Only six weeks to go until Santa arrives and here at HOME we have a whole bunch of activities planned to get you into a festive mood in the lead up to the big day…
Get your celebrations off to an early start on Fri 9 December with a party you won’t want to miss. Inspired by Robert Zemeckis’s much-loved 1985 favourite Back to the Future, the free event will kick-off our A Very 80s Christmas season complete with film screening, Enchantment Under The Sea-themed disco and a very special visit from the DeLorean Time Machine, time-travelling to Tony Wilson Place in partnership with First Street Manchester.
Our ground floor bar will be transformed into a kitsch, underwater setting inspired by the high-school prom that Marty McFly gatecrashes to save his family’s future. Local artists have been commissioned to create sea-themed ‘your face here’ standees, ranging from mermaids, King Neptune and eaten-by-an-octopus. The bar will be serving classic 80s cocktails plus authentic diner-type hotdogs and steaming piles of mac’n cheese to keep revellers fuelled and able to air-guitar with gusto, with complementary soap bubbles distributed to enthusiastic dancers and the best/worst-dressed.
Vintage 78 DJs will play original vintage 78rpm shellac vinyl records from the 1950s in homage to McFly’s time travels and from 22:04 – the exact time in the film at which the clock tower is struck by lightning – we’ll be fast-forwarded to 1985 when DJ Christopher Dresden Styles, assisted by drag queen, dancer and choreographer extraordinaire Tilly Skreams from Pop Curious? will play the best 1980s tunes.
A Very 80s Christmas continues throughout December with classics The Dark Crystal, Santa Claus: The Movie (including three schools’ performances), Scrooged, Little Shop of Horrors, The Thing, and finally three screenings of The Princess Bride, including a relaxed and a ‘Bring the Family’ screening.
The Christmas fun continues in our theatres. Ideal for children aged two to five, WOW! Said the Owl, presented by Little Angel Theatre between Wed 14 – Fri 30 December, lets young audience members explore the wow-world of colours with a curious little owl who is determined to stay awake to see what daylight brings. The production brings the acclaimed children’s book by award-winning author Tim Hopgood stunningly to life in a 35-minute show that blends beautiful storytelling, puppetry, and music.
In Yule Be Sorry: A Christmas Cabaret, on Fri 16 December, post-drag, post-gender, performance avalanche and avant-garde legend, Manchester’s own David Hoyle, presents an unmissable evening of high comedy, sound, vision, paint, and song. For this special festive performance, David is joined by London’s award-winning cabaret stars Bourgeois & Maurice and Jonny Woo. Bourgeois & Maurice are a musical duo with style as sharp as their wit. Part cabaret, part theatre, part catwalk freak show, their music explores the mundane absurdity of modern life and wraps it up neatly in a catchy pop hook. Armed with acid wit, a piano and several inches of make-up, the pair are innovative, provocative, irresistible, and a dynamic and debauched must-see. Jonny Woo is arguably the queen of London’s alternative drag scene. Woo has stamped his mark across London and New York as a host, compere, DJ and performer over the past decade. Lauded by New York performance artist Taylor Mac (“I saw Jonny Woo and I realised that drag can be anything you want it to be”), his hilarious pop-culture parodies have rocketed him to the ranks of one of the most outrageous, boldest alternative performance artists in the UK.
On Thu 8 December we have a performance of The Nutcracker, presented by the Royal Ballet, live from the Royal Opera House in London. Peter Wright’s version from 1984 is regarded as the production par excellence of this timeless family favourite.
And on Fri 16 December, First Street Manchester will provide a festive atmosphere with Christmas singing around a 20ft tree, snow machine, hot chestnuts, pretzels and candy floss. And you can catch the ultimate feel-good Christmas film It’s a Wonderful Life with James Stewart, and a one-off screening of the original 1947 film Miracle on 34th Street.
We hope to see you there! #HoHoHOME