Book-ended by random horse metaphors, this short, sharp shock of a season spans just six weeks and takes a canter through gender binaries, the darker side of intimacy, stupendous magic and a bonkers bash for the young at heart. Before we ride off into the Easter sunset, you might also just catch us doing some eggy filming out on the streets…

Brought to you by hÅb with Contact, Z-arts, Sustained Theatre Up North (STUN) + SICK! Festival, we look forward to seeing you at some or all of Spring 2016; you can also join our facebook event. If you want to check out what happened last season take a look at our Autumn/Winter 2015 archive, and if you came to an event please help us by taking a few minutes to fill out our online audience survey.

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

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…

We take live work very seriously — but we don’t take ourselves seriously at all. Over the past four years we’ve shown funny, thought-provoking, beautiful work by the likes of Action Hero, Michael Pinchbeck, Ria Hartley, Lowri Evans, the vacuum cleaner, Leentje Van de Cruys + Stacy Makishi 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)
…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)

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 said about the work in A/W 2015

• Lovely show, very personal and connected with the audience.
• Fantastic, atmospheric, with an amazing variety of work.
• Great to have such exciting off beat talent.
• Really open minded and entertaining. Left me deeply moved.
• So impressed. It was an emotional rollercoaster.
• …best live art event I’ve been to in ages.

What our audiences said about us in 2014/2015

• …signed up to the mailing list — my life has been improved since. Been to some amazing performance on your recommendation — thank you.
• Consistently finding, supporting and showcasing the most brilliant and beautiful experiences I have the privilege to witness.
• Always pushing boundaries and testing the waters.
• Offers a variety of performances that challenge traditional theatre.
• …brings work to Manchester that otherwise I couldn’t see.

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 sixteenth 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@habarts.org

I’m joined in this lunacy by John Franklin, greenroom’s long time programme co-ordinator. 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. We are also grateful for the support of a growing band of hÅb-ettes — currently Afreena Islam, Catherine (Cat) Shaw + Sam Stockdale.