Manchester International

Writer: Ayn Rand adapted by Koen Tachelet Director: Ivo van Hove Reviewer: Dave Cunningham The 2019 Manchester International Festival (MIF) has not been without controversy. There has been a dispute about authorship of one of the plays and an absent presenter literally phoned-in her address at the opening event.  Staging an adaptation of The Fountainhead– Ayn Rand’s epic tribute to ...

Creators: Idris Elba & Kwame Kwei-Armah   Director: Kwame Kwei-Armah   Reviewer: Jay Nuttall   An umbrella of questionable ethics has become Tree’s canopy in the lead up to the opening of one of Manchester International Festival’s flagship productions. A high-profile disagreement between creatives and the role they should or should not be credited with has pushed this production into ...

Choreographer: Boris Charmatz Reviewer: Jo Beggs French Choreographer Boris Charmatz creates highly ambitious and experimental dance performances across the world – from Sadler’s Wells to the New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Breaking out of traditional theatre spaces, he makes work that breaks all the rules. For 10000 Gestures his first work for Manchester, Charmatz set out to make a ...

Music: Jane Horrocks, Nick Vivian and Wrangler Writer: Nick Vivian Director: Wils Wilson Reviewer: Lizz Clark A show with ‘cotton’ in the title is clearly rooted in the history of Manchester and Lancashire’s mill-towns. The panic referred to is the Cotton Famine of the 1860s, when the American Civil War halted supply, devastating whole communities. Huddled in the post-industrial shell ...

Writer: Didier Eribon adapted by The Schaubühne Adaptor: The Schaubühne Director:  Thomas Ostermeier Reviewer: Dave Cunningham Returning to Reims puts the International in the Manchester International Festival. The play is adapted from a best-selling French memoir, The Schaubühne Theatre Company is German and the main actor has featured in a US thriller TV series. European theatres enjoy greater subsidy than ...

Writer: Scott Graham, Karl Hyde, Simon Stephens Music: Karl Hyde Director: Scott Graham Reviewer: Jo Beggs Scott Graham, Karl Hyde and Simon Stephens all went home. Back to their scattered hometowns, those places long left behind but which had shaped their childhoods and their lives. In Corby, Kidderminster, and Stockport they interviewed men about their fathers and their sons. Some ...

Writer: Veronica Gonzalez Pena Director: Douglas Gordon Reviewer: Iain Sykes Scared of the dark? Scared of the wolves? Want to face your fears? Then, on the face of things, Neck of the Woods, premiering at Manchester International Festival may be for you. With concept and direction from Turner Prize winning artist Douglas Gordon, the audience find themselves plunged into total ...

Music: Mark Simpson, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Librettist: Melanie Challenger Conductor: Juanjo Mena Reviewer: Jo Beggs Tonight is all about death, and our attempts to cheat it. Mozart, aged 35, was railing against it (and lost) even as he was composing his great Requiem in D minor, which opens tonight’s Manchester International Festival programme at the Bridgewater Hall. Whether or not ...