The Lowry Experience
Went to see Hobson’s Choice at the Lyric Theatre in The Lowry Art & Entertainment Centre, Salford yesterday.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable production by Chichester Festival Theatre with pace and brilliant timing and wonderdful performances by Dylan Charles, John Savident and the rest of the talented cast.
The Lowry is a striking, modern imaginative building in the gentrified Salford Quays. I imagine it would be difficult to get around inside if you used a wheelchair, as some of the floors are built on a slope. I also worry about the seating layout in the auditorium because they have seen fit to do away with most of the aisles. Somebody must have approved the theatre’s evacuation plan, but when you are sitting in the middle of a row of sixty seats it feels like there are a lot of people between you and the fire exit!
The ushers at The Lowry are a dour lot. I know ripping tickets can’t be a particularly rewarding job but they could smile, surely? It seems nobody has told them that they are working in a place of arts and entertainment, where people come in their leisure time for stimulation, edification and enjoyment. In fact they are more like funeral ushers - maybe they all came from a funeral ushers employment agency and there has been a huge semantic recruitment mistake!
The area around The Lowry is filled with expensive chic waterfront apartments but is devoid of atmosphere. And the adjacent outlet shopping mall obviously struggles to survive; all the shops and most of the food outlets were closed at 6.30 pm on a Friday evening. It all has a Milton Keynes feel to it.
Having said all that, The Lowry’s architecture beats Manchester’s Royal Exchange Theatre for comfort and ambience (think lunar landing module inside a cavernous victorian hall). And, whilst the Royal Exchange frequently puts on disappointing turgid, inanimate productions, The Lowry is consistently good.
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