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Matthew Bourne's The Midnight Bell

Tue 01 Jul 2025 - Sat 05 Jul 2025

Matthew Bourne’s award-winning The Midnight Bell comes to Salford for the first time in 2025.

In 1930s London ordinary people emerge from cheap boarding houses nightly to pour out their passions, hopes and dreams in the pubs and fog-bound streets of Soho and Fitzrovia. Step inside The Midnight Bell, a tavern where one particular lonely-hearts club gather to play out their lovelorn affairs of the heart; bitter comedies of longing, frustration, betrayal and redemption.

Inspired by the great English novelist Patrick Hamilton (Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky, Hangover Square) who created some of the most authentic fiction of his era; stories borne out of years of social interactions with the working man and woman at his favourite location - the London Pub.

Hailed by The Observer as ‘the undisputed king of dance theatre’, master storyteller Bourne has produced some of the most successful dance theatre productions of the last 30 years including Swan Lake, Cinderella, The Red Shoes and Edward Scissorhands.

 

Reviews

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ‘SILKY, SEXY. INTOXICATING’  The I

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ ‘DANCE THEATRE AT ITS MOST COMPELLING’ The Arts Desk

★ ★ ★ ★ ‘A poignant portrait of love, lust and longing. Raise a glass to this dazzling dance’ The Guardian

★ ★ ★ ★ ‘A TRIUMPH of Bourne’s genius for exact storytelling’ Observer

★ ★ ★ ★ ‘GLORIOUSLY ATMOSPHERIC. Bourne’s dancers are superb’ Evening Standar

Additional Information

Age recommendation: 14+

The Midnight Bell contains scenes of a sexual nature, including sexual violence and mental distress, smoking on stage (e-cigarettes), haze and flickering lights (not strobe).

 

We anticipate that that the midweek matinees of this production will prove very popular for school parties.

 

Accessible Performances

Audio Description: Thu 3rd July at 7.30pm & Sat 5th July at 2pm

Touch Tour: Thu 3rd July at 6.30pm

To book accessible performances, please email access@thelowry.com or call 0161 876 2183

 

Part of

Albert and Frank duet

The bittersweet, clandestine, romance between West End chorus boy, Albert, and off-duty police officer, Frank, is one of the highlights of The Midnight Bell, focusing on a whole era of long forgotten gay history and experience. These are the only characters in the show that are not directly taken from a Patrick Hamilton novel, but they perfectly take us to the heart of that secret longing that The Midnight Bell is all about. Albert and Frank performed by Liam Mower and Andy Monaghan, filmed in 2021

 

 

Bob and Jenny duet

Lovelorn young barman, Bob, is infatuated with beautiful but damaged “street walker”, Jenny. Is she charmed by his devoted attention or is she luring him down a murky path to romantic disillusionment?

Bob and Jenny performed by Paris Fitzpatrick and Bryony Wood, filmed in 2021.

 

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