Works Ahead 2026

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Presented by Word of Warning + Contact

Our annual sample of new performance returns to Contact with new works-in-development from n:u (melissandre varin) in May and Nathan Birkinshaw in June; Lisa Ford is also developing an idea for future presentation…

28 May, 7.30pm & 29 May, 6.30pm
n:u (melissandre varin)

11 June, 6pm-9pm
Nathan Birkinshaw — guest appearance in Social Experiment.

Works

n:u (melissandre varin) · evil eyes

evil eyes directly confronts the power dynamics embedded in gaze.

The evil eye is a belief, found across many cultures, that someone can cause harm just by looking at you. Some believe that it is put upon us by others, while some believe that it comes from our own pride.

Instead of ignoring or repulsing the energy of the evil eye, this performance-ritual demands its mobilisation and transmutation. Shadows and unprocessed energies are welcomed, acknowledged, and transformed — with both hands.

Attuning to ancestral and contemporary rituals around the evil eye, n:u traces the contours of emotions and energies that transcend binaries of good and evil.

You are invited to enter this performance-ritual experimenting with ancient cosmologies: Vodún figures of the twins, Celtic folklore, and African knowledge systems.

n:u is an atmosphere-maker with a practice rooted in Congolese, Guadeloupean, and Beninese heritages. Building upon (more than) human, cross-border collaborations, they unearth ancestral ceremonies to be with change. They play with unexpected pairings between materials, bodies, and concepts — disrupting colonial binaries and dominant narratives.

Nathan Birkinshaw · How To Be Content

“Making peace with the fact this might be it.”

An exploration of contentment, led by a man brimming with mediocrity.

Through film, performance, song, and an increasingly questionable process, comes a show that investigates how to find meaning in the mundane — that somehow becomes increasingly more performative itself as time slips by.

Nathan is a performance artist, comedian, and theatre-maker whose work blends humour with the explorations of being human and the general absurdity of what comes with that responsibility (or lack thereof).
With an unhealthy obsession with the internet, you’re just as likely to find him there as well as showing work in theatres, back rooms of pubs, and having work appearing on BBC Radio.

Lisa Ford · Four rows back and on the other side of the aisle

Did you notice when they caught your eye, brushed past your elbow, tapped the table, left a coffee cup, raised their voice, held the door?

Lisa is a theatre-maker and dramaturg, she takes threads, some yours, some hers, some found in streets, in shop doorways, or in libraries. Often the threads are words and images or conversations with people, she weaves these together to create a fabric of collective feeling.

Entry

n:u (melissandre varin) · evil eyes

Pay What You Can: £10/£5/£2 (advance booking recommended).

Tickets: available online via Contact for 28 & 29 May.

Times: Thursday 28 May 2026, 7.30pm and Friday 29 May 2026, 6.30pm.
Duration: up to 75 minutes without interval.

SICK! Festival: on Friday 29 May at 8pm you can also see Philosophy of the World by In Bed With My Brother after evil eyes.

Location: Contact, Oxford Rd, Manchester M15 6JA.

Access

n:u (melissandre varin) · evil eyes

Age Advisory: 18+

Content Warnings: please click here.

Features: a performance-ritual with varied content including potential participation; occurs in Space 2 on the second floor, a studio space with seating.

Queries: please contact Contact via boxoffice@contactmcr.com

About

Each year since 2012, Works Ahead has invited artists to dig deeper into work presented at the previous year’s Emergency or other platform event.

A project developed out of the old Method Lab & SeedFund schemes which hÅb ran with greenroom until 2011; Works Ahead has offered 39 small, supported, work-in-development commissions for artists over the past fifteen years — often in partnership with Contact.

Credits

Works Ahead 2026 commissioned by hÅb and Contact; produced by hÅb; supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
Project Mentor: Peader Kirk

evil eyes
Artistic Direction, Concept, Performance, Choreography, Scenography: n:u (melissandre varin)
Performer: Liz Ord
Spiritual Advisors: a Seer in Senegal; a Vodún priest in Benin
Audio Contributions: Peader Kirk; n:u (melissandre varin)
Special thanks to Aïssatou Ciss, Leila Bencharnia.

Websites

worksahead.org

n:u (melissandre varin) — atmosphere-maker.org · Insta @nu.melissandre.varin

Nathan Birkinshaw — Insta @nathanbirkinshaw · YouTube @nathanbirkinshaw

Lisa Ford — Insta @lisaf0rd

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