Politics, protest and community in Contact season

Published: 25 November 2018
Reporter: David Upton

Barber Shop Chronicles Credit: Dean Chalkley
House of Suarez Credit: Fotocad
Contact Young Company Credit: Keisha Thompson

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).

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