The best: Theatre shows to book now in Manchester

Narrated by Richard Armitage, audiences are invited to experience the thrill of launch, the challenges of life in space and cutting-edge NASA tech in this spectacular dome show at the iconic UNESCO heritage site, Jodrell Bank, throughout January.

Storyteller Kae revisits a psychiatric hospital in 1880s Paris, in which female patients performed ‘hysteria’ for the public as doctors went to extraordinary lengths to prove their theories about the four stages of madness.They trace the echoes to the present, feeling them linger in their own body, and perhaps get a little too caught in the story.

Inspector Morse: House of Ghosts marks the first-ever stage adaptation of the iconic detective. A chilling mystery unfolds when a young actress suddenly dies on stage during a performance, and Detective Chief Inspector Morse embarks on a gripping investigation. What begins as a suspicious death inquiry takes a darker turn when the legendary inspector, together with DS Lewis, uncovers a connection to sinister events in his own past, twenty-five years earlier.

Octagon Theatre Bolton presents a major new production of Beckett’s liminal masterpiece Waiting for Godot this April, bringing one of the most influential plays of the 20th century back to the stage in all its bleak, absurdist brilliance.

In this fresh interpretation of the play ‘in which absolutely nothing happens’ follows Vladimir and Estragon, two men passing the time in a shifting, austere landscape while waiting for someone who may never arrive. As the hours stretch on, their exchanges drift between scraps of conversation, moments of tenderness and flashes of dark humour, revealing a story that is ostensibly simple yet profoundly resonant.

Heading to the theatre space at Salford’s beloved Kings Arms pub, BOYS is a razor-sharp, heartbreaking exploration of toxic masculinity, the terror of growing up, and the messy, violent transition from who you were to who you’re forced to become, set within  four boys’ final 24 hours at university in Edinburgh.

Has there been a more fitting backdrop for a retelling of H.G. Wells’ iconic The War of the Worlds? The classic tale is reimagined at Jodrell Bank as a gripping solo performance by storyteller Gav Cross.

Delivered in the intimate style of a Victorian parlour reading at Jodrell Bank, this abridged production thrusts audiences into the terror and urgency of a world in chaos, consumed by the unstoppable force of a Martian invasion.

Inspired by the life of Nina Simone, and featuring many of her most iconic songs performed live, Apphia Campbell’s acclaimed play follows a successful singer and civil rights activist as she seeks redemption after the untimely death of her father.

Blurring the boundaries between classical music and other artforms, Manchester Collective join forces with dance-theatre company Thick & Tight to present a searing live performance that draws on queer culture. Daniel Hay-Gordon and El Perry’s radical work flits between ballet and cabaret, the absurd and the disarmingly moving. At the heart of the show is Kaija Saariaho’s Sept Papillons – a set of seven miniatures for solo cello performed by Laura van der Heijden, one of the leading cellists of her generation.

The first in a series of new productions, English National Opera (ENO) and Factory International present the UK premiere of Du Yun’s Pulitzer Prize-winning contemporary opera Angel’s Bone with a libretto by Royce Vavrek – a major new production directed by the visionary theatre maker Kip Williams, in collaboration with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

Thirty years after her first Glastonbury, Neddy returns to celebrate her late sister’s 50th birthday in this high-voltage, one-woman rollercoaster through grief, sisterhood, and the strange magic of losing — and maybe finding — yourself in a field of strangers.

Murder comes to the countryside in the theatrical world premiere of the critically acclaimed television favourite Midsomer Murders.

A unique 24-hour performance piece by artist and activist Ai Weiwei comes to Aviva Studios this July, coinciding with the largest site-specific exhibition by the artist, which will be on display this summer.

Running across Fri 3 Jul – Sat 4 Jul, Sewing a Button will give audiences an unflinching look at Ai Weiwei’s secret detention by Public Security in China in 2011 and is the first time the artist has reenacted his experience.