, Fortunately it’s by the great Irish writer Brian Friel and with the help of a wonderful cast she makes a triumphant debut.
She knows her audience as she has worked at Bolton Octagon and Sheffield Crucible appreciating that they like a well-crafted play with rounded characters who can effectively use the round staging. Unlike some of her predecessors she gets her actors to project. You can hear every last syllable, funny line and appreciate the tragedies within families.
The cast are stellar: Chrissie all smiles, silences and love of poetry. So much so that you can understand how she fell in rural Ireland for the silver tongued Gerry and had the worst possible outcome - a child out of wedlock. As the play has echoes of Friel’s upbringing the language reflects the times past . The music is there to show how even in the backwoods of Ireland the modern world was stirring. Marconi has a lot to answer for including the signature piece Anything Goes!
Two sisters are effective background , essential to showing how families work. Laura Pyper as Aggie and Siobhan O’ Kelly as Margaret work their cotton socks off making handmade gloves . And proving that you don’t have to be in the foreground to be good actors. Rachel O’Connell as Rose shows that people with learning difficulties can still have a deep emotional life . But the star of the show is sister Kate, Natalie Radmall-Quirke, who is so tight laced that you worry that one day she will bump against an emotion and shatter. Which in the key moment, when the title comes to life, they all do.
A perfect theatrical moment which sums up the plays greatness ; less is more.
The male characters are not quite overwhelmed by the family. Brother Jack, Frank Laverty, shows the way in which religion can shape your world through his adaption of Irish Catholicism to African paganism. Marcus Rutherford has some great lines to illustrate the way in which hope can overcome cynicism despite the evidence to the contrary. In that respect he prefigures some of the political actors strutting on the world stage. And as the narrator, Michael, Kwaku Fortune can be both a child of seven and an objective presenter and observer of his family.
A great theatrical evening. Welcome back the real Royal Exchange
5 stars
Watch trailer: https://www.royalexchange.co.uk/event/dancing-at-lughnasa/
On until 8 November.
Tickets from: £12
Royal Exchange Theatre, St Ann’s Square, Manchester M2 7DH
Phone: 0161 833 9833
RECOMMENDED
Wednesday 5 November 2025
Toad Lane Concerts - Rochdale's Weekly Music at Lunchtime
This week we have - Madeleine Brown piano (Cambridge University & RNCM)
The concert series has been held at St Mary’s since 2001 and was granted the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service in 2020.
Running every Wednesday, Music at Lunchtime is a weekly live classical music concert series that has been going since the 1960s. The sessions were initially run at the old Rochdale Art Gallery by the local authority, but since May 2001 have been run by volunteer-enthusiasts and artistic director, Dr Joe Dawson.
£6
Phone: Dr Joe Dawson 01706 648872
Doors open 12noon, concert starts 12.30pm - 1.30pm
St Mary in the Baum, Toad Lane/St Mary's Gate, Rochdale OL16 1DZ
Wednesday, 5 November 2025
Heywood Scribblers - Heywood Library
Join our poetry and story writing workshops. All abilities welcome.
First Wednesday of every month. Free, friendly creative writing sessions. Poetry and story-writing workshops. All abilities welcome, whether you're new to writing or a seasoned writer.
For adults, families and teenagers, you can just drop in.
1.15pm - 3.15pm
Heywood Library, LCpl Stephen Shaw MC Way, Heywood OL10 1LW
Wednesday, 5 November 2025
Tea Dances at Rochdale Town Hall
Join us as we waltz back into a cherished tradition and let the rhythm of sequence dancing sweep you off your feet.
Prima Dance invites you to glide in harmony with your fellow dancers while executing the same routines, moving gracefully in an anticlockwise direction around the room. Each step you take offers a chance to bond with others, making memories that linger long after the last note fades.
Whether you're a seasoned dancer or just looking to try something new, we warmly welcome all skill levels. For just £7.50 per person, your dance experience includes not only entry but also refreshments to keep you energized throughout the afternoon.
For adults.
Booking required:
Book your place online at Your Trust: https://www.yourtrustrochdale.co.uk/whats-on/events/tea-dances-at-rochdale-town-hall/
You can also call 01706 924797 to book.
You can also book in person at the Town Hall reception.
Email: hello@rochdaletownhall.co.uk
Tickets from £7.50 per person
1pm - 3pm
Rochdale Town Hall, The Esplanade, Rochdale OL16 1AZ
Thursday, 6 November 2025
Rochdale Bonfire and Fireworks Display
Join in the fun with our organised bonfire and fireworks displays.
The bonfire will be lit at 7pm.
The fireworks display will begin at 7.30pm.
This is a family event with free entry.
Food and soft drinks will be available to buy. Alcohol will not be on sale, and you are not allowed to bring your own alcohol, fireworks, and sparklers. Unfortunately, we can't accept any more traders.
There will be no toilet facilities provided.
This event is wheelchair accessible.
No onsite parking will be available, so please walk or use public transport if you are able to. Plan your journey on public transport
Free entry
6pm - 10pm
Cronkeyshaw Common, Syke, Rochdale OL12 0QR
Thursday, 6 November 2025
Thursday Reading Group - Spotland Library
First Thursday of every month. Read, share and discuss a range of fiction and non-fiction chosen from our extensive list of book titles in a relaxed and friendly group.
For adults no booking required, you can just turn up.
Free
2pm - 3pm
Location: Spotland Library, Ings Lane, Rochdale OL12 7AL
Thursday, 6 November 2025
Bilingual story time - Rochdale Central Library
Alternate Thursdays. Come and listen to stories read in English and other languages such as Urdu, Arabic, French and Slovakian. Join in with crafts related to the story afterwards
For families with children aged 5 and under.
Free
12pm - 1.30pm
Rochdale Central Library, Number One Riverside, Smith Street, Rochdale OL16 1XU
Saturday, 8 November 2025
Reading Group - Littleborough Library
Second Saturday of every month. A group discussing various authors, genres and themes.
For adults.no need to book, you can just come along.
Free
10.30am - 11.30am
Location: Littleborough Library, Hare Hill Park, Littleborough OL15 9HE
celebrating creative arts and artists - an oasis of positivity supporting individual and community wellbeing.
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