THE Octagon Theatre is one of the main things that makes Bolton a good place to live in and to visit. Through a time of very uncertain funding it has been renowned for putting on high quality work and doing well at the box office. If it's hit a bad patch financially, surely the town, the council AND the local paper should give all the support possible to help it pull through.

I have lived in the town for many years and love the locally-based work - Les Smith's Early One Morning in the autumn was an excellent example. However I also enjoy the opportunity to see plays from much further afield - after all we have our own culture and are also part of a wider one - the healthy thing is that the two should interact and influence each other. I think the Octagon programme tries to do this.

Finally, the boarded up cinema on Bradshawgate is extremely depressing - the same thing must not happen to our local theatre, in the very centre of town.

Eileen Murphy

Gorses Mount, Darcy Lever

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.