Manchester International Festival Announces 2017 Programme

Manchester International Festival has today announced John McGrath's inaugural programme for the 2017 event (Thursday 29 June - Sunday 16 July). The programme includes everything from classical music to digital technology with some of the world's most extraordinary artists presenting their work across the cities iconic venues and pop-up spaces. This year the festival presents world premieres, unique concerts and one-off events including a number of opportunities to see work for free.

John McGrath, Festival Director, said ''I am thrilled to share the remarkable list of artists who are working with us to create this year's Festival. These names, drawn from the United States, Egypt, Austria, China, France, Pakistan, Germany, and Iceland underscore how truly international MIF is."

For the full festival programme, please visit www.mif.co.uk

COTTON PANIC!

Jane Horrocks, NICK VIVIAN AND WRANGLER PRESENT AN INDUSTRIAL MUSIC DRAMA TELLING THE STORY OF THE NORTH OF ENGLAND'S INSPIRING ROLE IN THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR

Created by Jane Horrocks, Nick Vivian and Wrangler (featuring Stephen Mallinder of the great Cabaret Voltaire), Cotton Panic! tells the story of the catastrophe that befell the north and its people in 1861.

Cotton was once as good as gold in Lancashire, the engine for a thriving economy built on the Industrial Revolution. Then in 1861, reality bit: the US Civil War took root, American ports fell silent, the supply of cotton dried up and the prosperous North was brought to its knees. And yet despite all their hardships, the workers of Lancashire refused to break the embargo on cotton from the Confederate slave states.

This world premiere production, performed by Jane Horrocks and Wrangler and directed by Wils Wilson, will be driven by a dynamic soundtrack, with original material, familiar songs, industrial noise and electronic soundscaping. Staged in the atmosphEric Victorian grandeur of Upper Campfield Market Hall, the show will take audiences through prosperity, panic and poverty towards companionship with one's fellow man.

John McGrath, Artistic Director of Manchester International Festival said: "Jane Horrocks is one of the North West's great talents, and in this collaboration with Nick Vivian and Stephen Mallinder, she will be putting her unique skills to very exciting use. Combining a two-hundred-year-old story with a very contemporary musical universe, this piece of gig theatre will be a rare and inspiring moment. I am also delighted that the wonderful site-specific director Wils Wilson will be working with the team to stage the piece in the magical environment of Upper Campfield Market."

Creative Team

Jane Horrocks Performer
Nick Vivian Writer
Wrangler Music
Wils Wilson Director
Chris Turner Visuals
Joseph Bennett Designer
Lorena Randi Choreographer
Andreas Fuchs Lighting

#cottonpanic

Cotton Panic is supported by the Foyle Foundation.

PARTY SKILLS FOR THE END OF THE WORLD

Award-winning theatrical innovators Nigel Barrett and Louise Mari have been invited to make their Manchester International Festival debut with the world premiere of their subversive experiential Party Skills for the End of the World.

A show that takes you on a journey, a shared experience, to face your fears and celebrate your life.

As turmoil and uncertainty sweep the world, the collapse of civilisation may be close at hand - and if it comes, will you be ready for the party?

In a secret location, the audience will learn the essential skills needed to survive and thrive in a world where everything they've taken for granted has gone: skills ranging from how to make the perfect martini, to how to pick the best music to get everyone dancing; from tricks to entertain a terrified crowd to cleaning and stitching a wound. Even how to kill someone in a space the size of a telephone box.

Long-term collaborators and members of the pioneering cult performance collective Shunt, Nigel Barrett and Louise Mari make wild, bold, visual performance for people who don't really like theatre and unique theatrical experiences for those who do. In 2015, their ground breaking production The Body was awarded The Oxford Samuel Beckett Theatre Trust Award.

Commissioned and produced by Manchester International Festival and Shoreditch Town Hall.

Creative Team

Created and performed by Nigel Barrett and Louise Mari
Design Consultant Lizzie Clachan
Designers Abigail Conway and Bethany Wells
Lighting Designer Marty Langthorne
Composition & Sound by Ben & Max Ringham

DINNER PARTY AT THE END OF THE WORLD

Inspired by Party Skills for the End of the World, renowned Mancunian chef Mary-Ellen McTague (Aumbry, the Real Junk Food Project) has devised a dinner party with a difference. Each evening, just 20 guests will share a special last supper, with delicious and surprising food that explores themes of survival, extinction, scarcity and opulence. McTague's creative menu will give you a flavour of how we may choose to eat, and what we may have to eat, come the end of days.

Dinner Party at the End of the World produced by Manchester International Festival.

#partyskills

RETURNING TO REIMS

One of the world's most thrilling theatre directors, Thomas Ostermeier, Artistic Director of Berlin's revered Schaubühne, will present the world premiere of Returning to Reims, an urgent reflection on the new world order starring Nina Hoss, adapted from Didier Eribon's controversial book.

When his father dies, Eribon returns to the working-class community he had long since left behind - and is forced to re-evaluate everything he thought he understood about his life, especially when he discovers his family have switched allegiance from Communism to the far-right Front National.

In Ostermeier's typically multilayered production, set in a recording studio, an actress (Hoss) tapes a documentary voiceover based on the memoir, beginning to reflect on her own background as the daughter of a union leader and activist. The production will look at the relationship between personal history and our places in the world, and political activism's role in the current populist political climate.

John McGrath, Artistic Director of Manchester International Festival said: "It is rare indeed for Berlin's great Schaubuhne to open its newest work outside of its Berlin home, but in this extraordinary co-commission with MIF, the Schaubühne and HOME, we will see an entirely new creation from the company's Artistic Director, Thomas Ostermeier, for the first time here in Manchester. Thomas is one of the most admired and exciting directors in the world, and I am truly honoured that he will be premiering this urgent new work with us."

Returning to Reims is a Factory Trailblazer, a preview of the kind of world-class art that will be found at Factory, Manchester's ground-breaking new multi-arts venue, when it opens in 2020 under the direction of MIF.

#returning

Commissioned by the Schaubühne and Manchester International Festival.
Produced by the Schaubühne, Manchester International Festival and HOME, Manchester.

THE WELCOMING PARTY

THEATRE-RITES CREATE THE WELCOMING PARTY, A SITE-SPECIFIC MIX OF INSTALLATION, LIVE MUSIC, PUPPETRY AND DANCE FOR FAMILIES AND CHILDREN FOLLOWING STORIES AND REAL LIFE EXPERIENCES OF JOURNEYS

Award-winning Theatre-Rites, one of Europe's most imagiNative Theatre companies will create a brand new immersive production, The Welcoming Party, for the 2017 Festival. Commissioned by Manchester International Festival, Theatre-Rites, Z-arts and the Ruhr Triennale International Festival of the Arts the piece will take audiences on an intriguing journey of magical realism. Moving through the historic 1830 Warehouse of the Museum of Science and Industry, audiences will be invited to explore how we can offer a welcome to people who are on a journey to find a place to call home.

A mixture of installation, live music, puppetry and dance, the production for aged 8 plus will be performed by an international ensemble investigating the power of the personal and collective gesture, big and small. Drawing on the company's personal experiences, collected during a six week devising process, Theatre-Rites will tell stories from around the world across the different spaces of The Warehouse. In a celebration of difference, The Welcoming Party¸ communicates with audiences in inventive and unconventional ways creating a wonderful visual language that is accessible to all.

Director Sue Buckmaster said: "I would like to encourage our audience to ask: Why would they join the Welcoming Party? Why would others not join? What different reasons do we have for why we would join? The young people in our audience will certainly be bombarded in their future by requests to join and sign up to many causes and kick starter schemes which will influence their society and the way they make choices. So it feels right to give them a chance to "play" with this idea."

John McGrath, Artistic Director of Manchester International Festival said: "Theatre Rites bring world class theatrical imagination to work with children and families, and in this new work, created for the wonderful spaces of MSI's Victorian Warehouse, they will be applying their visual and storytelling skills to great effect. With so many children and families having to go on journeys across the world for the sake of their safety, The Welcoming Party will help all of us to imagine a better way to look after each other."

The Welcoming Party marks 21 years since Theatre-Rites created their first production, Houseworks, a site-specific show that altered notions of what immersive art for children could be. On this special birthday, as they celebrate the power of theatre to allow us all to reflect on the world around us, it is fitting that The Welcoming Party is their first collaboration as an Associate of Manchester's only dedicated venue for children and families, Z-Arts.

The piece will be directed by Sue Buckmaster, designed by Simon Daw, choreographed by Jamaal Burkmar, composed by Frank Moon, with lighting design by Mark Doubleday.

Performers include: Carl Harrison; Amed Hashimi; Michal Keyamo; Mohsen Nouri; Mohamed Sarrar; Clémentine Telesfort.

#welcomingparty

The welcome continues at Z-arts throughout August with summer activities, including creative sessions for families every Saturday at the Welcoming Party HQ, and two week-long programmes for young people ages 11+ to make a piece of drama or music, inspired by the theme of welcome. See z-arts.org/welcomingpartyhq for details.

This production marks the beginning of a long term relationship between Theatre-Rites and Z-arts.

Commissioned by Manchester International Festival, Theatre-Rites, Z-arts and Ruhrtriennale International Festival of the Arts.

Produced by Manchester International Festival, Theatre-Rites and Z-arts.
Supported by the Granada Foundation.

WHAT IS THE CITY BUT THE PEOPLE?

CREATED BY THE PEOPLE OF MANCHESTER FROM AN IDEA BY JEREMY DELLER WHAT IS THE CITY BUT THE PEOPLE TAKES MIF TO THE STREETS FOR THE OPENING EVENT OF THE FESTIVAL

Raised high above the pavements, a unique selection of individuals from across Manchester will walk a specially designed runway stretching more than 100 meters through Piccadilly Gardens. Audiences, both in the streets and online, will watch as local residents parade the runway for this free event.

Ranging from high-fashion statements to far more personal moments, What Is the City but the People? will capture Manchester through its outfits, attitudes and individuality.

Directed by Richard Gregory the opening event of MIF17 will be accompanied by live music from Graham Massey assisted by an unexpected mix of local musicians.

Local residents can get involved by emailing whatisthecity@mif.co.uk

Created by the People of Manchester from an idea by Jeremy Deller, in association with Islington Mill.

Commissioned and produced by Manchester International Festival.

#whatisthecity

Creative Team

Richard Gregory Director
Simon Banham Designer
Graham Massey Musical Director
Sonia Hughes Writer
Gavin Parry Photographer
Hawkins/Brown Architect

10000 GESTURES

BORIS CHARMATZ, ONE OF EUROPE'S MOST DARING CHOREOGRAPHERS, WILL UNVEIL A PROVOCATIVE NEW PIECE

Staged in the vast, atmospheric space of Mayfield, a 25-strong ensemble of dancers will perform, in succession, 10000 Gestures - none repeated and every one unique. In his truly unimitable style, Boris Charmatz will rethink and reinvent the language of dance through this thrilling production.

10000 Gestures is a highly ambitious piece which marks the first ever staging of Boris Charmatz's work in Manchester, having recently performed works at London's Sadler's Wells, Tate Modern and New York's Museum of Modern Art.

In the pre-premiere of his latest work, Charmatz will fill Mayfield, a disused train station in the heart of Manchester, with an explosion of movement, choreographing a cacophony of gestures whilst allowing no repetition.

Dancer, choreographer and director of the Musée de la danse (Rennes, France), Boris Charmatz subjects dance to formal constraints which redefine the field of its possibilities. The stage is a notepad where he jots down ideas and organic concepts in order to observe the chemical reactions, the intensities, and the tensions engendered in their encounter.

Produced by Musée de la danse
in coproduction with Volksbühne Berlin, Manchester International Festival, Théâtre National de Bretagne-Rennes, Festival d'Automne à Paris, Chaillot - Théâtre national de la Danse (Paris), Wiener Festwochen,Sadler's Wells.

#10000gestures

Curated for MIF by Matthias von Hartz

FATHERLAND

FATHERLAND A POIGNANT NEW SHOW CREATED BY FRANTIC ASSEMBLY'S Scott Graham, UNDERWORLD'S KARL HYDE AND PLAYWRIGHT Simon Stephens

A BOLD NEW THEATRE SHOW FOCUSING ON CONTEMPORARY FATHERHOOD IN ALL ITS COMPLEXITIES AND CONTRADICTIONS

Created by Frantic Assembly's Scott Graham, Karl Hyde from Underworld and playwright Simon Stephens, this emotive collage of words, music and movement will see a 13-strong cast and a multitude of voices engulf the Royal Exchange Theatre.

Inspired by conversations with fathers and sons from the three co-authors' hometowns across England, Fatherland explores identity, nationality and masculinity. In a vivid and deeply personal portrait of 21st-century England at the crossroads of past, present and future, Fatherland is a show about what we are, who we are and what we'd like to become.

Simon Stephens said, "Fatherland was born out of a spirit of fearlessness and collaboration. For that spirit to survive it needs champions. There are no greater champions than the MIF, Frantic Assembly and the Royal Exchange. We couldn't have made the show without them."

#fatherland

Commissioned and produced by Manchester International Festival, Frantic Assembly, the Royal Exchange Theatre, Lyric Hammersmith and LIFT. Supported by PRS for Music Foundation.

Creative Team

Scott Graham Co-Author & Director
Karl Hyde Co-Author & Composer
Simon Stephens Co-Author & Writer
Matthew Herbert Music Producer & Co-Composer
Jon Bausor Designer
Jon Clark Lighting Designer
Ian Dickinson Sound Designer
for Autograph Sound
Eddie Kay Choreographer
Anne McNulty CDG Casting Director
Nick Sidi Dramaturg

Photo credit: Heather Birnie

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