HOME Manchester’s new spring and summer season features new commissions, world and UK premieres, new interpretations of cult classics and returning artists.
First up is Jumbie (March 23-26), from Black queer ensemble Dudaan, an interdisciplinary performance created by a Black queer ensemble, rooted in the history and culture of Montserrat. The Jumbie dance calls on the spirits of the dead to cure illness, solve personal problems and redress social injustice. Jumbie revives the traditional dance from a contemporary queer perspective.
March 29–April 23 brings a HOME and Les Enfants Terribles production, The House with Chicken Legs.
Sophie Anderson's best-selling story is adapted by Oliver Lansley for nine year olds and over and tells the tale of Marinka, who dreams of a normal life with friends in one place – but lives in a house with chicken legs, which moves on without warning.
Les Enfants Terribles take to the HOME stage a decade after their last show, to celebrate their 20th anniversary.
A HOME and Leeds Playhouse co-production of the musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch arrives on the HOME main stage on April 27 (until May 11), offering a rock ‘n’ roll rollercoaster with singer Hedwig – a hedonistic, self-destructive genderqueer anti-heroine with a live band, rock-inspired music and hard-hitting lyrics, starring Manchester-based drag queen and songstress Divina De Campo (right).
RashDash and HOME get together in a co-production commissioned by Soho Theatre, Tobacco Factory Theatres and MAYK, Oh Mother (May 11-28, left). Following their award winning Three Sisters, RashDash - and their mums - explore having and becoming mothers. The project was due to go into rehearsal on the first day of the first lockdown – but since then, core company members Helen Goalen, Abbi Greenland and Becky Wilkie have all had babies...
Another co-production, this time between Northern Stage, Leeds Playhouse, Birmingham Rep and Soho Theatre, in association with HOME Manchester, runs May 18-21. The White Card is a UK and European premiere of Claudia Rankine's first published play, which asks if society can progress when "whiteness" remains invisible?
Written in 2019, before the murder of George Floyd and Black Lives Matter, the drama sees a wealthy, privileged white couple invite a talented Black artist to dinner. But tensions run high and a heated debate uncovers some uncomfortable truths about white privilege that can’t be ignored.
Hofesh Shechter's often thrilling choreography returns to HOME from June 22-25 in Double Murder (pictured below).
The Hofesh Shechter Company features in a new double bill of dance works, Clowns and The Fix. Clowns unleashes a whirlwind of poisonous anarchy while his latest piece, The Fix, has a fragile energy.
Finally in July (1-2) comes a HOME and Eclipse commission, Vice Versa, a mix of performance and theatre that sees a passive young woman in a bleak, dystopian society become an active voice for change and freedom.” The one-woman show combines 3D sound-design and story telling.
“I’m delighted to be announcing such an exciting programme of contemporary theatre for 2022," said HOME's director and CEO, Dave Moutrey.
“Presenting a season of such high-quality co-commissions and co-productions is a true reflection of HOME’s approach to collaboration.
“There is a huge diversity of work across the programme, which gives us the opportunity to welcome a wide range of audiences to HOME to be entertained and to reflect."