Star-struck on Star Cross’d

THE spectacular “Star Cross’d” performed in Alexandra Park

Oldham Coliseum has scooped a brace of prizes at the reborn Manchester Theatre Awards - the biggest of their kind outside London.

The Fairbottom Street venue won trophies for Best Special Entertainment for summer park hit Star Cross’d and Best New Play, for Snookered.

Star Cross’d beat off stiff competition from The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy Radio Show Live at Manchester Opera House, Translunar Paradise at the Lowry in Salford and the Coliseum’s own pantomime, Cinderella.

The judges declared the team’s first attempt to stage an outdoor spectacle was “an exceptionally entertaining experience for those lucky enough to get tickets” - despite it being the wettest summer on record.

The play — produced by artistic director Kevin Shaw — was a multiracial retelling of Shakespeare’s classic Romeo and Juliet.

Snookered beat The Gatekeeper at the Royal Exchange Studio, Obama the Mamba, President Of The Slums at The Lowry and the 24:7 festival’s Towers of Babel at the Bolton Octagon Theatre.

The play, penned by Middlesbrough taxi driver Ishy Din, follows a group of friends as they meet to mark the death - by drinking and playing snooker - of a sixth member of the group. Secrets are revealed and allegiances shift in an hilarious and down-to-earth look at secular muslim men.

The awards ceremony, at Manchester Opera House, saw prizes handed out over a range of categories with productions such as “The Lion King”, “Phantom of the Opera” and the Royal Shakespeare Company’s “Julius Caesar” battling it out for success.

Besides the awards for best production, actor or actress, there is recognition too for supporting stars and design.

The awards recognise the work of leading local theatres and actors as well as some of the biggest performers in British and international theatre who have visited the area over the year.

The MTAs are chosen by a panel of nine independent regional theatre critics and confirm Manchester as the heart of the country’s second home of theatreland.

Panel members attend scores of productions each year and this year shortlisted 19 categories across drama, opera, musical theatre and dance.