Poetry-theatre: Keisha Thompson’s Man on the Moon at Contact

Contact Theatre’s Autumn season continues apace with a new performance piece which looks at the Black British experience. Man on the Moon, which has a short run in late November, is written and performed by the Manchester-based poet Keisha Thompson. The work looks at Keisha’s unconventional relationship with her father, and how their barriers to understanding each other impacted her identity. She communicates with her reclusive dad mostly via letters, but when these stop arriving, she is forced to venture into his world. Using storytelling, poetry, and looped sounds the piece explores the impact that mental health can have on the family dynamic. It also touches on themes such as cultural displacement, religious confusions, and political paranoia. Thompson is no stranger to Contact, having performed her feminist solo show, I Wish I had a Moustache, there in 2012. She has also released several anthologies and represented the city for National Poetry Day.

Tue 21 – Sat 25 Nov, Contact, Oxford Road, Manchester, M15 6JA, Tel: 0161 274 0600, 8pm, £13/£7 (Conc.), contactmcr.com