New theatre: Contact’s In the City series returns with Queer Contact Festival

As building work continues at their regular home, the folks from Contact Theatre are taking their shows on the road with a programme called Contact in the City, the third season of which launches in January and will feature diverse events at venues throughout Greater Manchester. Standouts include a weekend-long ‘taster’ of the annual Queer Contact Festival (QCF), featuring Mother’s Ruin and the Vogue Ball. The kick-off of the QCF proper is at the Lowry, where the award-winning theatre company Ad Infinitum will present their latest comedy drama No Kids, which explorers the chaotic social anxieties of same sex parenting. In March, there is a major show from the poet and writer Inua Ellams, whose National Theatre production of Barber Shop Chronicles will be on at the Royal Exchange. Other standouts include collaborations with Battersea Arts Centre and with young activist performers from Brazil. Tickets go on sale early next year.

Sat 12 Jan – Sat 15 Jun, various venues, times & prices, www.contactmcr.com