This Town

This Town

Review of This Town at Contact Theatre, Manchester. With its alleyways, cobbled streets, chippies, and pubs – Rory Aaron’s This Town could be one of many places in post-industrial northern England. Take your pick from “the far-off towns that nobody’s heard of”. Aaron succinctly sets the scene, while also referencing the ghosts of the past [...]

While We Were Waiting… Something Changed

While We Were Waiting… Something Changed

Review of 'While We Were Waiting… Something Changed' at Contact, Manchester. On Oxford Road, a young woman repeatedly emerges from a phone box opposite McDonalds, changing each time into a mind-blowing array of outfits. It’s not a catwalk moment, more a process of development, or in her words “a pilgrimage to find myself”. Although she [...]

The Bread We Break

The Bread We Break

Review of 'The Bread We Break' at Contact Theatre, Manchester. To talk of breaking bread with others suggests more than just a communal meal. The phrase also implies a coming-together, making a connection, and perhaps sharing ideas. While not a crumb passes our lips during Miray Sidhom’s new show, her insightful reflections on bread, political [...]

Baby Fever

Baby Fever

1 October 2019. Contact Theatre, Manchester at STUN Studios. What does success look like? Buying a house? Getting married? Having a baby? Contact Young Company's new show Baby Fever grew out of an exploration of the value and relevance of those traditional milestones for a younger generation. How healthy are they as goals to structure [...]

The Forest of Forgotten Discos!

The Forest of Forgotten Discos!

Hope Mill Theatre. Commissioned by Contact. 13 December 2018. When children head into the woods in traditional fairy stories and pantomimes they often find themselves lost in a dark and scary place. Contact's Christmas show is having none of that. We're led into the Forest of Forgotten Discos by friendly and sparkly 'virtual assistant' Alexa, [...]

Scorch

Scorch

Contact, Manchester. 24th May 2017. Kes falls in love with Jools and they split up. Kes experiences the joy and pain of a first love. But this is different - Kes was born a girl, and is beginning to identify as a boy. She develops a masculine persona online, meets Jools there and forms a [...]