Theatre: Paul Auster’s City of Glass at Home Manchester

HOME and Lyrics Hammersmith bring the first UK theatre adaptation of a Paul Auster novel to Manchester. As Auster turns 70 and his New York Trilogy hits three decades, it seems an apt time to bring the first part of the Trilogy, City of Glass, to the stage. A co-production with HOME, Lyric Hammersmith and Tony Award-winning 59 Productions, the adaptation of Auster’s meta-crime fiction novel sees crime writer Daniel Quinn becomes entangled in a real life thriller. The inventive and experimental take on noir fiction will be matched by an original and compelling production starring Vivienne Acheampong, Mark Edel-Hunt and Chris New. While City of Glass starts off as a traditional New York noir detective novel, Auster turns it into a study of the protagonists fragile state of mind and begins one of the 20th Century’s great masterpieces of city fiction. Directed by Leo Warner, who has headed 59 Productions through works on the 2012 London Olympics and a whole host of live events, the production will be tasked with bringing an inventive novel about cities and an individual’s failing grasp of reality to life. Hopefully there will be the jazz soundtrack I vividly heard as I read this the first time. Either way, expect moody looks, smoke and one of the great masterpieces of American literature.

Sat 4 – Sat 18 Mar, HOME, 2 Tony Wilson Place, First Street, Manchester M15 4FN. Tel: 0161 200 1500, times vary, from £10, www.homemcr.org