The Stage

Punchdrunk and Wainwright lead Manchester International Festival 2009

Published Thursday 19 March 2009 at 16:49 by Alistair Smith

Punchdrunk – the innovative theatre company behind The Masque of the Red Death and Faust – is to unveil its latest work at this year’s Manchester International Festival.

Titled It Felt Like A Kiss, the work is being made in collaboration with musician Damon Albarn and documentary film-maker Adam Curtis.

The show, according to Curtis, will take the form of a “haunted house walk-through about power in the world”, more specifically American power and its consequences. It will be housed in an abandoned 60s office block and will be in the “spirit of the great American fairground rides of the 50s and 60s”, according to Punchdrunk artistic director Felix Barrett.

The production is one of 21 new commissions for the biennial festival, which had its first outing in 2007. The festival spans music, theatre, dance and visual arts.

Other performing arts highlights include the previously announced Prima Donna – a brand new opera by pop singer songwriter Rufus Wainwright, who described the production as “the hardest thing I’ve ever done”, a performance by dancer Carlos Acosta and Everybody Loves a Winner - a new show about bingo created by Neil Bartlett which will star Coronation Street actress Sally Lindsay.

Bartlett said that the production, which will be staged at the Royal Exchange Theatre and will turn the venue into a bingo hall, would “show the journey from the outside of a bingo game to the inside of a bingo game” and was about “the mechanics of hope”.

Bartlett and Acosta are two of the artists who are returning to the festival this year after also being involved in the inaugural event.

Young@Heart, a choir made up of old aged pensioners, are one of the new companies to feature at this year’s event. They will premiere their final ever production – End of the Road – at MIF09.

On the classical music front, JS Bach’s solo works will be performed in a specially constructed installation at the Manchester Art Gallery, while The Halle will perform with rock group Elbow. Malian music duo Amadou and Mariam will perform with the Beating Wing Orchestra in the world music highlight of the festival.

Popular music highlights include Kraftwerk, Lou Reed and Anthony & The Johnsons, as well De La Soul.

Around 30% of this year’s festival will be free, including a number of events held at a specially constructed theatre stage alongside the Festival Pavilion in Manchester’s Albert Square.

The first festival attracted an audience of more than 200,000 people and secured the greatest amount of sponsorship ever raised by a UK arts festival, breaking even on a £9 million turnover. Its principal sponsor Bruntwood was awarded The Stage’s Award for Outstanding Achievement in Regional Theatre at the 2007 Theatrical Management Association Awards.

MIF 09 will run from July 2 to 19.