Foster follows Streetcar with Dole at Octagon

Avenue Q star Clare Foster is currently playing Blanche DuBois in the
Octagon’s A Streetcar Named Desire. She returns to the venue for their next production, playing the role of Sally
Hardcastle. Known to The Bill fans as Millie
Brown in ITV’s police drama. Clare is joined on stage by Octagon
favourite Kieran Hill who plays the role of socialist agitator Larry
Meath. Kieran is a regular at the Octagon, having appeared in A
Midsummer Night’s Dream, Comedians, The Hired Man and A Streetcar Named
Desire. 

Octagon Theatre Bolton continues its season of passionate productions with one of the greatest Northern dramas of all time: Love on the Dole. Set in Hanky Park, Salford, this deeply moving play explores the enduring power of love and the strength of human resilience in the face of adversity.

Love on the Dole follows the struggles of Sally Hardcastle and her family during the Great Depression that grips the North. Struggling to make ends meet, and with her family facing an uncertain future, Sally is faced with a decision that could ensure her family’s survival, but at the inevitable price of her own happiness.

Voted one of the National Theatre’s Best 100 plays of the Twentieth Century, Love on the Dole is viewed as a landmark play in British Theatre, capturing the economic uncertainty of the era and touching the hearts of the nation. Octagon Theatre Artistic Director, David Thacker, explains what attracted him to this production: “As every day passes this wonderful Northern classic seems to speak to us more powerfully. It’s firmly rooted in its time but it could almost have been written now. It’s a very strong compelling story. I’m sure people will care deeply for the young people who are in love and are trying to make a life for themselves against the odds. Walter Greenwood has created a range of vivid characters and writes with enormous wit, compassion and understanding.”

Love On the Dole runs at the Octagon from 14 October – 6 November.