A SADDLEWORTH theatre may have people reaching for talcum powder and lino as its new season will see it reverberate to the sound of Northern Soul.
Saddleworth Players revealed the five shows that will form its 2025/26 season at Delph’s Millgate at a preview event on Sunday, May 18.
And one of the standouts is Once Upon A Time In Wigan, which will see people taken to Wigan Casino – the home of the popular music genre.
Described as ‘a celebration of the rise and fall of one of the most unique of musical times, before raves, and club culture,’ expect the hits that got people up and dancing.
Centring on Eugene, a butcher’s assistant from Bolton and his mate Danny, who find a reason to live in an otherwise dismal existence.
And director Mark Rosenthall – to the background of Nothing But A Heartache by The Flirtations – said: “This is the kind of music you’re going to look forward to.
“It’s the story of Wigan Casino, laced with pathos, poetry, a bit of violence and perfect rhythm, which is why I’m not dancing!
“And to quote the writer, Mick Martin, ‘It was and still is beautiful music. The dance style that grew on the floor of Wigan Casino and a few other all-night social clubs, all sited in the declining towns of the industrial north, is a spectacle to behold in itself.
“’The whole scene had a wonderful quality of being almost secret, dark and magical.’”
Once Upon A Time In Wigan will be at Millgate from February 7-14, 2026, but Saddleworth Players’ season begins on September 27-October 4 with Waiting For God, a play described as summing up ‘the art of growing old, disgracefully.’
Director Verity Mann said: “I had no pre-conceptions as I didn’t watch the TV series that was on in the 1990s.
“I approached the script with no pre-conceptions and I absolutely loved it. It’s incredibly funny and charming. It’s going to be an absolute blast.”
Nell Gwynn follows from November 15-22 before December sees the traditional and extremely popular panto, this year being the tale of Hansel and Gretel.
And after Millgate becomes Wigan Casino, Wait Until Dark – based on an Audrey Hepburn film – follows on April 15-22, with director Jane Tonge saying: “Once you’ve seen it, you never forget it.
“It comes to a thrilling climax when dark falls.”
Saddleworth Players’ season is rounded off by Blue Stockings, from June 13-20 as director Sue Borg described the challenges the four young women fighting for education faced in 1896.
She said: “You would’ve been faced with long walks from out-of-town colleges to attend lectures, mocked by other students and teachers, forced to sit at the back, have your work left unmarked or rejected.
“Denied entry to lectures as tutors would deem you unworthy of their time and as universities weren’t set up for women, you’d have to carry a chamber pot and find a quiet place in the street.
“Heaven forbid a woman who would dare to have an opinion, let alone want a job.”
*TICKETS for Saddleworth Players’ new season of productions can be bought by clicking https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/millgateartscentre.
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