Rambert's dance version of It's A Sin and a new Einstein on the Beach head Factory International's 2027 season at Aviva Studios in Manchester. Members can book now, and general sale opens on 20 October.
Factory International has set out its 2027 programme for Aviva Studios, the Manchester venue it opened in 2023. The year marks two decades since the first Manchester International Festival in 2007. Tickets start at £10. Members have access now, AMEX holders from 16 October, and general sale opens on 20 October.
Seven productions make up the theatre, dance and opera side of the season. Three of them arrive in the autumn and go on sale in spring 2027.
It's A Sin by Rambert
Russell T Davies' TV drama It's A Sin becomes a dance piece for Rambert, in a world premiere directed and choreographed by the company's artistic director, Benoit Swan Pouffer. Davies is an executive producer with The Pet Shop Boys and Glyn Fussell. The story follows young lives through love, loss and survival. It runs in The Hall from 16-27 February 2027.
Einstein on the Beach from English National Opera
Philip Glass's opera gets a major new production from English National Opera and Factory International, spread across the Warehouse at Aviva Studios from 29 May - 12 June 2027. Improbable's Phelim McDermott leads the reimagining, joined by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and a large company of singers and performers. It lands in the composer's 90th year and leans on the ideas about time, space and early quantum physics that run through the piece.
DEADLIFT from Bashar Murkus
Palestinian director Bashar Murkus brings DEADLIFT – الحَمّالون for its UK premiere, presented with Shubbak Festival. Performed without spoken text, the visual piece tests the limits of the body as it deals with endurance and rebuilding in Palestine. Al-Harah Theater produces with Boy Jonkergouw Producties and Riksteatern. It runs in The Hall on 5-6 June 2027.
Cinema Tehran by Javaad Alipoor and Chris Thorpe
Javaad Alipoor and Chris Thorpe premiere a new piece rooted in 1978, when thousands of people reported seeing Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's face in the moon. Performance, documentary, projection and visual illusion combine in a look at revolution, mass belief and the stories that shape a nation. It runs in the North Warehouse from 5-10 October 2027.
A Year Without Summer by Florentina Holzinger
Austrian director, choreographer and performance artist Florentina Holzinger takes up a rare UK residency with A Year Without Summer. Its starting point is 1816, the year the Mount Tambora eruption in Indonesia darkened skies worldwide and Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. Twenty-four women and non-binary performers, aged from their 20s to their 80s, take on health, identity, ageing, technology and the limits of the body. It runs in the Warehouse from 14-16 October 2027.
Genesis: The Beginning and End of Time by Gregory Maqoma
South African choreographer Gregory Maqoma returns to Manchester with the UK premiere of a dance opera, with a libretto by Karthika Nair. It draws on the ideas of Aimé Césaire, Frantz Fanon and Steve Biko on Black liberation, and on the defiance of migrant communities across the world. Performances run from 22-24 October 2027.
Party in the Sky by Darren Pritchard
The festive slot goes to the world premiere of Party in the Sky, conceived by Darren Pritchard and developed and co-directed with Vicki Amedume. Circus, dance, drag, theatre, aerial performance and music share the bill, in two versions: a family edition and a late-night club show. Winter 2027 dates are still to be confirmed.
Manchester International Festival also returns, taking over the city from 1-18 July 2027, with its full programme due in March.
John McGrath, artistic director and chief executive of Factory International, said: "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."
Two earlier Factory International premieres reach London this autumn. Radiohead's collaboration with the RSC, Hamlet Hail to the Thief, runs at the Barbican later this month, and English National Opera's Angel's Bone opens at the London Coliseum. The Barbican run is covered in full in this guide to Hamlet Hail to the Thief.
