Our now regular Pay What You Decide Autumn season takes a trip on the Brexit train, and then curls up under a warm duvet. Before all that join us for Emergency — while ongoing austerity says go small, we’ve gone big with some 30 performances in just the one day… To keep in touch, sign-up for our Weekly Warning e-mail.

Brought to you by hÅb — with Sustained Theatre Up North, Z-arts, The Lowry — we look forward to seeing you at some or all of Autumn/Winter 2018. If you want to check out what happened last season take a look at our Spring/Summer 2018 archive, and if you came to an event please help us by taking a few minutes to fill out our online survey.

What is Word of Warning + where did it come from?

Consistently refreshing and surprising, no season is ever the same…

Simply put, Word of Warning is a one-stop shop for the bonkers, the beautiful and the bizarre of new live performance — an attempt to keep alive the best of the 25 year greenroom legacy, and to introduce new people to the possibilities of seeing live work in Manchester + beyond…

…a strand of alternative and fledgling work that has only recently got a new lease of life via Word of Warning and Emergency.
Creative Tourist on Manchester theatre (November 2014)

We take live work very seriously — but we don’t take ourselves seriously at all. Over the past 6½ years we’ve shown funny, thought-provoking, beautiful work by the likes of FK Alexander, Jo Bannon, Richard DeDomenici, Eggs Collective, Nic Green, Ria Hartley, Stacy Makishi, Kim Noble, Deborah Pearson, Darren Pritchard, Proto-type Theater + Greg Wohead, amongst others. We’ve also created bonkers all ages live art (Haphazard), hosted Hunt & Darton’s pop-up art-café, unleashed bizarre behaviour upon Manchester’s city centre (Hazard), and created performance festivals in blocks of flats (Domestic).

Curated by the ever-impressive Word Of Warning…
The Guardian’s Lyn Gardner, on Domestic (November 2013)

Who’s it for? Anyone looking for a different night (or day) out.

We don’t want to put you off by talking labels — yes there’ll be theatre, live art, dance — the aim is to be anything but elitist or po-faced. So if you like comedy, music, gaming or just a friendly, stimulating evening — there’ll be something you might want to take a chance on.

What our audiences have said about the work

Astonishing. Like nothing else. Transformative, immersive, moving.
Brave, dark, humerous, intimate, intense.
Heartwarming, funny + engaging.
Strangely mesmeric. A unique experience.
Very enjoyable — felt accessible and thus enjoyable to all.
You programme wonderful, daring performances that I have never been disappointed by.

Who is Word of Warning?

My name’s Tamsin Drury and I run an organisation called hÅb, which was greenroom’s partner for over a decade. You might not know hÅb but you might know some of our events — like Emergency (Manchester’s free marathon of live work, now in its nineteenth year) and Hazard (biennial random sprees of eccentricity in Manchester’s City Centre).

I’ve been around a while, a really long while… and in that time, I’ve been responsible for making the Arndale Tower flash, wrapping Cathedral Gardens in 7km of hazard tape, and encouraging a mass audience conga and a glitter-cannon Hallelujah chorus! On the less eccentric side, over the years hÅb has also worked with literally hundreds of young NW artists to help them create new pieces of theatre + dance.

Please send programming enquiries to me at info@habmcr.org

I’m joined in this lunacy by John Franklin, greenroom’s long time programme co-ordinator, the friendly face greeting you and eliciting your feedback at many of our events; we’re grateful for the support of Catherine (Cat) Shaw, and our occasional band of hÅbettes.

What our audiences have said about us

Always special, bringing the unexpected and intriguing, thank you.
Bringing some of the most interesting performance work in the world to our city.
Fabulous for seeing things different from the mainstream machine.
Great organisation — a reason to move to Manchester.
I don’t know what I would do with my spare time without you.
Refreshing company that brings diverse shows to our door steps.
WoW are great, supporting emerging work and bringing it to new audiences.

Performance Programme Autumn/Winter 2018

Please note all events are Pay What You Decide
Sat 6 Oct, 12noon-10pm. PWYD | Z-arts
Emergency 2018
Wed 10 Oct, 8pm. PWYD | The Lowry
One Last Dance — An Chéad Damhsa
Wed 21 Nov, 7pm. PWYD | The Lowry
The Comforter