Theatre News

HOME unveils 2018 season

The Manchester venue will host premieres and touring shows across 2018, as well as work from Hofesh Shechter and Annie Baker

HOME Manchester
HOME Manchester
© Paul Karalius

HOME has unveiled its plans for 2018, including co-commissions with Hofesh Shechter Company and Citizens Theatre Glasgow as well as work with Olivier Award-winning director Bijan Sheibani.

Hofesh Shechter Company will bring their new show Grand Finale to HOME from 31 January, in a co-commissioned with the Manchester venue. A group of ten dancers will play out a new tragic-comic piece with live music. The show features design from Tom Scutt and lighting from Tom Visser, and runs until 3 February.

Sheibani, who oversaw Barbershop Chronicles (which will return to the National later this year after a run last year), will direct Pulitzer Prize-winner Annie Baker's Circle Mirror Transformation, in the show's first major revival since it ran at the Royal Court in 2013. Set in a creative drama class, the show sees five strangers go through a series of exercises and drama games. The show runs from 9 to 24 March.

Dominic Hill will direct Eugene O'Neill's Pulitzer Prize-winning Long Day's Journey Into Night in May, returning to the venue after 2016's Endgame. Hill is artistic director of Glasgow's Citizen's Theatre, with which HOME co-presents the show from 9 to 26 May.

From 20 April to 5 May, HOME will present Corrido de la Sangre alongside Grammy-nominated The Tiger Lilles as part of the ¡Viva! festival. Set in a small town on the Mexico-US border, the show will feature mythical elements from Aztec culture, mingled with present-day circumstances.

Chigozie Obioma's The Fishermen will premiere at the venue on 19 to 28 July, in an adaptation for the stage by Gbolahan Obisesan. Directed by Jack McNamara, the original book was shortlisted for the Man Booker prize. It details the life of four young brothers in a small Nigerian town.

The festival will also contain Lola Aries' Minefield, which ran at the Royal Court in 2016. Performed by six Falklands/Malvinas veterans, the show reflects on legacies of collective war experiences. The show runs from 12 to 14 April in the show's main space.

HOME will present a variety of productions over the course of the season, including Actors Touring Company and Orange Tree's Winter Solstice between 13 and 17 February. Roland Schimmelpfennig opened at the Orange Tree in January 2017. Sheffield-based company The Bare Project will present On The Outskirts of a Large Event between 21 and 24 February, while Kneehigh's Flying Lovers of Vitebsk will make a stopover visit between 3 and 7 April. Breach Theatre will debut their new piece ''The Drill from 14 to 16 June, after previous performances won rave reviews in Edinburgh. There will also be shows from Sh!t Theatre, Action Hero, Shôn Dale-Jones, Elysium North and David Hoyle throughout the season.

HOME's Christmas season will see two shows running across December. For families, Catherine Wheels will present White from 13 to 23 December, a show about two birdkeepers protecting eggs at night from 13 . The venue will also present Släpstick from Släpstick from 13 to 22 December, a tribute to Charlie Chaplin and the Marx Brothers, all with a modern twist. The show won the Spirit of the Fringe Award in Edinburgh earlier this year.