From a resonant embrace to a city takeover bid, a season of twists and turns; eggs, coffee and spicy moments…

Brought to you by hÅb with Derelict, UCLan, the Whitworth, Contact, Dance Manchester, HOME, The Lowry + The Place, we look forward to seeing you at some or all of Spring/Summer 2016. If you want to check out what happened last season take a look at our Spring 2016 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?

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 have said about us

• …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.