Top 3: Home Manchester’s 2019 theatre season ft. Scottee & Iman Quereshi

Home Manchester’s early 2019 theatre season includes some return favourites (like Scottee) and hyped adaptations, such as Angela Carter’s Wise Children. We’ve rounded up three of our favourites below.

Adaptation: Wise Children
Rowdy, raucous and full of flirtatious fun. Angela Carter’s final novel Wise Children is set in Brixton, twins Nora and Dora Chance celebrate their 70th birthday, reminiscing about their time on stage. Over in Chelsea, their alleged father, Melchoir, the best actor of his generation, is celebrating his 100th birthday, but his twin brother Peregrine is missing for the celebrations. Sordid and scandalous, this play combines Shakespeare with showgirls, teetering on the edge between legitimate and illegitimate theatre, and in turn questioning the categorisation of each. Sex, mistaken identity and numerous sets of twins, Wise Children has all the ingredients of a Shakespearean comedy, but it also contemplates the tragedy of lost youth. Wise Children has been met with critical acclaim at its previous venues and it will be one to catch; full of carnivalesque extravagance, but with a raw story underneath.
Tue 26 Feb – Sat 2 Mar, £10-29, www.homemcr.org

Storytelling: Scottee’s ‘Fat Blokes’ (pictured)
This is an act of ‘fat rebellion’. A celebratory and angry cabaret show full of flab, double chins and thick thighs. Following its sell out run at Home in May, Fat Blokes returns, exploring why fat men are never sexy but always funny, always the ‘before’ but never the ‘after’ shot. Forward thinking and self-proclaimed ‘fatso’ Scottee created this piece has been created in collaboration with Lea Anderson, an out-of-the-box choreographer, with the hope of flaunting the fat we a too often told to conceal. Four plus-size men take their turn to tell their stories, of heart-breaking humiliations, of being victims of violence. In the end, despite the struggles, this show hopes to spread delight, self-love and acceptance as they dance unashamed on the stage. Fat Blokes is an admirable and brave act of defiance, as the performers jiggle their bodies with joy.
Tue 19 Mar – Sat 23 Mar, £5-12.50, www.homemcr.org

Award-winning new writing: The Funeral Director
“I just thought it would be a secret I’d have to die with. And now – I think it’ll be what kills me.” Ayesha is a funeral director at a Muslim parlour, and whilst the work is understandably difficult, she still feels like she has it all with Zeyd; a loving husband, respectful co-worker and partner for life. Their world is interrupted however, when a grieving white man shows up at their parlour, asking for them to organise the burial of his boyfriend. The pressures of their community and faith forces them to make a snap moral decision, with consequences that affect their lives profoundly. Iman Quereshi’s play won the 2018 Papatango New Writing prize and it is an honest and tentative consideration of the complicated relationship between sexuality and Islam. The Funeral Director is a topical piece of new writing that sensitively depicts the intricate lives and prejudices of people in 21st century Britain.
Wed 27 Mar – Sat 30 Mar, £5-12.50, www.homemcr.org