Exhibition review: ‘The Walls are Talking’
Currently on show at The Whitworth Art Gallery is an exhibition about a medium which is not usually at the centre of attention: wallpaper. But with themes as diverse as home, identity, war and gender – as well as one startling room covered entirely in ivy – the prints displayed are far from the image [...]
Open your mind…
On Friday 13 August the recently revamped Earth Cafe will be hosting an exciting new event called OpenMind that fuses the devising process of theatre with light hearted discussion, providing an open space to share ideas.
Theatre: 24:7 festival round up
The 24:7 Theatre Festival runs until 1 August, showing an impressive range of fresh and young performances at the New Century House in Manchester. The plays are all short – catching the viewers’ attention for just an hour but making them want to come back for more. It’s the perfect way to spend the weekend, [...]
Theatre Festival: Contacting the World
Manchester’s Contact Theatre is hosting Contacting the World, an international festival of theatrical arts, until 26 July. Virginia Fernandez spoke to the theatre’s Artistic Director, Baba Israel, about the project.
Interview with David Slack, Director of the 24 :7 Theatre Festival
The stage is being readied in New Century House to celebrate the next 24 :7 Theatre Festival, taking place between July 26 and August 1. Ten scripts will battle it out for first prize at this years competition.
Art Review: Out of Time
At Castlefield Gallery, the artist, David Osbaldeston links public acceptance of the media with theatre audiences’ suspension of belief by incorporating philosophical lines from Luigi Pirandello’s play, Six Characters in Search of an Author with photographs of newsworthy events. Kirsten Ferrari reviews.
Ongoing: Queer Up North Arts Festival
Over the past ten days Queer Up North International Arts Festival has brought an impressive and challenging array of events to the city. Now in its 18th year, it is serving to highlight the failings of Manchester Pride and Manchester International Festival both to push political and artistic boundaries while being broadly accessible.
Art Review: Contemporary Art Iraq
The decline of traditional culture, the position of women and perceptions of Iraqis in the wider world are amongst the themes cross-cutting the Contemporary Art Iraq exhibition, at Cornerhouse until 20 June. Sarah Irving reports.
Film Preview: Kinofilm Festival
Kinofilm, Manchester’s long-running short film festival, returns this week after a three year absence, renamed as the to-the-point Kinofilm Manchester European Short Film Festival. Screenings take place Tuesday 27 April – Sunday 2 May at the AMC Cinema, alongside educational events, discussions and debates.
Theatre Review: Beautiful House
Few plays will try to marry the themes of ancient Egyptian mummification with the hostility of the housing market against a backdrop of terminal illness. Yet Beautiful House, the first theatre commission for Manchester-based playwright Cathy Crabb, shoehorns these vastly disparate ideas into a puzzlingly funny play.
Ongoing Festival: I Bike MCR
For the fourth consecutive year the month long I Bike MCR festival is underway. Whoever said bikes were for boys obviously hadn’t foreseen the feminist undertone to this year’s line-up…
Theatre Review: Why I Don’t Hate White People
The magnetic Lemn Sissay takes his audience on a journey that twists, turns and tramps across issues of race, political correctness and identity. In this solo show, the poet’s first for two years, Sissay assumes different characters so seamlessly that, at times, it feel as though there is a full cast on stage.
Art Review: Women Like You
If Emmeline Pankhurst were alive today, I wonder if she would be able to believe that her portrait was hanging in Manchester Art Gallery. It was to our very own city art gallery that Emmeline and her fellow suffragettes went, to smash the glass covering the artworks (amusingly, and sensibly, with little toffee hammers so as [...]
Chorlton’s Big Green Festival on this Saturday
Chorlton’s annual Big Green Festival takes place this Saturday, 27 March 11am -11pm.
Theatre Review: 1984
George Orwell’s 1948 masterpiece novel has been adapted for stage and screen countless times. Despite the now-past title date, his portrayal of a dystopian, near-future world has a timeless resonance. Yet, in the case of the Royal Exchange’s latest production, the play suffers from being too-well known. Here, its familiar motifs are over-indulged.
Film Review: Dirty Oil
On Monday 15 March, the world premiere of Leslie Lwerk’s new film Dirty Oil screened simultaneously at 24 cinema’s across the United Kingdom. The venues were connected via satellite connection so that viewers could participate in an interactive panel discussion by sending in text messages to the director and activists involved in the campaign. The [...]
Free to Party in Manchester?
Manchester’s music scene does not start and end at the doors of its bars and clubs. Beyond the bright lights of the city and a million miles away from the overly policed Warehouse Project and bland commercialism of Deansgate Locks exists a vibrant, authentic alternative.
Film Review: Green Zone
Director Paul Greengrass here returns to the successful formula of his two Bourne films, with Matt Damon playing a highly-trained US soldier, cut loose by a spy network at war with itself. In Green Zone however, the plot and action scenes both fall flat.
Making it on the DIY Music Scene
Rachael Neiman is currently studying for a PhD in English and American Studies at Manchester University, on the topic of DIY music. She also runs a small record label, hosts a monthly radio show on internet station Dandelion Radio and puts on the occasional gig. Here she tells MULE about her own DIY experiences.