Innovative performance festival Future Flares returns to Manchester Metropolitan University for its third year from Wednesday (January 22-24), with a programme of politically engaged performances, high-impact talks and engaging workshops.
Taking place at Manchester Met’s Grosvenor East Theatre and neighbouring performance spaces, the festival features work from radical performance makers from across the UK, alongside pieces by leading artists and researchers based at Manchester Met.
Featured performances include:
Get Off, a forceful look at desire by self-proclaimed hedonist and queer performance artist, Katy Baird; V
Vigil, created by Herald Angel award-winning company Mechanimal, a one-man performance from Tom Bailey that blends movement, poetry, a soundscape, a human and 26,000 other species to create an exploration of life in an age of extinction;
Deluge, by Gabriela Flarys and Andrea Maciel, a magic realist spin on dealing with and overcoming grief, and a new, 30 minute set by Leeds-based dance artist Lewys Holt, which fuses dance, stand-up, theatre, and song into a 30-minute exploration of the passage of time, guilt, Duracell bunnies, bus timetables and existential philosophy.
There will also be panel discussions featuring leading voices in the world of performance, including members of Arts Council England, the Lowry and Contact Theatre, which will discuss some of the most burning issues across the industry, from sustainability in theatre to the social impact of performance. Workshops will also delve into a wide range of creative practices and unique approaches to performance.
Future Flares is presented jointly by Manchester School of Theatre, Manchester School of Art and AHEAD.
The majority of performances, open to all, are free but ticketed.
Full programme and all ticket information here.