Floral Pavilion (photo: Dave Evans)
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Floral hosts Harris’s Stepping Out NW return

An Agatha Christie masterpiece and Richard Harris’s comedy play Stepping Out are just two highlights of New Brighton’s Floral Pavilion calendar so far this year.

Stepping Out, for those unaware, tells the story of ex-professional dancer Mavis Turner who holds her weekly tap class with her well-intentioned but not overly talented troupe including the awkward but hugely enthusiastic Lynne, snooty Vera, and streetwise Maxine. The group are invited to perform at a charity gala, where disbelief is replaced by sheer terror. Stepping Out, which appeared at Manchester’s Opera House last October starring Brian Capron as Geoffrey and Jessie Wallace as Sylvia, arrives to the Wirral venue in July.

Following productions of The Hollow, The Unexpected Guest, And Then There Were None and Spider’s Web, the Agatha Christie Theatre Company presents Christie's Witness for the Prosecution at the Floral in April for six nights. In a world where everyone seems to be harbouring a dark secret, this courtroom drama will aim to keep the audience guessing and gripped until the final fatal moment.

After this whodunnit drama, the two-hander September In The Rain opens in May which is being directed by the award-winning Jen Heyes and stars Pauline Daniels as Liz and Brian Dodd as Jack. The poignant play charts Liz and Jack’s life together through their early summer holidays to Blackpool, dipping in and out of time from their first holiday as newlyweds to their last as stooped old age pensioners.

This Sunday, however, sees some harrowingly grotesque acts in the shape of The Circus of Horrors as part of a UK tour. Led by The Undead Ringmaster Doktor Haze, the bizarre group of witch-doctors, voodoo acrobats, pickled people, bendy bodies, demon dwarfs, and flying vampires, set out to shock more than delight in a theatrical show aimed at adults only.

The Circus of Horrors visits eight venues in the region until the end of March after its appearance in New Brighton.

Elsewhere, children are being catered for with the visit of productions aimed specifically at them with Peppa Pig's Party – a stage adaptation of the BAFTA award-winning children's television show – and Postman Pat - A Very Royal Mission appearing at the Floral during the summer.

Vienna Festival Ballet bring a version of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake to the theatre in March, while productions connected to the LEAP 2010 dance festival, now in its eighteenth year, also feature.

Stepping Out opens at the Floral Pavilion on Tuesday 13 July and runs until Saturday 17 July which is being produced by FMH Productions in association with the Leatherhead Theatre and Henry Filloux-Bennett and Stephen Makin. To read the Whatsonstage review of Stepping Out when it appeared at Manchester’s Opera House last year, click here

- by Michael Hunt

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