I’ve met Nishla Smith before. More coincidentally it is in the exact place that I’ve encountered her majestic voice doing the same festival. Smith is back, once more taking her place in HOME Manchester’s much vaunted PUSH Festival. This time round its another personal retelling, in What Happened to Agnes, she recounts a family secret, through song and animation and her own unique way of telling a simple story.
Tania Camara doesn’t utter a single word. Not one. Instead for the whole hour of the production of Oreo, she gives a tour de force of a performance in captivating the audience to her every whim. Oreo is part of HOME Manchester’s now established PUSH Festival, which not only showcases the best the region has to offer but in my humble opinion, brings a little bit of sunshine in this bleakest of months.
We’re kicking off 2020 with a powerful thought provoking production from Royal Exchange Theatre. Cuttin’ It is a story of FGM and the issues this complex and often controversial topic seems to raise. This is also a story of displaced communities and – at the heart of it that aged old tale – of teenagers just growing up and coming to terms with their place in this world.
Who doesn’t love a festive edition of their favourite show with their favourite characters? I recall that it used to be the staple of british television to put out their star shows in the festive season. Of course that medium is television and not the world of theatredom, where the seasonal offerings are your usual fare of pantomimes and other feel good shows. Nevertheless, HOME Manchester have decided to bring back a festive edition of Monkeywood’s Manchester Project, with surprising results.
Halfway through Forced Entertainment’s current offering, Out Of Order, which is currently playing out to enthralled audiences at HOME Manchester, I started to wonder what the collective noun for clowns was. I was hoping it would be just that eclectic to be an eyebrow raising conversational starter. Like a murder of crows. I was secretly hoping it be something like a parliament of clowns and in doing so the allegory that Forced Entertainment wish to bestow upon those watching Out Of Order will have come full circle.