MANCHESTER International Festival (MIF), the world's only biennial festival of world premières and special events, has announced the first three shows for 2015 (listed below).
The full programme will be announced in February 2015.
“The Age of Starlight will invite an audience to face the biggest questions about our existence, our place within the universe"
Launched in Manchester in 2007, Manchester International Festival is an artist-led festival presenting entirely new commissioned works from across the spectrum of performing arts, visual arts and popular culture.
We're back! With: @WayneMcGregor @olafureliasson Jamie xx @ProfBrianCox @Kevinmfilms @Framestore @magicleap Peter Saville @_JustinFletcher
— MIFestival (@MIFestival) November 19, 2014
In its previous four installments MIF has welcomed: Blur's Damon Albarn, Hollywood actor William Dafoe, Massive Attack, Icelandic singer-songwriter Bjork, Oscar-winning director Steve McQueen, US Rapper Snoop Dogg and actor-director Sir Kenneth Branagh.
In 2013, it was estimated that MIF welcomed nearly 250,000 attendees (including 50,000 attending free performances) and benefited the city economy to the tune of £38m - read our 2013 report here.
The festival centres around the Albert Square hub (main image above) with performances held in multiple venues across the city, including a number of secret and previously abandoned locations - 2013 saw Mercury-Prize winning band, The xx, perform to just 60 people in the undercrofts of Victoria Station.
In 2013, Kenneth Branagh's Macbeth at the Halle St Peter's blew audiences away
Running from Thursday 2 to Sunday 19 July 2015, the eighteen day 2015 programme will include:
THE AGE OF STARLIGHT | Location and dates TBC
'A world first show about the origin of the universe and everything within and without it'
Professor Brian Cox recounts the unlikely events that led to our existence with the help of Oscar-winning director Kevin MacDonald (Last King of Scotland), the Oscar-winning CGI team of Tim Webber and Framestore (Gravity), 'the UK's most famous graphic designer' Peter Saville, and inventor Rony Abovitz and the team at Magic Leap.
Professor Brian Cox said: “The Age of Starlight will invite an audience to face the biggest questions about our existence, our place within the universe, and the origin of our universe itself, using new technology to create an experience beyond anything that has been possible before.”
Prof Brian Cox will narrate The Age Of Starlight
TREE OF CODES | Opera House | 2-10 July 2015 | Tickets £12-£46.25
'A contemporary ballet inspired by the book Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer'
MIF is bringing together choreographer Wayne McGregor, Random Dance and Paris Opera Ballet dancers, visual artist Olafur Eliasson and Mercury Prize-winning producer/composer Jamie xx to create a contemporary ballet inspired by the book Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer.
Wayne McGregor said: "Jonathan Safran Foer's enigmatic novel Tree of Codes is an immersive sculptural work that brilliantly hovers between words and spaces, surfaces and layers, pasts and futures. Its post apocalyptic narrative and reinvention of the process of reading itself catapults your imagination into bracing liminal states."
Jamie xx has composed the score for Tree of Codes
THE TALE OF MR TUMBLE | Opera House | 13-18 July 2015 | Tickets £26.25-£12
'This funny, moving and visually exciting show gives children the chance to see Mr Tumble live and up close as he tells his own improbable life story'
Manchester International Festival has invited CBeebie's Justin Fletcher to create The Tale of Mr Tumble, a very special new show for children and their families. Audiences will find out exactly how he became the joyful entertainer familiar to so many, following his journey from bouncing baby Tumble through his singing and dancing school years, right up to the present day.
Alex Poots, CEO and Artistic Director of MIF, said: "MIF and Justin Fletcher have a shared interest in making really good work for young audiences. He’s a superstar in the world of children’s TV, but his work is clearly part of a long tradition, and there's a line that stretches from Justin all the way through his teacher Jack Tripp and back to Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and the greats of silent comedy."
Mr Tumble
Tickets go on sale at 10am on Thursday 20 November via www.mif.co.uk or 0844 871 7654
Manchester International Festival has a low cost ticket scheme for local audiences: a number of tickets for every performance of every show will be on sale exclusively for Greater Manchester residents at just £12. These tickets are for residents who earn less than £14k.
Some of these tickets will be available from the box office online and by phone on a first come first served basis.
