CityLife

Contact Theatre autumn season

JOHN McGrath is in upbeat mood. "I know I'm always saying this, but I really do think our autumn season is one of our best ever, especially with so many collaborative and new writing ventures coming to fruition," laughs the Contact Theatre supremo.

"One of the major strands," he enthuses, "is, in fact, new writing and one of our key shows this season will be Linda Brogan's What's In The Cat. It's really vicious but funny."

The play is set in Moss Side at Christmas 1974 and offers a darkly comic portrait of a family in crisis. Irish mother Margaret's hitting the bottle and West Indian husband Bogey has had enough. After 18 years, he's moving out, only there's pregnant-at-15 daughter Lauren to consider. What's In The Cat runs from November 18 until Saturday December 3.

The season also sees Contact exploring their RAW (Rhythm And Words) strand and the Word Up festival of new writing, featuring six new plays from October 20-22.

"Another important strand that's emerged," says John, "is the idea of new theatre being made in unusual ways, often by unusual people!" A highlight is sure to be a piece from Contact favourites Quarantine, running from October 11-22.

Called Grace, it is, reports John, "a massive show that will be completely insane! It's about the little moments that that can change your life and includes everyone, from older people to a toddler. There's also live music from a band called Permissive Society, who apparently sound like a cross between Led Zeppelin and Joy Division."

Quarantine are returning after the success of their show White Trash last year and another returnee is the show, Manchester!. reated by artists Craig Conway and Juliet Lewis with six of Contact's young people, the event is a mysterious installation designed for just 15 people at a time and is, as they say, back by popular demand. "It's a great example of the extraordinary work you can get from young people when you get them to work with the right sort of artists," observes John of the show which will be runnign three times a day from September 27-October 1.

"We'll be continuing also our collaboration with hip-hop artists and one of the most interesting of those shows might be a show called Continuity: A Father And Son Journey From Theatre to Hip-Hop. Baba Israel is a hip-hop performer and street artist who helped to found the Hip-Hop Theatre Festival in New York. His father Steve Ben Israel used to be in the legendary Living Theater during the hippy days, and this is a joint show that explores the changing face of New York, jazz, hip-hop and all sorts of other things. You could say this show was `hip-hop meets hippy'!" (December 2 and 3, with a free workshop on the Saturday afternoon).

YOU can also see hip-hop crossover in one of the FKUK shows, Spoken Like A True..., which connects Australia, England, Liverpool and Manchester through the spoken word after a week-long workshop with Apples And Snakes regular Ty and two of Australia's finest hip-hop artists Morganics and Wire. (October 24-28).

There'll also be touring work from the likes of Forced Entertainment, who'll be bringing back Bloody Mess on November 9 and 10, and a new show called Exquisite Pain on November 11 and 12. "They completely sold out last time - who would ever have thought that the day would come when experimentalists such as Forced Entertainment would be more popular than the Christmas panto?"

There's also plenty of what John gleefully characterises as "mad little shows going on all over the place" and just some of the rest of the autumn line-up at Contact includes Concurrent, a platform for recent work in the North West that mixes up conventional and contemporary South Asian dance (September 23).

The following day Solid Earth, a voluntary collective of artists, musicians, technicians and creative media types that organise fundraising events for aid organisations, present Many Different Sounds, before CandoCo Dance Company present a double bill of The Journey and In Praise of Folly (September 28 and 29). Multi Cultural Poets present Eyes & Tongue, featuring Mahogany Brown on October 3, the same day as the first of the free Drama Drop-In taster sessions for 13-16 year olds.

Wednesday October 5 sees the first of the season's Flip The Script monthly playwriting slams where seven writers have their work produced on stage by a professional team and the audience vote on who should return next time. Theatre Centre present edgy contemporary drama Trashed by Noel Greig on October 12 and 13. ADAPT (Artist Development and Personal Theatre) on October 20 from 10.30am-5.30pm is a one-day event bringing together four acclaimed artists and companies who will share the secrets to their innovative work and practice. This is a rare opportunity for emerging artists to engage with Forced Entertainment, Michael Mayhew, Juliet Ellis and Quarantine, who will discuss how they devise performance work from the individual experiences of young people, artists and other collaborators.

Leading contemporary dance company Lucy Guerin Inc. present Love Me, a triple bill of duets featuring some of Australia's hottest young dancers on October 26 and 27, then there's a stark contrast on October 29 as Big Wow Theatre Company present Brit Gangster movie parody Swanky Geezer Nonsense. Real from ACE dance and music mixes African and contemporary dance styles to "get to the heart of what it is to be a woman" on November 4.

Do you have a fresh new performance that's burning to be seen? Then head along to the Showreal Auditions on November 18, from 6-10pm, when bite-sized chunks of up to 10 minutes can be showcased. Any art form welcome. To express an interest, email creatives@contact-theatre.org.uk.

Following the success of his sell-out solo theatre show, Sikhs in the City, Britain's only Sikh comedian, Sody Singh Kahlon, is back with a new multi-media comedy Soul Sikher on November 19 and the great John Hegley returns on November 24 and 25 with a new show called Family Favourites, in which he muses upon fathering, building sites, toffee and blancmange.

French hip-hoppers La Cedille are in the maison on November 26, and on December 6 Brothatalk present Spooked?, while the building-wide event Dynam X on December 10 showcases the future of digital media art and electronic music as artists, VJs and DJs collaborate, using new technology to create live visual projections, installations, live music performance and visual art throughout the night.

For more information, call 0161 274 0600.