Invisible Cities a world premiere of a spellbinding mix of theatre, music, design and digital production, The Anvil, an elegy for Peterloo, the Nico Project with Maxine Peake and Philip Glass and Phelim McDermott’s Tao of Glass.
Those are just some of the events announced today as part of this year’s Manchester International Festival.
The organisers had previously announced world premieres from Yoko Ono, Idris Elba and Kwame Kwei-Armah, Skepta and a special open-air event with Janelle Monáe in the Castlefield Bowl on the opening night.
The Anvil will mark the 200th anniversary of the Peterloo Massacre with a day of street performance and a world-premiere of music at Bridgewater Hall , performed by BBC Philharmonic & choirs.
Maxine Peake’s Nico Project meanwhile is inspired by one of pop culture’s most enigmatic figures,Nico,from her 1967 debut with The Velvet Underground to her premature death just two decades later.
The Nico Project is inspired by her stark, bleak and beautiful 1968 album The Marble Index. Ignored on its original release, the album is now rightly regarded as one of the defining masterpieces of 1960s counterculture. With text by award-winning playwright EV Crowe and music by acclaimed composer Anna Clyne, The Nico Project brings us closer to the ghosts that haunted Nico and the devastating past that shaped her, and celebrates the potency of female creativity in a field dominated by men.
Maggie the Cat is the captivating focus of Tennessee Williams’ Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Acclaimed choreographer Trajal Harrell places Maggie centre stage in his magnetic new dance work, a dazzling and provocative fusion of high art and pop culture that premieres
The iconic David Lynch will take over Home for the duration of the festival. Featuring art, film, music and more, this season of events is an opportunity to immerse yourself in the world of the pioneering American artist, musician and director.
Parliament of Ghosts will be a new major installation at the Whitworth Art which reflects on the half-forgotten history of creator, Ibrahim Mahama’s home country: Ghana, whose journey from British colony to independent nation was completed barely 60 years ago.
Utopolis Manchester is a visionary new work created by Rimini Protokoll which will take audiences on an extrodinary journey and transform their view of the city as we discover the people and places that create Manchester’s daily life.
The Halle Orchestra will present Leningrad at The Bridgewater Hall, giving a rare opportunity to get close to the genesis of a new major artwork, and experience a towering landmark in modern music: Shostakovich’s ‘Leningrad’ Symphony.
Tuesday by Studio Orka will be a magical and moving show about the people, places and experiences that makes our journey through life unique, beautifully staged in a grade I-listed Victorian church with professional actors, local schoolchildren and community choir
Karl Hyde is back with the Manchester Street Poem team – “there is no them and us, only us.”
MIF 2019 will take place across a number of Manchester locations, running from July 4-21. For more information, head here.
