Bolton Octagon takes shows 'off site' during £10m revamp

The theatre will stage shows in a variety of venues while its redevelopment takes place

Staging plays in a park, a transport interchange, and a stadium will help a theatre "discover new places and make new friends", its director has said.

Bolton Octagon will take productions "off site" and use a variety of venues for its 2018-19 season while it undergoes an £10m revamp.

Among other places, the season will see a play about Bolton Wanderers's 1923 FA Cup win staged at the club's ground.

Director Elizabeth Newman said the idea showed the theatre's "strong spirit".

She said it was "so important that we continue to make great theatre in Bolton".

The £10m project will see the whole theatre redeveloped

The theatre has already announced summer performances of Summer Holiday, which will take its audience on a bus tour beginning at Bolton Interchange, and Gulliver's Travels in Queen's Park.

Two productions, The Rise and Fall of Little Voice and The Importance of Being Earnest, will follow at the Albert Halls.

A further two will be staged at Bolton Wanderers' Macron Stadium - a version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz set in Bolton and a play, And Did Those Feet, based on the 1923 FA Cup Final.

The 'White Horse Final'

• More than 200,000 fans crammed into Wembley Stadium for the 1923 FA Cup Final between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United

• Thousands spilled onto the pitch and the game was in danger of being abandoned had it not been for the intervention of PC George Scorey and his white horse Billie

• Once order was restored, goals from David Jack and Jack Smith helped Bolton to a 2-0 victory, the first of their four FA Cup wins

Ms Newman said the theatre saw the "off-site season as a time to truly extend our hand of friendship to Bolton communities".

"The artistic policy is centred on extending reach, diversity and innovation so we have been eager to get out on the road to discover new places and make new friends," she said.

The project to redevelop the theatre will see its auditorium revamped, a new backstage area, learning space, rehearsal room and office suite added and improvements made to make the building "more accessible than ever before for those mobility impaired or in wheelchairs".