Forced Entertainment to Bring REAL MAGIC to HOME Manchester

Sheffield's award-winning Forced Entertainment makes its HOME debut in association with Contact with three performances of its acclaimed production Real Magic, which has wowed audiences across Europe, including the Edinburgh Festival, La Bastille in Paris, and the Festspiele's Theatreffen in Berlin. The production runs Wednesday 29 November - Friday 1 December 2017.

Forced Entertainment have built their reputation by creating a world of absurd disconnection, struggle and comical repetition, at the same time as challenging audiences' expectations of what is theatre. To the sound of looped applause and canned laughter, a group of performers take part in an impossible illusion - part mind-reading feat, part cabaret act, part chaotic game show - in which they are endlessly replaying the moment of defeat and the moment of hope.

Caught in a world of second-chances and second-guesses, variations and changes, distortions and transformations, Real Magic takes the audience on a hallucinatory journey, creating a compelling performance about optimism, individual agency, and the desire for change.

"All of our work, for us, approaches the question of what theatre might be now, how it can speak now, and how it might make contact with audiences now," says Forced Entertainment's Artistic Director Tim Etchells. "For us, theatre is always a kind of negotiation, something that thrives on its liveness, and its potential for debate and conversation."

Real Magic sees regular Forced Entertainment performers Richard Lowdon and Claire Marshall joined by Jerry Killick, who has worked with the group on numerous projects including Bloody Mess and And On the Thousandth Night...

Real Magic is not suitable for under-16s, and contains some strong language.

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IF YOU GO:

REAL MAGIC

Wed 29 Nov 2017 - 19:30 (press night)
Thu 30 Nov 2017 - 19:30
Fri 1 Dec 2017 - 19:30

TICKETS: £16.50 - £10 (concessions available).

www.homemcr.org

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HOME, Manchester's centre for international contemporary art, theatre, film and books, officially opened its doors over the 2015 May Bank Holiday weekend. Designed by Dutch architects Mecanoo and featuring a 500-seat theatre; a 150-seat flexible theatre; a 500m2, 4m high gallery space; five cinema screens; digital production and broadcast facilities; a cafe? bar and restaurant. HOME's theatres are a platform for questioning and ambitious artistic projects that involve audiences with new and extraordinary theatrical experiences. The international contemporary visual art programme is dedicated to presenting new commissions by emerging and established artists of regional, national and international significance, with a bold, proactive policy of visual, innovative storytelling with the ability to experiment and explore, probe and provoke, creating a distinct experience for both artists and audiences. HOME's five cinemas showcase the very best in contemporary and classic cinema, screening works by artists and filmmakers both established and new. HOME is a centre for co-production, talent development and artistic creation, dedicated to learning, for people of all ages. A place for new work and playful ideas; of festivals and commissions; of artists and of audience engagement. The patrons of HOME are Danny Boyle, former National Theatre Artistic Director Nicholas Hytner, actress Suranne Jones, playwright and poet Jackie Kay MBE, artists Rosa Barba and Phil Collins, filmmaker Asif Kapadia, and actress and author Meera Syal CBE. After Real Magic, HOME's theatres stage Feline Intimate (6 Dec 2017), A Cold Night in Soho (7 Dec 2017), Red Riding Hood and the Wolf (7 - 30 Dec 2017); Hot Brown Honey (12 - 23 Dec 2017); PUSH Festival 2018 (12 - 27 Jan 2018), Grand Finale (31 Jan - 3 Feb 2018), Winter Solstice (13 -17 Feb 2018), On the Outskirts Of A Large Event (21 - 24 Feb 2018), Circle Mirror Transformation (2 - 17 Mar 2018), and Extraordinary Rendition (7 - 9 Mar 2018). For rest of the Spring and Summer 2018 programme - www.homemcr.org | @HOME_mcr

CONTACT is where young people change their lives through the arts. Based in Manchester, Contact is a vibrant, professional, contemporary theatre and arts venue, with young people driving every aspect of its work. First established as a theatre in 1972, in 1999 Contact reinvented itself as a multi-disciplinary creative space specialising in producing work with, and providing opportunities for, young people aged 13 to 30. Today, Contact is recognised nationally and internationally as a game-changer in the field of youth leadership and creativity. Contact works with the young people of Greater Manchester and with local, national and International Artists to create new models of arts engagement - fostering new talent, building skills and ambition - and creating important new productions that tour nationally. Contact is unique in its ethos of placing young people's decision-making at the heart of everything. Young people work alongside staff in deciding the artistic programme, making staff appointments and act as full Board members. This model is seen as a national exemplar of best practice in relation to young people and diversity, influencing organisations nationwide. www.contactmcr.com | @ContactMcr

FORCED ENTERTAINMENT is a Sheffield-based theatre company founded in 1984. Touring and presenting their ground-breaking provocative performances across the UK, mainland Europe, North America, Japan, Australia and further afield, the group has sustained a unique collaborative practice for more than 30 years. Led by artist and writer Tim Etchells, Forced Entertainment's work explores and often explodes the conventions of genre, narrative and theatre itself, drawing influence not just from drama but from dance, performance art, music culture and popular forms such as cabaret and stand-up. Their focus on creating an innovative theatre which addresses contemporary experience, issues and questions in a language born out of the times, has also grown organically to include gallery installations, site-specific pieces, books, photographic works and videos. www.forcedentertainment.com | @ForcedEnts

Photo Credit: Hugo Glendinning

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