The South Warehouse at Aviva Studios transformed into an immersive, in-the-round venue for this late night takeover by Surround Sounds. Moody industrial ceilings, balconies for pop up performances and a circular stage for live music ensured a layout that invited movement and spontaneity.
The lineup was an eclectic curation with sets from cult Manchester band WU LYF (making a rare live return), North London’s Lex Amor, and a b2b DJ session by AFRODEUTSCHE with Jamz Supernova anchored the night. Rising talents like Reisner, Adisa Allen, Sophia Dignam (bringing jazz‑soul‑electronic fusion vibes), Che3kz, Jali Nyonkoling Kuyateh, plus collective walkabouts by Ghetto Fabulous, Club Clam, The Fvck Pigs, Banksie, and Coco Cannell ensured genre-blurring, high-energy variety.
The shift to an in-the-round stage helped cultivate a sense of communal celebration with the audience more a part of the perfomance than traditional music staging often allows for. There was no break in the momentum with live sets and DJ sets ensuring the programming unfolded like a continuous rave‑meets‑festival carousel, pulling you through waves of alt‑rock, rap, jazz‑infused textures, hard‑hitting bass, and art‑club mashups.
Surround Sounds was an electrifying fusion of Manchester’s independent spirit within a slick, warehouse‑scale space. It stayed true to Sounds From the Other City’s rebellious roots while embracing bold musical and spatial experimentation. A night built on energy, inclusivity, and audacious creativity—a fitting celebration of 20 years of underground culture.
A Symphony of Flesh and Bones. MIF25 Image credit: Juliet Ellis
Devised by Juliet Ellis
South Warehouse, Aviva Studios
Juliet Ellis delivers a deeply meditative and heartfelt work in ASymphonyofFleshandBones, in which she explores Buddhist philosophy alongside her use of film to question what it means to inhabit a body. Ellis uses photography and film of her father, a former bodybuilder, and her brother, a retired cage fighter to bring authenticity and tenderness to themes of masculinity, aging, and familial legacy.
Both intensely personal and universally resonant, this is a work whose impact lingers as beautiful images in a highly impactful setting. The images are striking and beautifully composed. The multi-screen layout mirrors a mandala’s visual symmetry, ephemeral, interwoven, and spiritually resonant. The blue-toned imagery evokes Buddhist symbolism of infinitude. The layers of screens that surround all four sides of the space adds to their impact and makes for a beautiful installation.
This is however where this production becomes frustrating and unsatisfactory. There is a slightness to the spoken element of this piece which is not helped by Ellis just reading out her thoughts from a printed document. The piece runs at 90 minutes and therefore the images on screen often linger for longer than needed and the pacing tends to drag. The staging and lighting are beautifully conceived but ultimately this piece feels confused, sitting somewhere between a TED talk with high production values and an art installation you feel obliged to observe at the artists’ pace. It’s a real shame as this would have worked brilliantly as a durational piece running on a loop with a recording of the artists’ thoughts playing with the audience being able to move around the space or lie on the floor just looking up at the screens.
Ed Wood as George and Jonathan Goddard as Jim in A Single Man at AVIVA Studios Credit: Johan Persson
Based on the novella by Christopher Isherwood
Directed by Jonathan Watkins
The Hall,AVIVA STUDIOS
⭐⭐⭐⭐
Jonathan Watkins’ new ballet adaptation of Christopher Isherwood’sA Single Man unveils itself as a quietly potent exploration of grief, love, and queer identity. The creative gamble of splitting the portrayal of George, physically through Ed Watson’s danced embodiment and emotionally through John Grant’s live voice pays off beautifully. It’s a collaboration that refuses the easy path, forging a live multilayered dialogue between body and soul.
Ed Watson, formerly of the Royal Ballet, brings raw emotionality and a life-worn authenticity to George’s every gesture. His performance pulses with the contradiction of restraint and release: disciplined form that fractures under the weight of loss, yet never becomes self-indulgent. When he moves, there is a tangible, visceral pull of emotional snapshots of his dead lover Jim. There is a touching beauty in his connection to his lost lover that is delicately but powerfully conveyed. Momentswhentheensemblepeel his lover from his arms feel like the palpable wrench known to anyone who has loved and lost.
John Grant’s original songs, composed with Jasmin Kent Rodgman and performed live by the Manchester Collective linger around the edges of the set like memories that refuse to be tucked away. His lyrics map out George’s interior life: moments of tender self-awareness, bitter regret, and the faint glimmer of hope. This duality between the seen and unseen, the spoken and unsaid gives the piece a rare emotional depth. There are however points in the lyrics where they move too much toward exposition of the original text as if not quite trusting the dancers and the audience to fully grasp the narrative.
John Grant in A Single Man Credit: Johan Persson
The choreography, directed by Watkins with visionary care, balances the elegance of classical ballet with a contemporary urgency. Flashbacks, abstracted movements, and physical abstractions of inner pain are choreographed with a poet’s intuition. They evoke the 1960s California while remaining rooted in George’s emotional landscape as a gay man who must mourn his lover and navigate his grief in private as a love that dare not speak its mind.
Visually, the production is a lavish and intimate feast. Oscar-winner Holly Waddington’s costumes are very 1960s and use colour to real effect. Splashes of red for Charley and Kenny are a nod to the red of lifeblood and passion. The bodysuits the ensemble cast frequently strip down to are waxy pale and marbled in the muted colours of decomposition. Chiara Stephenson’s sculptural set combines stylized restraint with emotional resonance. The ash grey construct of a sprues containing everything required to function in daily life subtly alludes to George’s attempt to mask and try to play at normality. The screens that reappear mimic a vortex and serve well to mark out the segments when George retreats into his memories. The play of light and form enacts the interplay of memory and reality, and the staging honours George’s solitude while also embracing the small, human moments that break through despair.
In the context of MIF’s wider “Dream Differently” programme for 2025 which champions hybridity and emotional complexity then ASingleMan stands out as a highlight. It is less a huge spectacle than a subtle, achingly human meditation on loss. The final moments feel hopeful and redemptive. Perhaps we can all do well to hold a sense of possibility that the pain of grief can be redemptive and like kintsugi pottery we can be broken and yet emerge stronger.
Concept, Direction, Photography, Text and Performance by Benji Reid
AVIVA STUDIOS, WAREHOUSE ONE
Finding the Sublime in the Click of a Shutter: Benji Reid’s FIND YOUR EYES
There are some performances that ask for your attention,here Benji Reid’s FINDYOUREYES does not ask, it commands it. From the first subtle toll of a bell to the final, well-earned ovation, Reid’s self-described Choreo-Photolist offering doesn’t just hold your gaze; it re-engineers it.
Originally commissioned for Manchester International Festival in 2023, it’s a thrill to see a local artist not just holding their own, but unequivocally owning the space as they return to their home city via touring the production to New York.
Reid, once a pioneer in the UK hip hop dance scene, now an alchemist of light and movement—merges dance, photography, and narrative with surgical finesse. This isn’t just interdisciplinary work. This is interdimensional. The camera, usually an archive tool, here becomes a conjuring device. Images are captured live and appear like magic on giant screens. Reid is a silent sorcerer revealing pages of his spellbook in real time.
The genius of FINDYOUREYES lies in its transparency. Reid doesn’t conceal the trick; he hands you the wand. You see the fans, the foil, the flashes. You hear the barely-there click of the shutter. It’s not illusion, it’s transfiguration. We witness the banal become beautiful: a charging cable turned cyborg crown; a pole dancer becoming a mythic creature caught mid-flight. You don’t just observe the process, you are implicated in it.
Three performers Slate Hemedi, Salomé Pressac, and Zuzanna Kijanowska channel their bodies with a poise that feels both disciplined and transcendent. Hemedi and Pressac unfold themselves like origami, their precision so intimate it feels voyeuristic. Zuzanna Kijanowska seems more phoenix than pole artist as she defies gravity and expectation. These aren’t performances, they are revelations.
The set design by Ti Green deserves a standing ovation of its own: minimalist but mutative, each act unfolding new dimensions, as though the stage itself is evolving in step with the emotional tenor of the work.
The piece is not without pain. It speaks of loss sometimes in whispers, sometimes in shouts of grief, trauma, and the complicated legacy of Black masculinity. Reid’s monologues, stitched with poetic brevity, touch on family wounds, suicidal ideation, and the tender devastation of caring for an ailing parent. It is brave work, and yet never self-indulgent. Under the deft dramaturgy of Keisha Thompson, the deeply personal becomes piercingly universal.
But perhaps the most moving part of FINDYOUREYES is its reverence for ritual. It treats creativity as ceremony: the lighting of a candle, the lifting of a lens, the building of a world. This isn’t dance as performance but more dance as invocation with the camera capturing moments in time. Reid is not merely a choreographer or photographer-but a high priest of fleeting truth.
In one of the final monologues, he offers the question: “It’s not how do you fly, but why?” FINDYOUREYES doesn’t answer that question, instead it invites you to experience the lift-off.
Michael Roberson in WAKE. Image credit: Ruth Medjber
Co-Created and Co-Directed by Jennifer Jennings and Phillip McMahon
Warehouse One, HOMEMCR
Growing up Protestant in rural Northern Ireland I went to a lot of funerals. There were wakes with copious amounts of tea, cake and sandwiches and the odd drop of whisky or sherry. They were mostly restrained quiet affairs where your loss was acknowledged with a solemn handshake, a box of teabags or a tin of ham. I always had a sense that our Catholic neighbours had nailed the wake more as a celebration for the dead with music and booze usually leading to a good cèilidh. Apparently I was right and THISISPOPBABY are on the mainland showcasing the rites of the WAKE but with a few extra bells and whistles. My lovely Dad was seen to the grave with the lilt of bagpipes…as of last night I’m wishing we could redo his send-off with some accordions, the bodhrán and maybe an Irish dancer in a sequined g-string with buttock tassles and possibly a world champion pole dancer if the budget would stretch.
Jennifer Jennings and Phillip McMahon of Dublin based THISISPOPBABY have blended the traditional mourning rites with a high calibre camp burlesque show that includes aerial work, Irish dance, slam poetry, break dancing and pole dancing. The result is anarchic and playful rousing invitation to mourn our dead by celebrating life. The production has had several sell out run in Dublin before heading to Sadlers Wells and now Manchester. The Warehouse space is a ideal setting with a tiered stage for the musicians and the pole dancer whereas the circular second stage has a circus vibe and is used for the dance routines and the aerial work. The audience are seated to 3 sides of the circular stage so the sight lines are excellent.
Balloon dance from Wake. Image credit: Ruth Medjber
THIS IS THE WAKE FOR EVERYONE THAT’S NEVER COMING BACK…
Felispeak is the Irish-Nigerian spoken word artist who weaves a story through the very varied performance styles. Her crisp dry drawl has a laconic charm and there is a real lyricism in her words that is reminiscent of some of our great Irish poets. Some performances burst on stage such as Colombian breakdancer CristianEmmanuel Dirocie or the mind bending balloon dance by American competitive Irish dancer Michael Roberson and THISISPOPBABY stalwart Phillip Connaughton. Others have a gentler intro such as a beautiful aerial routine by Jenny Tuffs or the plaintive voice and accordian of Darren Roche from the band Moxie in the haunting Raglan Road.
The music here is a roller coaster soundtrack that encompasses traditional melodies and modern Irish classics like The Cranberries Ode To My Familydelivered in a gorgeous performance by Emer Dineen. Peppered through these are Bronski Beat Small-town Boy used in a phenomenally confident performance by Michael Roberson. Eurythmics Sweet Dreams sees another striking clubland meets Irish dance while the Peggy Lee classic is rendered unforgettable by a hilariously cheeky performance by Phillip Connaughton.
This is a impressive production bringing together fourteen artists from very varied disciplines and showcases some stunning performances including Venezuelan Lisette Krol, who is a world champion pole dancer and a truly breathtaking performer. Most of all, WAKE is a celebration of how we choose to live while acknowledging death is all around us. In this only possible response is to be open to the joy and accepting of the pain of lost lives that were well lived. This life-affirming production feels like everyone has been on the poitín or Irish moonshine and this is a party for the dead that everyone should join.
CYCLES from BOY BLUE Image credit:- Camilla Greenwell
Concept and Conception Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante
Choreographer Kenrick ‘H20’ Sandy
AVIVA STUDIOS
Eighteen months on from the memorable FREE YOUR MIND which launched AVIVA STUDIOS in 2023 comes CYCLES from company who worked with Danny Boyle. This production from renowned hip hop dance company BOY BLUE sees Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante and Kenrick ‘H20’ Sandy back in the building celebrating hip hop dance as an art form. A dance form that now has a fifty year history which started on the streets of The Bronx but is now studied as an art form that can aid depression, PTSD and those who are visually impaired according to University studies.
CYCLES sees eight dancers showcase hip hop dance in its various forms simply as an expression of sheer energy and exuberance that also celebrates technical ability and tight precision choreography. Ninety minutes of dance that encompasses movement in complete unison and creates space for individual expression. Staged on the huge stage in The Hall there is space for fluidity and freedom as dancers come together or seamlessly break apart with points when one literally run cycles of movement along beamed light that looks like the moving turntable of a club DJ.
BOY BLUE performing CYCLES at AVIVA STUDIOS. Image credit: Camilla Greenwell.
This striking production looks and sounds great. The costumes by Matthew Josephs nail street fashion that looks both edgy and slightly futuristic. In the second half the performers don oversized hoods that dwarf their faces giving an androgynous anonymity and look of street menace. There is a starkness to the staging that puts all the emphasis on the dancers. It is only broken by the impactful lighting design by Lee Curran who creates piercing beams of light like helicopter searchlights. The shafts of lights at times cleverly splinter across the stage using the dancers bodies to direct where the light falls. This works beautifully at times but depending on where you are seated there may be moments that are simply blinding.
Perhaps the most impressive aspect of this production is the fact that the huge Hall at AVIVA STUDIOS was packed out with a diverse and very enthusiastic audience. It can be frustrating and saddening to see some brilliant dance companies play to half empty theatres but thankfully this production celebrating hip hop had no such issues. Hopefully this programming at Factory International will continue to fill the space while also bringing in new audiences.
Maxine Peake in ROBIN/RED/BREAST at AVIVA STUDIOS. Photo credit: Tristram Kenton
Adapted from Robin Redbreast by John Griffith Bowen
Writer Daisy Johnson
Co-Creators Maxine Peake, Sarah Frankcom and Imogen Knight
Director Sarah Frankcom
NORTH WAREHOUSE, AVIVA STUDIOS
ROBIN/RED/BREAST continues the highly successful collaboration between Factory International and Maxine Peake, Sarah Frankcom and Imogen Knight which began in 2013 with The Masque Of Anarchy. Last year’s Manchester International Festival saw Peake in a reading of the dystopian 70’s novel They which further cemented her artistic reputation as an accomplished actress and a beguilingly natural storyteller. This time the artistic team behind the new production company MAAT (Music, Art, Activism and Theatre) re-examine Robin Redbreast which first featured on the BBC in 1970 as part of the iconic Play For Today series. This piece of folk horror is uncomfortably pertinent as women are once again having to fight for their bodily autonomy and the right to make our own reproductive choices.
For any of us who grew up in a rural community there is an absolute normal in the strangeness of folklore and ritual. Cures handed down by the seventh son of a seventh son and sneaked into hospitals by desperate relatives or teenagers spat on and then blessed by a total stranger living in a remote house up the mountain as a cure for chickenpox were not at all unusual…or perhaps my upbringing was not as mundane as I have presumed. The Seventies produced a plethora of folk horror stories focusing on rural rituals especially around fertility and sacrifice which coincided with huge social revolutions for women around contraception and abortion. In this production Norah played by Maxine Peake is an independent woman who feels confident about her own choices regarding relationships, family and career. Choosing to opt out of city life after a relationship breakdown she finds herself alone in a cottage seeped in history where the rustling of mice and the whirr of wasps seem to open up crevices in time through the ancient walls. As we listen on headphones to Norah’s thoughts it is clear her sense of her own identity may be being threatened by sinister elements in the community around her.
Maxine Peake and Tyler Cameron in ROBIN/RED/BREAST at AVIVA STUDIOS. Photo credit: Tristram Kenton
The staging by Lizzie Clachan is stunning in its simplicity. Walking into the cool dimness of the North Warehouse with its huge ceiling, the wooden frame of the cottage nestled on a rich earth floor feels like magically coming across a forest cathedral. All pathways leads toward it and staged in the round with audience on benches it exudes the feeling of a natural amphitheatre. The audience don headphones and are immersed in the sound of birdsong, scuttling mice and the thoughts that come racing through Norah’s mind as loneliness, lust and looming fears begin to creep in like the bindweed that invades the sanctity and safety of her cottage walls. When the febrile dancing abates and the cottage is suddenly ripped away there is nothing left but the dank, rich earth of Mother Nature merging with the prone form of Norah asleep on the forest floor.
The music by Gazelle Twin blends beautifully with the dreamy poetry of writer Daisy Johnson who has also worked on Viola’s Room, the latest immersive production by Punchdrunk. There is a very surreal feel to this production further enhanced by elements such as a female brass band who silently observe Norah and are clad in vivid red and white band uniforms that may evoke a group of Robin Redbreasts yet also a female army who may or may not protect Norah from impending threat. The langorous choreography by Imogen Knight adds to the atmosphere as we observe Norah like a character from a fairytale awaking in this cottage, going about her chores and coupling in the woods with a handsome forester.
Maxine Peake draws in the audience as she moves around her cottage home, suitably vexed as she scrubs menstrual blood from her bedsheets and later perplexed as her contraceptive cup has seemingly vanished. Listening to her flurry of thoughts through headphones makes for a potent connection to the character so when she finally speaks aloud to the audience it feels like we might really know Norah or indeed perhaps Maxine. This could be any woman and that is where the true fear lies…rising like the torrent of water that threatens to wash away homes, hopes and security like a deluge of miscarriage blood or the tumultuous waters that may drown a mother or her child in a flimsy refugee boat.
Peake is at her very best when speaking directly with an urgent softness that evokes inclusion and intimacy. Huddled in a circle on blankets the young women silently listen as she speaks of abortion choices, miscarriage traumas and the brutality of the lottery that occurs everyday in a maternity unit. Women bleed whether they abort, miscarry or give birth. They do not know if they will love unconditionally or struggle to feel anything or veer between fierce love and the overwhelming desire to put him down…whatever that may mean at any one time. In such a lottery of joy and despair it is terrifying enough to be a woman without additionally fearing others may try to enforce their choices and beliefs on us.
THE ACCOUNTANTS at AVIVA STUDIOS Image credit: Tristram Kenton
Director and Set Designer Keith Khan
THE HALL, AVIVA STUDIOS
THE ACCOUNTANTS delves into exploring the contemporary culture of modern China and India by exploding myths and throwing light upon these two vibrant countries who are becoming increasingly prominent in the 21st century. Multi-disciplinary artist Keith Khan is known for his ambitious and dramatic work that explores culture and this deep dive into the cultural worlds of these two superpowers is no exception. This hybrid of dance, sound and video is linked by an intimate thread of very human interaction played out in text and voice notes. The result is a kaleidoscopic journey that crosses continents and vast populations inundated with information from the Internet but culminates in the lasting beauty that is human beings coming together in dance and connecting in a moment where there is no distraction and each one is enough in their own right.
The first half of this ambitious production is quite literally a shock to the senses. The video designers from Manchester based art and design studio idontloveyouanymore once again showcase their imaginative and innovative designs. The vast backdrop to the stage is a projection screen that bombards with numbers, statistics, factual information and images. Either side of the stage are two giant smartphones belonging to the central characters, Liam and his favourite “non auntie” Auntie Kash. He is a young man of British/Chinese heritage visiting China and India in a bid to understand his cultural heritage and discover who he truly is as a person while she is his Mum’s close friend who is of Indian descent but has only ever lived in Britain. Josh Hart and Shobna Gulati are never on stage but their relationship plays out in their messages and voice notes as Liam explores a world where he feels increasingly frustrated at both discovering he is no longer a minority in a country but is also a cultural tourist who cannot speak the language. He quickly discovers the reality of the countries he visits is often very different to what is portrayed on the Internet.
There are two dance companies on stage both making their International debut in Britain. From India comes Terence Lewis Contemporary Dance Company choreographed by Terence Lewis and MahrukhDumasia and from China, Xiexin Dance Theatre choreographed by Xie Xin. The twelve dancers onstage start out looking scarily similar in grey suits and generic bob wigs and seem to almost fade into the background like your proverbial stereotypical accountant. It’s initially frustrating and mildly stressful trying to simultaneously focus on the dancers while also paying attention to images onscreen and on the smartphones. The dance performances can seem blurred and the minutiae of movements sometimes feel lost but that is clearly the intention of Keith Khan as increasingly the actions on stage mirror the daily bombardment we all face in a fast paced world where the population growth and the online data growth is exploding exponentially.
The second half of the production is a very different beast. The phone messages reduce dramatically and the giant projection screen slowly rises to open up a strikingly cavernous backstage giving the dancers a vast space to fill. It’s no mean feat but fill it they most certainly do. Stripped back from all the distractions and discarding the wigs that make them appear so uniform there is now nothing but six Chinese dancers and six Indian dancers who start to explore each other’s culture and dance disciplines to emerge as a cohesive whole. All three choreographers involved faced huge adversities attempting to not only find commonality in their practice but to do a lot of this work on Zoom before finally coming together in a physical space. The result works beautifully with the music and sound design from Somatic. The dancers create a space for both companies to work separately and together. Vibrant energy meets taut precision and the dance is sometimes fluid and others tensile as bodies jerk like firing neurons. There are haunting moments where some are so far back and motionless that they resemble shadowy statues like the Antony Gormley installation Another Place. As the dancers work and merge together there is a palpable shift in their energy. Tiny hand movements etc that are ingrained in each other’s dance culture start to infiltrate the choreography and create a potent sense of what we gain when we try to understand another culture.
THE ACCOUNTANTS is undoubtedly a huge creative undertaking requiring artistic risks as well as benefits. It feels very relevant to the space and the artistic vision at AVIVA STUDIOS which Factory International has worked so hard to develop. On a personal note the production hit an artistic high note when the projection screen rose to reveal that huge shadowy floorspace. In that moment it felt like Factory had recaptured the magic and majesty of previous MIF performances at Old Mayfield Depot.
Still Got It…!? is the cabaret show from David Hoyle and is the culmination of his three week residency at Factory International. There may be no obvious sign of a pier or chips and candyfloss but this production has as much a rich vein of darkly sweet seaside humour as a stick of Blackpool rock. Hoyle is the consummate performer and seems as at home on the vast stage in The Hall as in a more typically intimate cabaret venue. He delivers a performance that is warm, witty, pithy and droll. There’s something quite beautiful and incredibly touching to see this avant-garde performer who has so openly documented his own personal struggles taking to this packed auditorium to ask Still Got It…!?
Hoyle is joined on stage by a range of cabaret artists and although they are all undoubtedly talented there is also a strong sense of Hoyle using this opportunity in a 1600 capacity auditorium to celebrate friendships he has made on his own creative journey. Glitterbomb Dancers are a cabaret dance group produced by Joseph Mercier are as hi energy as they are big on sequins, glitter and dark and twisty charm. Their numbers are dotted through the show and include a dystopian ballet and a pointed and dark allusion to the Pan’sPeople dancers of Top of the Pops and a time when we switched on to Gary Glitter and Jimmy Saville.
David Hoyle Image credit: Lee Baxter
Thom Shaw otherwise known as Pam Lustgarden joins Hoyle on stage to discuss jam making in the W.I. as well as well as her well documented love of poetry and building improvised incendiary devices. Her act includes poetry by John Cooper Clarke and a unique take on Pull My Daisy by Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Neal Cassidy. The best element however is a sly epitaph for Hoyle when he supposedly dies from Empathy.
There are burlesque performances that include Lilly Snapdragon who performs in a child’s paddling pool and delivers an act that may destroy or increase the traditional Mancunion fondness for the great British fry up depending on your fondness for blending food and sex in a particularly graphic manner!! Symoné whirls across the stage on rollerskates using hulahoops while the Alternative Miss Ireland Veda Lady delivers a powerhouse performance involving a shopping trolley and later educates the audience about PrEP and her podcast Poz Vibe.
Some of these performances translate better than others unto such a large stage however that becomes increasingly irrelevant as Hoyle himself wields his laconic charm and stage majesty across proceedings. The huge audience is always on his side and revelling in seeing one of their own up on that stage delivering songs and reverie in his unique style. The interactive quiz show Still Got It, Never Had It, Lost It Years Ago has the audience riotously involved as Hoyle strides across the stage discussing rats in his Longsight abode, a belief in Capitalist reality and his childhood stamp collection. There truly is a broad church in the house tonight and Hoyle is the perfect High priest. He may wonder aloud how a lot of us are still alive…or ask himself How did I get away with that? The answer from the crowd to the big question of the night…David Hoyle,Still Got It…!? A resounding YES!!!
Cast of Jungle Book at AVIVA Studios Image credit: Lucie Jansch
Based on The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling
Direction, Set and Lighting Design Robert Wilson
Music and Lyrics CocoRosie
Co-produced by Factory International with Théâtre de la Ville
THE HALL, AVIVA STUDIOS
Acclaimed Director and Designer Robert Wilson is collaborating once more with Factory International having previously brought several productions to Manchester International Festival. This time the avant-garde Wilson has joined forces with American composers CocoRosie to give their unique “family friendly” take on the classic The Jungle Book by Rudyard Kipling. The result is visually sharp and stylised with a suitably vibrant score. The story is somewhat fractured and evolves in a rather staccato manner which may challenge anyone expecting a more traditional retelling. Vivid and crisply architectural in form, the scenes unfold like the pages of a very minimalist pop-up storybook.
Aurore Déon as Hathi The Elephant and Dira Sugandi as Mowgli. Image credit: Lucie Jansch
Wilson’s trademark style of elaborate lighting and projections and shadowplay with a use of deliberately artificial looking landscapes is very striking. The vivid costumes and makeup reminiscent of Japanese Noh theatre add to an otherness in the characters and the landscape they inhabit. Each animal is highly stylised and the performers inhabit their animal personas rather than don obvious animal costumes so they straddle the world’s of man and beast just as the “man-cub” Mowgli did. Roberto Jean as Shere Khan exudes part Tiger part, Studio 54 snake hipped rock star. Aline Belibi as Bagheera is clad in sleek, vampish black velvet and smoulders and purrs like a glorious Eartha Kitt. The whole story is narrated by Hathi The Elephant who is clad in a white colonial style dress which alongside her grey ear headdress looks like an otherworldly Bjork.
The soundscape swathes the theatre in slightly off-kilter animal and jungle sounds that both enchant and disarm. The original music and lyrics by American performance artists CocoRosie are lively and vibrant with impish lyrics punctuated by dreamy ballads. The performers all sound great and a few including Dira Sugandi as Mowgli are particularly memorable. The overall feel has a decidedly French vibe and one scene change is used to employ the trademark coloured spotlights to shine on each of the musicians in the pit with great effect.
This production celebrates otherness and is intended as a plea for tolerance and understanding. The use of The Jungle Book as a base text is fitting as these varied creatures demonstrate “the law of the Jungle” as they struggle and strive to come together and try to move between the different worlds in an ever changing climate. There are issues in this production if you expect a smooth narrative flow but if you can sit back and enjoy the music and appreciate this as a montage of striking tableau scenes then there is much to appreciate. Absolute moments of striking beauty, a quirky sense of artful play that is present throughout and scenes that look like a Banksy mural brought to life are all present in this punchy piece which also includes some clowning and aerial work. It may not be the Disney rendition realised on stage but that was clearly never the intention.
Live Art Alive 