1 page 48 Get involved 18 EXTRAORDINARY Take part in a show / Develop your talent / Join our creative community page 48 DAYS OF WORLD page 48 Become an MIF Member Priority booking / Festival Square PREMIERES AND Free gift / Special offers / The home of MIF Discounts in Festival Square / Exclusive invites SPECIAL EVENTS page 56 Interdependence Talks & discussions page 8 page 16 page 43 page 21 page 46 Experience online Access MIF19 opening event Live streams / Immersive Access performances / (AR/VR) / Podcasts / Venue access / Join Films / Long reads our access mailing list mif.co.uk/viewpoints page 54 #MIF19 Essentials mcrintfestival Book tickets / Plan your visit / Venue page 4 mifestival directory / Complete mifestival Festival calendar page 32 page 40 Book tickets at mif.co.uk manchesterintfest page 50 YOKO ONO WORLD PREMIERE Yoko Ono invites the people of Manchester to Cathedral Gardens gather together in Cathedral Gardens and send Thur 4 July, 6pm a message of peace to the world. Join thousands of diverse voices and a people’s orchestra of bells Admission free from home and abroad as the city rings and sings out for peace – and welcomes the world to Manchester. Watch live online mif.co.uk/live Yoko Ono has been among the world’s most #BELLSFORPEACE renowned and respected artists for more than 50 years. This new commission is the first major Get involved work she has created for the city of Manchester. Visit mif.co.uk/ getinvolved or email [email protected] Commissioned and produced by Manchester International Festival. Supported by Paul Hamlyn Foundation as part of My Festival. BELLS FOR Photo: Matthew Placek © Yoko Ono PEACE4 5 TREE WORLD PREMIERE Created by Idris Elba and Kwame Kwei-Armah’s electrifying new Upper Campfield blend of drama, music and dance follows one man’s Market Hall journey into the heart and soul of contemporary South Thur 4 – Sat 13 July Africa – with the audience at the centre of the action. Previews Sat 29 June – Wed 3 July It’s just 12 hours from London to his parents’ homeland, but to Kaleo (Alfred Enoch), South Africa CAP Tue 9 & Wed 10 is another world. A family tragedy finally forces him July, 8pm to visit for the first time – and as he takes his journey of healing, Kaleo must confront hidden histories and For full schedule, see p50 right the wrongs of the past. But first he must face the present: a shattered family, fighting to hold on to Tickets what they believe is theirs, in a nation haunted by the £35 ghosts of its own turbulent past. £30 previews, concs £10 Greater Manchester Directed by Kwei-Armah, Artistic Director of residents on a lower wage London’s Young Vic, with music inspired by Elba’s album Mi Mandela, Tree is an exhilarating show This is a standing event about identity, family and belonging, seen through the eyes of one man on the toughest journey of his life. Recommended 14+ Under-18s must be Jon Bausor Set & Costume Designer accompanied by an adult Gregory Maqoma Choreographer Jon Clark Lighting Designer Paul Arditti Sound Designer #TreeMIF Duncan McLean Video Designer Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante Music Supervisor & Composer A Manchester International Festival, Pippa Ailion CDG Casting Director Young Vic and Green Door Pictures co-production. In association with Eleanor Lloyd Productions, Bob Benton for Anthology Theatre and Eilene Davidson. 6 7 JAN ELLE MONÁE Plus special guests Janelle Monáe makes her MIF debut with an Castlefield Bowl exclusive show on the opening night of the Festival. Thur 4 July, 7pm (doors open 6pm) A singular and spectacular live performer, Monáe received massive acclaim in 2018 for Tickets Dirty Computer, which reached the top ten on both £35 sides of the Atlantic and was named NPR’s Album of £30 concs the Year. The Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter, £10 Greater Manchester producer, actress (Moonlight, Hidden Figures) residents on a lower wage and activist is playing just three UK dates in 2019 – and we’re thrilled she’s joining us for this one-off Under-14s must be open-air show. accompanied by an adult No under-5s #JanelleMonae Produced by Manchester International Festival. Photo: JUCO 8 9 Leo Warner Director 59 Productions and Rambert Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui Co-Director & Choreographer Lolita Chakrabarti Adaptor 59 Productions Concept & Design Rambert Dance WORLD PREMIERE / A PRE-FACTORY EVENT Zenobia, a city of joy. Beersheba, a celestial city of Mayfield gold. Isadora, a city of promise, seduction and desire. Fri 5 July – Sun 14 July INVIS City by unseen city, the young explorer conjures from Previews Tue 2 – the ether a vast and spectacular empire – all for the Thur 4 July benefit of its emperor, his master, who may never get to see it for himself… CAP Wed 10 July, 8pm & Sun 14 July, 2.30pm Leo Warner, Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui, Lolita Chakrabarti, BSL Thur 11 July, 8pm 59 Productions and Rambert bring to life a series of fantastical places in this world-premiere production. For full schedule, see p50 IBLE Centred on the edgy relationship between Kublai Khan, the volatile head of a vast empire, and explorer Tickets Marco Polo, who must transcend a language barrier £35 to describe it for him, this spellbinding mix of £30 previews, concs theatre, choreography, music, architectural design £10 Greater Manchester and projection mapping imagines a succession of residents on a lower wage alternative worlds – and reimagines what is possible in live performance. #InvisibleCities Created for Mayfield, Manchester’s iconic former Produced by Manchester International Festival, 59 Productions, railway depot, Invisible Cities distils both the essence Rambert and Karl Sydow. of MIF and the ambition that will define The Factory, Commissioned by Manchester International Festival, Brisbane the Festival’s future home. Festival, Hong Kong New Vision Arts Festival, Sadler’s Wells, Dustin O’Halloran & Adam Bryanbaum Wiltzie of SMG Live, Sheikh Jaber Al-Ahmed A Winged Victory for the Sullen Composers Cultural Centre (JACC) and Jenny Melville Set Designer Karl Sydow. Laura Hopkins Costume Designer Fabiana Piccioli Lighting Designer Gareth Fry Sound Designer Nicol ScottVideo Designer Sam Jones CDG Casting Director Photo: Jason Bell 10 CITIES 11 SCHOOL OF INTEGRATION PARLIAMENT OF GHOSTS TANIA IBRAHIM BRUGUERA MAHAMA WORLD PREMIERE WORLD PREMIERE Why is integration always the responsibility of the Manchester Art Gallery This major installation reflects on the half-forgotten The Whitworth immigrant? Inverting the status quo, Tania Bruguera’s Fri 5 – Sat 20 July history of Ibrahim Mahama’s home country: Ghana, Fri 5 – Sun 21 July powerful, provocative and inspiring new work draws 10am–5pm daily, except whose journey from British colony to independent 10am–5pm daily, except Manchester nearer to those who’ve made this city 11am–5pm Mon nation was completed barely 60 years ago. 10am–9pm Thur their home, inviting us to discover and embrace the diversity in our midst. Admission free The heart of Parliament of Ghosts is a haunting Audio+ tours Tue 9 & Some events will assemblage of lost objects, rescued and repurposed Tue 16 July, 2pm Local people originally from countries around the require tickets – to form a vast parliamentary chamber in the heart CAP tour Tue 16 July, 2pm world will give free classes on a curriculum that see mif.co.uk/integration of the Whitworth. Abandoned train seats and faded includes languages, culture, ethics, politics, railway sleepers, scrapped school furniture and Exhibition continues after economics and many other forms of knowledge. #TaniaBruguera documents from governmental archives: Mahama MIF19 until 29 September These are not only instructional lessons, but lends powerful new context to this residue from a something more personal and vivid. Every teacher Get involved nation in transition. Also encompassing painting, Admission free will pass on his or her own experiences to anyone Visit mif.co.uk/ sculpture, photography and film,Parliament of Ghosts interested in developing new skills – resulting in a getinvolved or email beautifully evokes the histories and memories of #IbrahimMahama new kind of shared learning experience. [email protected] a country and its people asserting their independence. Commissioned and produced by Manchester International Festival Open and free to all, School of Integration fosters Commissioned and produced by Manchester International Festival and the Whitworth, The University cohesion and builds bridges of cultural understanding, and Manchester Art Gallery. of Manchester. encouraging us to eliminate the idea of strangeness Photo: from 100 hours reading of Hannah Arendt’s and cherish a plurality of voices. ‘The Origins of Totalitarianism’, courtesy of Estudio Bruguera and the Hannah Arendt International Institute for Artivism Photo: White Cube George Darrell 12 13 ABIDA PARVEEN ALPHABUS with Nahid Siddiqui FlexN & Young Identity WORLD PREMIERE An exclusive collaboration between the world’s The Lowry How much are you willing to sacrifice? Unit 5, Great greatest spiritual singer and a legend of South Asian Fri 5 July, 7.30pm What have you got to lose? Northern Warehouse classical dance, together for one night only at MIF19. Fri 5 July, 7pm Tickets Reggie ‘Regg Roc’ Gray, the New York dancer- Sat 6 July, 7pm & 9pm ‘Music should rise from the heart and go straight £18–£55 choreographer behind FlexN Manchester (MIF15), Sun 7 July, 3pm & 7pm to the soul,’ says Abida Parveen. When this iconic £13–£50 concs joins spoken-word powerhouse Young Identity Sufi singer takes to the microphone, that’s exactly £10 Greater Manchester and dancers from New York and Manchester for a Tickets the journey it takes – as anyone who witnessed her residents on a lower wage thrilling, intense exploration of power and weakness, £10 transcendent show at MIF13 will remember. triumph and tragedy, anti-heroes and fallen angels. #AbidaParveen #Alphabus For this rare UK date, Parveen will be joined by Alphabus draws its story from global myths, faiths dazzling kathak dancer Nahid Siddiqui for a one-off Produced by Manchester and traditions, but it’s rooted in the here and now.