The festival’s playful slogan is: “The original 3D experience”. But it also describes the kind of theatre on show here, based upon a high quality of acting, innovative staging and relevant subjects. This year, ten full performances and five in-development rehearsal readings are telling us stories in a different and imaginative way.

It’s the place to go for theatre in Manchester, not least because first-time writers often début here before getting longer bookings at bigger venues later on in the year. There’s likely to be plenty of future stars to look out for. Here’s my choice of the most interesting plays:

Make Believe is an imaginative piece of work, talking about the difficulties of growing up and saying good bye to an exciting childhood world. The actors will make you laugh and dream all the way through, allowing the audience to share the imaginary world they create.

Reeling is a meeting between the past and the present, presenting an interesting point of view about how the present can change when we rediscover the past. The acting is convincing and the writer does well to take us into the past through their words.

The inconsistent whisper of insanity is a story related in different times. It’s an original way of telling a familiar story, of love in war times. The plot and the staging are, however, brilliant.

Fading Hum is a story about family reconciliation which, if not particularly complex, features stand out performances from talented young actors.

Bluest Blue covers a meeting between different worlds and is about first and second impressions; the gap between appearances and reality. Definitely worth at least one watch.

See here for more information about the plays.

See here for reviews, comments and actor diaries.

Photo credit: Neale Myers

Contacting the World was born in a coffee shop in New Delhi. Founder Noel Greig dreamt of a global theatre project, able to bring young people around the world together to share ideas and produce new work. In 2002, his dream became reality.

This year, the biennial festival runs 19-26 July and is already demonstrating powerful creativity, with thirteen international companies offering innovative ideas. Performances, workshops, forums and debates are transforming Manchester into an exiting, international theatre meeting point.

Virginia Fernandez: Do you ‘Contacting the World’ to be about more than a theatre festival?

Babba Isreal: It’s much more. It’s about culture exchange and creating a kind of global dialogue through young people in a very significant way. It is also about building relationships. From January, different theatre companies around the world have been twinned together. For example, this year Manchester company 10p Mix Up was paired with another company from Mumbai, India, called Working title 2.0. Companies have an interaction over many months, online. They share diaries, blogging, videos, photos… things about their lives and their performances.

VF: What can we expect at the festival?

BI: It’s a real mix. The main goal is creating original pieces. For instance, the company from Manchester has created a play called The Lost Lizard, which is a kind of fairy tale. It’s extraordinary as issues they discovered learning about India [have become] questions and ideas about society explored through fairy tale. Then we have the company Cuciotak, from Indonesia, bringing traditional aspects to their work. They are very involved with the traditional Japanese and Indonesian theatre, based in masks and music. Then there’s a group coming from USA, First wave hip hop ensemble, who are combining hip-hop and spoken words with theatre. It’s a real diversity. It’s a kind of traditional and contemporary theatre; we have some many different interpretations about theatre.

VF: Do you think that theatre is able to speak a universal language?

BI: Definitely. Theatre is a reflection of human experiences. We find the things that make us human: emotions, stories, conflicts, love, struggles, imagination, explorations; everything from the real and the surreal. Theatre gives us a place where we can interpret our experiences as people. It’s one of the ways that communities come together and understand each other. Theatre has been used to set or change social values. It’s very universal because you have a lot of share languages in music, movement…

VF: Can Manchester transform into a ‘theatre city’?

BI: I think there’s always been a strong tradition of theatre in Manchester, with great diversity. From the Royal Exchange to the Green Room, to Contact, to the Library Theatre, to the Festival 24:7… people are starting to learn about these and other festivals, which have been happening for a long time. The main thing is how to improve awareness in Manchester. The real challenge is how to spread to the world about the energy delivered in the festival’s project.

VF: From the work already performed, it seems that exploring the work shown at Contacting the World is a good place to start.

For more information, visit: http://www.contactingtheworld.org/

Set in a Salford tower block, the story follows Ronnie and Bridgette who, for the sake of their now terminally ill daughter, have moved back into the flat she grew up in. Shortly after moving in, they find their neighbours Paula and Otis are not entirely as they first seem.

Overall, the small cast give accomplished performances. John Henshaw (Looking for Eric) offers a particularly convincing father and husband dealing with the impending loss of his daughter. Janice Connolly, a mainstay of the Manchester comedy circuit, plays Bridgette. Her characterisation is robust but at points veers towards the farcical.

Sally Carmen (Shameless) gets the most laughs and her energy often carries the action, although she never quite manages to shake off her Channel 4 alter-ego. Otis, played by James Foster, is a likeable character but certain motifs begin to grate with repetition and seem slightly patronising of the working class male he attempts to typify. Perhaps here the casting is slightly off, as a younger actor would have been more believable.

The script is sharp, however; well paced with some genuine laughs intercut with touchingly true scenes in which the central characters attempt to relate through their incompatible ways of dealing with grief. The various layers and themes add gravity to the off-stage death of the daughter.

Yet a major problem with the play is that it is simply too hard to see how the idea of the Egyptian “beautiful house” – where embalmed organs are kept for use in the afterlife – connects with the struggles of a family trying to get onto the housing ladder.

The mood swings wildly from comedy to grief in the second half  and the audience is left wondering when they should be laughing. While this may be a comment on our reaction to loss, from the perspective of the audience it is jarring.

The play is still worth watching and for theatre-goers especially it is interesting to see the talents emerging from the fringe scene.

Samantha Bradley

Beautiful House is at The Library Theatre until 8 May.
Tickets cost £11-13, concessions available.

The show is based upon Sissay’s own experiences growing up as the only black person in a totally white Lancashire town. Adopted at a young age and then given up to the care system again at the age of eleven by his God-fearing foster family, the poet went on to stay at five care homes in seven years. Isolated and searching for an identity without any family as reference points, Sissay’s self-exploration centred upon his race.

The show reflects these years of searching and is jam-packed with witty and cringe-worthy observations and impersonations of British life. Sissay’s characters are spot-on, from the macho lager-lout who props up the bar proclaiming, “If there’s one thing I don’t want to talk about it’s racism” to the nosey old-lady on the bus pointedly asking, “…and where are you from?”

Sissay’s poetic use of language is engaging and the subject matter often whirls off on unexpected but pleasing tangents. The performance style is dramatic yet his energetic bounds across the stage, though appropriate to the dialogue, occasionally reminded me of an over-keen teacher at a school drama workshop. At times, it was clear Sissay was struggling, stumbling over words and seeming slightly distracted. Though the language is disjointed by nature, his mistakes were noticeable, though not disastrous. He has a truly creative mind and is so at home on the stage that he managed to just get away with any fumbles. The question and answer session after the show was a much-needed round-up to the performance and gave some interesting background to his story. And fair play to Sissay, who wholeheartedly admitted and apologised for the mistakes he made, he even offered to pay for twenty tickets to the next evening’s show.

After, a friend asked me, “Does Lemn say anything new about race?” Well, no. But then again he never said he was going to. Sissay, as the title of the piece suggests, simply offers up a personal account of a life spent tackling race and the self. Ultimately, the show is light-hearted and peppered with humorous moments but seems to lack a certain, expected depth.

Rachel Jackson

Why I Don’t Hate White People played at Contact Theatre, 18 – 20 March 2010.

Matthew Dunster’s production, receiving its world premier in Manchester, is too long. While the build up to the pre-interval capture is slow paced it at least has a sense of purpose, painting a detailed picture of Winston Smith and the world he inhabits. The extended, single location torture scene that fills most of the second half is however unnecessarily drawn out.

It may be that the director assumes 2010 audiences are desensitised to images of pain and suffering. Yet the power of the electric shock tactics used here only diminishes as they are reiterated. The emphasis also serves to stress the horror of physical torture beyond that of an entirely captive existence, which is a disservice to the source material.

It is a shame because there are impressive elements elsewhere in the production. Although the era has not been updated, the remembered past feels familiar and, through Winston’s eyes, achingly tangible. Jonathan McGuinness’ Winston stands out in a cast that is impressive throughout, with many actors switching between multiple complex roles. The only weak link is  Julia (Caroline Bartleet), who is suitably snobbish at first but soon seems out of her depth. Her final lines are delivered with such little gravitas they almost loose meaning. Stylised sex scenes also miss the mark: these unusually free and expressive lovers should not engage in repetitive sex.

The staging is successfully ambitious, adapting the Exchange’s round into a channel through which scenes roll on and off. The action is always shifting and with military precision: prop changes are performed in uniform timing and dress. Another masterstroke of staging sinks the ground and lowers the ceiling to create a stark, clinical cell centre stage for act II.

In 2010, “room 101” is guarded by celebrity comedians. The general population seems quite comfortable with the government’s enemies changing names overnight. We are watching Big Brother. Yet 1984 remains an important work that packs considerable punches, regardless of this production’s shortcomings. If that is the strongest recommendation, the cost of the ticket may be better spent on a copy of the book.

Siobhan McGuirk

1984 is at The Royal Exchange Theatre until 27 March

Dubstar, a.k.a. Jamal (Tachia Newall), is the arrogant hard boy of the estate and haunted by Ghost Boy, a local teenager who has been stabbed to death. Meanwhile, Dennis (Everal A. Walsh), another resident of the estate, is disillusioned with the level of crime around him. He decides to take the law into his own hands by dressing up as Flyman, a superhero responsible for clamping down on youth crime. The two characters repeatedly clash and eventually form an unlikely bond which unravels a secret that has serious consequences for both of them.

This is not piece of conventional theatre. For the audience there is no sitting back comfortably in the shadows: the house lights come up regularly for crowd participation and at times it feels more like a gig than a play. Dubstep, soul, reggage, and rap, among many other styles of music and dance, feature highly. However, it is the beatboxer, Hobbit, who steals the show. He not only provides the backing track to Jamal and Dennis’s musical numbers but also provides every sound affect. From doors slamming shut and pencils sketching to spliffs being sparked up and burnt down, every noise that comes out of the microphone is eerily believable.

Hobbit, with his cellist accompanist, is a permanent fixture on the stage. With the assistance of an eight-track to loop and layer their sound, the musical effects are pieced together in front of the audience; something which consistently proves more interesting than the scenes being acted out along side. There are both funny and gritty moments but, at over two and a half hours long, Ghost Boy is in need of an editor.

As the play drags on, all the punch brought to the stage by the beat boxing, puppetry and rapped lyrics is unfortunately lost in a succession of over-deliberated and over-explained scenes. The play is far too focused on the developing relationship between Jamal and Dennis to keep the momentum going. Despite the musical variety show put on for them, there are simply not enough characters or dimensions to the plot to keep the audience engaged throughout.

Lula Boardman

Ghost Boy is at Contact Theatre at 8pm every night until Saturday 13 March

We are welcomed into a seedy underworld of backstreet, high-stakes Scrabble, lorded over by Harry, who bakes scones and garrottes cheaters with his tile rack. On the encouragement of his loyal cohort Scroupier, he invites Triple Word, Blank Slate and Tyler Bourbon to a match to end all matches, proving once and for all who is king of the board.

The plotting, drawing heavily on cinematic conventions such as flashbacks and replayed scenes, is tight, aided by a clever set design that seamlessly integrates video elements. The audience is always aware of the two – or more – sides to each scene. As with all classic gangster tales, a character’s perception of what is going on is usually mistaken. A double, or triple-cross, is never far away.

A Night on the Tiles is the first full-scale performance from Pen-ultimate, a company of MCs, spoken word artists and performance poets which emerged out of the prestigious Contact Young Actors Company. The cast, who collaboratively wrote the play, have crafted a rhyming, word juggling script. It is the creative highlight of the piece, drifting between erudite in-jokes and bolshie slang without jarring the pace at any point.

The slickness of the script is undone at times, however, when overemphasis is placed on winks to the audience. These work for the most part, and get laughs, but off-stage hands thrusting through curtains to hold out props seem unnecessarily amateurish. It is only a slight gripe with an otherwise inventive play with blistering verbal performances throughout. On this evidence there will be much more to come from Pen-ultimate.

Siobhan McGuirk

A Night on the Tiles is at Contact Theatre, Oxford Road until Saturday 13 February

The story opens with head of the family Lena Younger deciding how to spend the $10,000 life insurance premium received after the death of her husband. Her son Walter dreams of using the money as a step towards being a rich and successful businessman. His sister Beneatha, intoxicated with the ideas of Pan-Africanism, dreams of medical school.

As well as conflicts over money and the inter-generational tensions emerging through the changing status of black people in fifties America, the Youngers also encounter racism and misfortune outside of the house. A Raisin in the Sun asks difficult questions surrounding the American Dream; its truthfulness and accessibility, particularly for the Afro-American community. They are as resonant now as ever.

The local cast includes Coronation Street actor Ray Fearon as Walter Younger and 14 year-old Damani Holness of Loreto High School playing Travis, Walters’ youngest son. The rousing standing ovation at the end of the play only emphasised the quality of the acting and complemented the lasting power of a script half-a-century old.

The play has twice been made into a film, one including Sean “P Diddy” Combs, and the original, 1961 film version was selected for preservation by the United States of America National Film Library. In 2000 A Raisin in the Sun was chosen by playwrights, critics, actors and directors as one of the top 100 plays of the twentieth century.

The title is taken from a poem by Langston Hughes called Harlem. “What happens to a dream deferred? / Does it dry up / Like a raisin in the sun? . . . Or does it explode?”

Indeed, the painful, drawn out explosion of Walter’s stifled dreams of financial success, fuelled by masculine pride, is a key facet of the play’s momentum. Yet it is the conflicts between dreams and how they are resolved, against a background of poverty and racial prejudice, which provides this performance with all its emotional power.

Ben Lear

Raisin in the Sun is at the Royal Exchange until the 20th of February.

27 January 2010

No Wonder is the examination of a family disturbed by tragedy. The plot is littered with would-be fairy-tale circumstances; a young boy bursts out of what could be a magical cupboard and his father, dressed as Peter-Pan, appears to fall out of a window. There are no ‘happy ever after’ solutions in this play, however: the cupboard is not magical and Peter-Pan does not think happy thoughts, nor fly back from adversity. The man dressed as the boy who never grew up instead crashes to the cold, hard ground and into a coma.

The story is relayed through two monologues as mother and son explore their reactions with strikingly surreal imagery and twisting, convoluted sentences. Pigeons become night-club bouncers, eyes become glazed and the ‘Forcelator’ rollercoaster ride is described in intricate detail. Most interestingly, the two characters never enter in to dialogue, remaining isolated in their worlds and each see-sawing between hope and desperation. Edward Franklin’s portray of Luke as a bright-eyed, hyperactive and enchantingly naïve son is outstanding. The at times complex language might have proved unconvincing and confused, coming from a young child, yet here the delivery is sensitive and engaging.

The set is appropriately stark and unobtrusive. Skewed strip lighting hangs hopelessly over an empty hospital bed centre-stage. Clair Urwin’s play is dark, depressing and real, and the memorable performances and slick direction complement the somber mood. No one will leave the theatre with a proverbial ‘spring in their step’ but they will be moved all the same. This is powerful stuff.

Rachel Jackson

The Re:Play Festival runs until Saturday 6th February. See here for more details.

Band on the Wall and The Contact Theatre are both holding events in aid of the millions of people living in the poorest country in the Western hemisphere whose lives have been devastated by last weeks 7.0 magnitude earthquake. Substantial humanitarian assistance will be required to ensure survivors get food, clean water, emergency shelter, medical care and other support.

On Friday night Band on The Wall hosts Dance for Haiti, where artists including Zero 7, The Unabombers and Bullion will be playing free of charge. The technical and production staff for each act have also offered their services without pay, as have the businesses involved in printing and distributing publicity for the event. Every penny raised will go to the DEC.

Contact is following similar suit and will also donate 100 per cent of the proceeds from their event to the appeal. Uprising, a night of theatre, music and spoken word, takes place on Saturday evening. Artistic Director Baba Israel has lined up performers from across the range of Contact’s regular nights and broad network and will co-host the evening with hip-hop starts Ty and Benji Reid.

Friday 29th Jan, 10pm-3am: Dance for Haiti at Band on the Wall. Minimum donation £4 advance; £5 on the door.

Saturday 30th Jan,  8pm: Uprising at Contact Theatre. £5.