Factory International has just unveiled its programme for 2027, bringing nine UK and world premieres to Aviva Studios Manchester, including a ‘Mixed Reality’ play featuring Ian McKellen.
Highlights range from an energetic dance opera from an award-winning choreographer, to an electrifying production of Russell T Davies’ It’s A Sin. 2027 will also see the return of Manchester International Festival, and a packed calendar of live music.
The season marks two decades since Factory International’s beginnings with the inaugural Manchester International Festival in 2007. Now with its own year-round venue, Aviva Studios, the organisation enters its third decade having commissioned more than 200 new artworks, shared with almost two million people worldwide.
John McGrath, Artistic Director and Chief Executive, Factory International said: “Twenty years ago, Manchester International Festival put the city at the centre of the international cultural conversation, asking what the art of tomorrow could be.
“Over the past two decades, we have invited some of the world’s biggest artists to Manchester to create work that has shifted the artistic goalposts – work that could not have been created anywhere else.
“Equally importantly, the voices of our communities have rung out through our work, creating opportunities, jobs and joy with and for the people of the region.
“As we mark our 20th anniversary and unveil our 2027 season, we continue to build on this remarkable legacy: championing creative ambition, welcoming pioneering, fearless artists from near and far to our shapeshifting home, Aviva Studios, and making work that changes how people see the world and how the world sees our city, bringing people together, and, ultimately, changing lives.”
Tickets for the newly announced programme are on sale to members now, and will be on sale to AMEX holders on 16 October ahead of general on sale on 20 October. Tickets are available from £10 across all shows.
What’s on at Aviva Studios in 2027
Russell T Davies’ landmark series It’s A Sin – one of the most impactful and lauded TV shows of the past decade – will be transformed into a raw, visceral and devastating dance story of love and survival brought to life by Rambert’s extraordinary dancers. The world premiere production is directed and choreographed by Artistic Director Benoit Swan Pouffer and executive-produced by Davies, The Pet Shop Boys and Glyn Fussell. The show takes us into the joys and pain of young lives in the 1990s.
This one-of-a-kind mixed theatrical encounter delivered through Mixed Reality glasses, features performances from Ian McKellen, Golda Rosheuvel, Arinzé Kene and Rosie Sheehy. It place audiences at the heart of a moving exploration of life, love and loss. From Mixed Reality pioneer Todd Eckert, Tony Award–winning Stockport-born writer Simon Stephens and celebrated director Sarah Frankcom.
English National Opera (ENO) and Factory International present Philip Glass’s iconic opera in a new spectacular experiential adaptation filling the vast warehouse space of Aviva Studios. Inspired by ideas on time, space and the birth of quantum physics, Improbable’s Phelim McDermott joins forces with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, an award-winning design team and a huge cast of multi-talented singers and performers to re-imagine one of the most influential operas of all time in the composer’s 90th year.
Palestinian director Bashar Murkus tests the limits of the human body in DEADLIFT – الحَمّالون, a powerful and intense visual performance created without spoken text. Exploring endurance and rebuilding in Palestine, it is produced by Al-Harah Theater in partnership with Boy Jonkergouw Producties and Riksteatern. The UK premiere is presented in partnership with Shubbak Festival.
Manchester International Festival (MIF) returns to Manchester in 2027, marking two decades of the biennial event. The full programme of extraordinary world premieres and special events will be revealed in March.
Stemming from the thousands of reported sightings of Iranian revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s face in the moon in 1978, the world premiere of Cinema Tehran by Javaad Alipoor and Chris Thorpe is a major new theatrical work blending performance, documentary, projection and visual tricks to explore themes of revolution, mass belief and the power of stories to shape a nation.
Acclaimed Austrian director, choreographer and performance artist Florentina Holzinger follows her lauded Seaworld Venice exhibit at the Venice Biennial with a rare UK residency at Aviva Studios to present this landmark piece of theatre and art inspired by the year 1816 when the Mount Tambora eruption in Indonesia plunged the world into darkness, and Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. Performed by 24 women and non-binary performers ranging from their 20s to 80s, it is a striking journey through health, identity, ageing, technology and the limits of the human body.
Award-winning South-African choreographer Gregory Maqoma returns to Manchester with the UK premiere of a ground-breaking dance opera with a libretto by Karthika Nair. It explores the timeless quest for Black liberation inspired by the revolutionary ideas of Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon and Steve Biko, and the poetic defiance of migrant communities across the world.
The world premiere of Party In The Sky is a new genre-bending show conceived by Darren Pritchard and developed and co-directed with Vicki Amedume featuring a unique blend of circus, dance, drag, theatre, aerial performance and music in a bold and joyful celebration of life. A show for the festive season in two versions – with a family edition, and a late night club incarnation.
Alongside its cutting-edge arts programme, Aviva Studios will host an eclectic range of music performances including two-night residencies from electronic pioneer Bonobo (4-5 February) and Mercury-winning jazz visionaries Ezra Collective (12-13 March); the world premiere of Nubya Garcia’s first cello concerto, commissioned by Factory International and written especially for Manchester Camerata’s Hannah Roberts (18 March); Americana folk band The Dead South (6 March); indie folk pop singer songwriter Lizzy McAlpine (4-5 April), Slippery People recreating the iconic Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense (17 April), five-time Grammy-winning collective Snarky Puppy (24 April) and cult indie rock band Tindersticks (6 May) with further acts to be announced.
factoryinternational.org
- Words:
- Sarah Tierney
- Published on:
- Tue 13 Oct 2026
Come As You Really Are by Hetain Patel celebrates the diversity and playful worlds of over 250 makers, modifiers, enthusiasts and collectors from every borough of Greater Manchester, aged five to 90 years old, bringing together thousands of objects to tell their stories in a free, interactive, family-friendly exhibition. It will also feature Patel’s own artwork, plus a programme of exclusive performances, workshops and tours, curated by Hetain and local Community Curators.