New shows at HOME: Grand Finale, BINGE and dressed

HOME’s new theatre season is in full swing, with a host of new plays and collaborations popping up all the time. Here’s three of the best that are coming in the next couple of weeks…

Grand Finale
Returning after a sell-out run in January is this ambitious work featuring 10 dancers and six musicians. ‘Grand Finale’ is at once comic and bleak, evoking a world at odds with itself. Part gig, part dance, and part theatre, it aims to create the feel of a culture in freefall. The show comes from choreographer Hofesh Shechter’s boundary-breaking dance company. Founded in 2008, the group has a residency at Brighton Dome, and performs in cities throughout the world. Grand Finale has received rave reviews from The Stage, The Guardian and even The Financial Times. It’s presented as part of HOME’s Theatre Studies and English programme, and is recommended for GCSE, A-Level, and equivalent level Dance.
Wed 22 May 2019 – Sat 25 May, HOME, 2 Tony Wilson Place, Manchester, M15 4FN, Tel: 0161 200 1500, homemcr.org/grand-finale

BINGE
This performance installation consists of several one-to-one and intimate drop-in performances, all taking place over the Spring Bank Holiday Weekend. The curator, artist Brian Lobel, aims to create a space in which people slow down and connect with strangers through the very 21st century phenomenon of binge-watching. To help him, Brian has drawn together a group of eight artists with a diverse taste in television. The performers will be wearing pyjamas or bathrobes, and be tucked up in a duvet, silently bingeing on their favourite show. Visitors are invited to join them, and are encouraged to dress likewise, making it difficult to tell who is performing and who is a visitor.
Fri 24 May – Sun 26 May, Address and contact number as above, 12pm – 8pm, FREE, homemcr.org/brian-lobel-binge

dressed
After a tragic ordeal where she was stripped at gunpoint, Lydia Higginson sought to redress herself in a unique way. A seamstress and costume designer by trade, she gave herself a year to make all her own clothes, after which she gave away all the clothes she had ever bought. Along with three friends, who appear as her co-stars, she used this experience to as the basis for ‘dressed’. This intimate show uses storytelling, live sewing, music, dance, and clowning to turn a traumatic experience art. It is a show about reclaiming one’s body, female friendship, and clothing’s link to identity. It premiered at the 2018 Edinburgh Festival Fringe to critical acclaim, winning the Scotsman Fringe First Award. The show explores some very serious themes, so discretion is advised.
Tue 4 Jun – Sat 8 Jun, Address and contact number as above, 7.45pm, £5 – £12.50, homemcr.org/dressed