Contact continues to transform its iconic building on Oxford Road, Manchester.
Meantime, its new season, which runs from January to June, delves into politics, protest and community.
The venue presents a major show from regular collaborator, poet and writer Inua Ellams, whose National Theatre production of Barber Shop Chronicles will be at the Royal Exchange Theatre (March 7 to 23).
Contact will also be staging a taster of Queer Contact Festival as a compact weekender in February, featuring Mother’s Ruin (February 8) and the Manchester Vogue Ball (February 9).
Bristol-based theatre company Ad Infinitum will be kicking off Queer Contact Festival and the season as a whole at The Lowry in February with its play No Kids (February 1), exploring the social anxieties of same-sex parenting.
Later in the year, Contact will be presenting two shows from Contact Young Company, the first in partnership with Battersea Arts Centre (May 3 to 4) followed by a collaboration with local spoken word heroes Young Identity (June 12 to 15).