From meditations on mortality to a life-affirming floral tribute, by way of canine beauty pageants and a dose of gallows humour. A season of choice…

In Spring 2014 you’ll mainly find us ensconced in Contact, starting with the return of Proto-type Theater in their operatic and lushly visual take on Camus’s L’Etranger, followed by a series of highly varied one-handers as part of Flying Solo Festival 2014 — from Rachel Mars’s take on the stand-up experience to the marvellous Victoria Melody being upstaged by her scene-stealing basset hound.

Two Destination Language (Katherina Radeva + Alister Lownie) return to Word of Warning, filling the stage with hundreds of flowers in what one of my advisors described as one of the best shows they’d ever seen; we also see the third outing for Turn at Contact.

We’re genuinely excited to be trying out a brand new space — the newly equipped STUN Studio at Z-arts — with a double bill on ageing featuring Manchester’s own Nicki Hobday + Sara Cocker and Forest Fringe’s Ira Brand.

After Easter we head into a Spring/Summer extension, with the third Works Ahead, the second Flare Weekender, and the fifth Hazard takes Manchester city centre by surprise with more random sprees of eccentricity.

Really hoping to see you at some of our forthcoming programme; if you want to check out what happened last season, have a look at our A/W 2013 archive.

####What is Word of Warning and where did it come from? Simply put, Word of Warning is a one-stop shop for the bonkers, the beautiful and the bizarre of 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.

We take live work very seriously — but we don’t take ourselves seriously at all. In 2012, alongside funny, thought-provoking, beautiful work by the likes of Third Angel, Ellie Harrison, GETINTHEBACKOFTHEVAN, Levantes Dance Theatre, Action Hero, Richard DeDomenici, Made In China and many more, we served the audience gin and satsuma jello shots, played bingo, apple-bobbing, drenched them in confetti and reinvented St Andrews Day with snowballs and whisky macs.

For 2013 we presented a whirlwind of work from artists including Lowri Evans, Hetain Patel, Michael Pinchbeck, the vacuum cleaner + Stacy Makishi, also creating a bonkers day of live art for all ages (Haphazard) and a performance festival for a 70s block of flats (Domestic).

Curated by the ever-impressive Word Of Warning, Domestic consists of seven offbeat shows staged in a 1970s tower block in Hulme.
The Guardian’s Lyn Gardner, on Domestic

####Who’s it for? Anyone looking for a different night 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 people have said about the shows (audience 2013).

Made me laugh, made me cry, made me cry with laughing. Loved it.
Very original and enjoyable, I have never attended anything like this before. Truly thought provoking.
The best £5 I’ve ever spent… A joy…
Intriguing from the beginning. Original. I will be thinking about it for weeks.
Loved the space / such a unique experience to share with strangers!
…Surely this is precisely what a theatre is for.

What people have said about us (audience 2013).

A brilliant project — its great to know when interesting, creative contemporary performance is on in the area.
Nice to come across such an imaginative organisation.
A really eclectic and engaging programme of intimate work in a series of exciting and unique spaces.
Bold and brave programming.

####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 with 40 shows in 3 venues) and Hazard (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@habarts.org

I’m joined in this lunacy by John Franklin, greenroom’s long time programme coordinator. Often spotted in a hat or proffering a variety of bizarre refreshments, John is the friendly face greeting you and eliciting your feedback at many of our events.