Octagon Theatre Bolton To Stage Site-Specific Production of SUMMER HOLIDAY

This May, the Octagon Theatre Bolton continue their 50th Anniversary season with their first off-site production of 2018 - a not to be missed site-specific staging of the much-loved 1960's musical film Summer Holiday. The production will be co-directed by Octagon Theatre's Artistic Director Elizabeth Newman and associate director Ben Occhipinti.

During a miserable wet British summer, Don arrives with a borrowed double-decker bus ready to take his friends on a journey to sunny Athens. Join us as we tell the story of their summer adventure beginning in Bolton's new interchange before we take you on a musical bus journey to the beautifully renovated Albert Halls to see the conclusion of Don's fun-filled summer escapade across Europe.

Featuring songs such as Bachelor Boy, Living Doll, The Young Ones and, of course, the title track Summer Holiday, this retelling of the classic musical film featuring Cliff Richard will be brought to life as never seen before in an exciting new site-specific staging by a talented cast of actors-musicians.

The site-specific production will see audiences meeting at the Bolton Interchange bus station where a short scene will take place. They will then embark onto 6 double decker buses along with actors on each bus where there will be a song along the way as audiences are driven onto Victoria Square next to Bolton Town Hall. Audiences will then disembark from the buses to witness the "mini crash" scene outside of the hall - before entering the Albert Halls to watch the remainder of the performance.

The production will be co-directed by Elizabeth Newman, Artistic Director at the Octagon Theatre and Ben Occhipinti (A Christmas Carol, Octagon Theatre). It will be designed by Amanda Stoodley (The Effect, Sheffield Crucible) with musical direction by Richard Reeday (Singin' in the Rain, Octagon Theatre Bolton, Salisbury Playhouse and New Vic Theatre Newcastle-under-Lyme Production).

The production's cast of actors/musicians will be announced in the coming weeks

Elizabeth Newman, Artistic Director at the Octagon Theatre, said, "As the Octagon building closes for our important redevelopment, we are heading on our adventures as we produce shows out of the building. We wanted to offer our audiences some exciting and fun experiences and since producing Singin' in the Rain we've been keen to create another joyous musical - so Summer Holiday is the perfect show to begin our adventures! It will be an ambitious staging of the musical, with talented actor-musicians singing, dancing and playing musical instruments in locations across Bolton. This will be a version of Summer Holiday never seen before and I can't wait to share it with audiences."

The film version of Summer Holiday premiered in 1963 and featured in its cast Cliff Richard, Melvyn Hayes, Una Stubbs, Ron Moody and The Shadows. The film was directed by Peter Yates with an original screenplay written by Peter Myers and Ronald Cass (who also wrote most of the song numbers and lyrics).

Summer Holiday will be playing at Bolton Travel Interchange and Albert Halls, Bolton between Thursday 31 May - Saturday 23 June. Ticket prices from £27.50 - £18.50.

For more information visit https://octagonbolton.co.uk/whats-on/theatre/summer-holiday/