Faggots and their Friends, dimensional moving photography, Sonic Geography & AFRODEUTSCHE: Manchester International Festival 2023

Philip Venables & Ted Huffman
(Photo: Dominic Mercier)

This year's Manchester International Festival runs from 29 June to 16 July 2023, organised by Factory International, artistic director John McGrath. Amongst the myriad of artistic events on offer at the festival, the classical music programme will feature the world premiere of a musical adaptation of Larry Mitchell and Ned Asta’s cult 1977 book The Faggots and Their Friends Between Revolutions, created by composer Philip Venables and director Ted Huffman. The work is a reimagining of the history of the world through a queer lens with a cast of actors, singers and musicians.

Philip Venables said: "Faggots and their Friends is both a joyful and sinister bedtime story, a playful re-telling of 'how we got where we are today', with song, music, dancing, improvisation, storytelling and heaps of glorious faggotry."

Composer and musician Ryuichi Sakamoto is collaborating with Tin Drum on KAGAMI, a mixed-reality concert event fusing dimensional moving photography with the real world. Whatever that means! We are assured that audiences are invited to wear optically transparent devices to view the virtual Sakamoto performing on piano alongside dimensional art aligned with the music.

Sonic Geography will feature a group of contemporary works, performed by the BBC Philharmonic, pianist Ralph Van Raat, conductor Vimbayi Kaziboni, in music by John Luther Adams, Alissa Firsova and Ailís Ní Ríain.

DJ, composer and producer AFRODEUTSCHE joins the Manchester Camerata for an evening merging contemporary classical, techno, house and electro. And Anna Meredith joins forces with the Royal Northern College of Music Festival Orchestra for a one-off performance of Meredith's album FIBS.

Other visitors include trans pioneer and icon of the cabaret scene, Justin Vivian Bond, and Alan Lane directs a performance of Britten's community opera Noyes Fludde with the Manchester Collective alongside an army of performers from communities in Holbeck and Manchester.

Full details from the festival website.