Gay Drama Season

GAY DRAMA SEASON COMES TO CANAL-ST.CO.UK

Canal-St.co.uk is teaming up with leading independent production company Made in Manchester to bring you a month of ground-breaking gay drama.

The Canal-St.co.uk GAY DRAMA SEASON will launch on September 19th and will feature such legendary actors as Simon Callow and Bette Bourne.

First up will be Tim Fountain’s critically acclaimed ROCK which examines how the Rock Hudson name and image was manufactured by 1950’s Hollywood. Bette Bourne stars as the gay agent, Henry Willson with Rock Hudson played by West End leading man Michael Xavier.

Also in the series, which will last until mid October, will be DEATH IN GENOA (written by Thomas Wright) starring film, theatre and TV actor Simon Callow as Wilde in a drama which looks at Oscar Wilde’s last few years and imagines what might have happened during a visit to his wife’s grave in Italy.

Premiering as a radio drama on Canal-St.co.uk will also be UNDONE - local writer Chad McGitchie’s play about surviving the village. It stars Stephen Beard from Hollyoaks.

And then the History Boys’ Samuel Barnett teams up with Paul Kendrick from the BBC4 TV film Consenting Adults for TURING’S TEST.  Written by Made in Manchester writers Phil Collinge and Andy Lord, the drama examines what might have been going through the mind of persecuted Enigma code breaker Alan Turing after he ate an apple laced with cyanide that ultimately killed him.
Made in Manchester Creative Director Ashley Byrne says: “We are delighted to be able to bring this ground-breaking Gay Drama Season to Canal-St.co.uk.

Audio drama can be extremely powerful and is enjoying something of a renaissance through the internet. We hope this season will be the first of many to come.”

The GAY DRAMA SEASON follows a successful year for Made in Manchester which has included making BBC Radio 5Live’s first-ever drama – Don’t Cry For Me, Maradona, starring Tim Healy as Bobby Robson and Denise Welch as Elsie Robson – and Barbara Windsor’s Funny Girls (profiling Hattie Jacques and Hylda Baker) for BBC Radio 2.

The Canal-St.co.uk GAY DRAMA SEASON will begin with ROCK which will be able to be heard via Canal-St.co.uk from September 19th through to September 25th 2011.

Published: 8-Sep-2011: (792)