Dukes makes a Grand exit

The Grand Gesture is a new adaptation of Nikolai Erdman’s dark comic play The Suicide, and is at The Dukes from October 15-19.

Following the success of last year’s A Government Inspector, Northern Broadsides’ associate director Conrad Nelson and playwright Deborah McAndrew team up again, bringing their brand of Northern inventiveness and humour to a work updated from 1920s Russia to 21st Century Britain.

It tells the story of Simeon Duff who is unemployed, broke and desperate.

After a failed last-ditch attempt to solve his problems by learning to play the tuba, he finally realises there’s only one way out… suicide.

But will it be for love, politics, religion – or the rising price of fish?

Relocated to the North’s Anglo-Irish community, it will also feature a blend of Irish folk and choral music.

Among the cast are two familiar faces from past Dukes productions. Rob Pickavance, last seen at the Lancaster theatre as The BFG in 2011 and Howard Chadwick who appeared in the outdoor productions of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Much Ado About Nothing.

Box office: 01524 598500 or www.dukes-lancaster.org