Push is HOME’s annual celebration of the North West’s creative talents, and this year has been reimagined to become a strand across the whole year, allowing work to be seen both live and digitally, despite the coronavirus pandemic.
From September, Push will return to the HOME building, with a combination of live and digital works.
Emmanuel Bajiiji’s Candy Floss (30 September – 2 October) is a charming storytelling piece charting one man’s journey as he reflects on life in Oldham, his new town, in a new country, on a new continent. In Jenni Jackson’s multidisciplinary Endurance (7 – 9 October), the artist explores how we can observe a woman wilfully push herself to the limit, how complicit the audience is with that experience, and how this destruction of the female body echoes through time. Both works are new commissions by HOME.
On 27 October, Kani Kamil and Sherko Abbas’ Brouhaha uses chaotic noise to reflect on social agitation, displacement and the experience of being an Iraqi artist living in the diaspora, and on 29 October, join storyteller and musician Emmanuela Yogolelo for an afternoon exploring the traditions of songs, harmonies, and storytelling of the people living in the Congo basin in Tales from the Congo Basin.
On 6 November, First Dibs: The Assembly is the culmination of award-winning LGBTQ+ led theatre company Dibby Theatre’s first ever First Dibs course, a radical new play-making school led by LGBTQ+ artists, for LGBTQ+ artists. Then on 9 and 10 November, Remi Adefeyisan’s You, Us and Them is a physical theatre and rap production that journeys through the life of two people whose emotions, personalities, and their relationship are constantly being moulded and shaped by the world around them.
Ugly Bucket return to HOME following their incredibly popular Homemakers commissions ABC (Anything But Covid) with Good Grief (11 – 13 November), a high energy maelstrom of clowning, movement, verbatim and thumping techno tracks – that is also a show about death. Then on 16 and 17 November, Susanna Amato’s Landfill of Memories is an autobiographical production, about our relationship with holding onto things and the subsequent place it takes up in our heads, our hearts and our houses.
And on 20 November, Box of Tricks return to HOME with the PlayMakers Takeover, bringing together Northern playwrights and theatremakers to connect, collaborate and create. The day will culminate with a cinema screening of Box of Tricks’ acclaimed stage production SparkPlug (filmed at HOME in 2019) followed by a Q&A with playwright/performer David Judge, last seen in Manchester as Lysander in HOME and Filter Theatre’s outdoor production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
“Thrilling and challenging, HOME’s annual festival is a glimmering reminder that new performance continues to be developed, despite ‘you-know-what’.” – Creative Tourist
In this festival
Opportunities
Push 2021 Call Out / Northern Artist Film (shorts)
We are looking for Artist Films (under 20 mins duration) to be featured in Spit That Out, our annual screening of North West Artist Short Films.
News
Q&A with Jennifer Jackson
We caught up with Jennifer Jackson, creator of Endurance, one of our Push 2021 commissions.
News
Q&A with Holly Rush
Holly Rush talks about why superheroes are relevant again and unusual career paths
News
Q&A with Graeme Arnfield
Graeme Arnefeld talks about how he creates sensory essays through film
News
Q&A with Hope Strickland and Jessica El Mal
Artists Hope Strickland and Jessica El Mal on working together for the first time
News
HOME’s Push festival returns with brand-new commissions and a groundbreaking experimental video game
Festival will be spread across 2021 to allow work to be seen both live and digitally despite coronavirus
News
Q&A with Emmanuel Bajiiji
Emmanuel Bajiji talks about how art can give people confidence to tell their own stories
Previously in this Festival
event
PUSH Artist Film Commissions / Q&A
Join Alice Wilde (Talent Development Producer: Visual Art) and Isabelle Croissant (Talent Development Programme Manager: Film & Digital) for an informal webinar about the HOME…
event
PlayMakers Culture Café 2021
Join Box of Tricks and our family of supported writers for a coffee and a chat about our PlayMakers Network for Northern playwrights and theatremakers.
Theatre
Emmanuela Yogolelo presentsTales from the Congo Basin
A fun, traditional African storytelling and music session, for families with children aged 8+.
Theatre
Dibby Theatre presentsFirst Dibs: The Assembly
Join the First Dibbers as they proudly present work-in-progress sections of five exciting new LGBTQ+ led pieces, at Dibby’s end-of-term assembly.
event
ToolBox Workshop Stage Design
Join us for a 60-minute creative workshop for Northern stage designers led by Box of Tricks’ Associate Designer Katie Scott with Sascha Gilmore and Kirsty…
Theatre
Ugly Bucket presentsGood Grief 2021
Ugly Bucket process the death of a friend in the only way they know how, through a high energy maelstrom of clowning, movement, verbatim and…
Theatre
Susanna Amato presentsLandfill of Memories
Imagine destroying twenty years worth of accumulated memories...could you obliterate your past?
Theatre
Brouhaha 2021 with Kani Kamil and Sherko Abbas
Brouhaha is understood as noise and voice of a state of social agitation. This performance is a new version of the project called When the…
event
PlayMakers Masterclass 2021
Writing from lived experience: A 60-minute practical workshop led by Box of Tricks’ Artistic Director Hannah Tyrrell-Pinder and playwright David Judge (SparkPlug)
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PlayMakers Takeover 2021
Join Box of Tricks for our first ever day-long PlayMakers Takeover as we bring together Northern playwrights and theatremakers to connect, collaborate and create.
Cinema
Online Edition: Spit That Out 2021: North West Artist Film Programme
Online now: Discover a selection of recent work from artists who are living in, working in, hailing from or have studied across the North West.
Cinema
Spit That Out 2021: North West Artist Film Programme + Introduction
Discover a selection of recent work from artists who are living in, working in, hailing from or have studied across the North West.
Exhibition
Venessa Scott: Together We Are
Venessa Scott presents a brand-new mural reflecting on the strength of Manchester and its people. Head to Whitworth Street West (next to Jack Rosenthal Street)…
Cinema
If I could name you myself (I would hold you forever)
Notions of Black resistance and feminist ecologies are explored in this thought-provoking artist film.
event
Closed Hands
An experimental and political video game that explores the complex effects of extremism
Theatre
YOU US & THEM
You, Us and Them is a surreal, physical journey through the lives of two people whose friendship is constantly being tested, moulded and shaped by…
event
Interactive fiction for writers (intermediate)
A workshop for existing writers with some experience in “traditional” linear fiction, exploring how to effectively build a fragmented interactive narrative.
Theatre
Holly Rush presentsSuperhero Alter Ego
Take a surreal, escapist journey into the world of comic books
Theatre
Emmanuel Bajiiji with Flare Productions presentsCandy Floss
This funny, heart-warming and serious one-man show looks at how you find your space in a new place
event
Interactive fiction for writers (beginner)
A workshop exploring the world of interactive fiction and how you can make our very own interactive stories without worrying too much about learning to…
event
Panel Discussion / Muslim representation in games
A discussion focusing on cultural representation within videogames beyond western-centric approaches.
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Panel discussion / Complex storytelling in games
A panel discussion exploring the world of thematically challenging games.
Cinema
Graeme Arnfield: The White Ship
Dissolving between past and present, The White Ship tells the story of workers unwittingly witnessing one of the earliest shipwrecks
event
PUSH 2021 Theatre Commissions/ Q&A
Join Amanda Fawcett, Programme Producer and Davinia Jokhi, Talent Development Producer; Theatre, for an informal webinar about the HOME PUSH Festival Commissions.
Cinema
SparkPlug + Q&A with David Judge
Cinema screening of Box of Tricks’ acclaimed stage production SparkPlug (filmed at HOME in 2019) – a punchy, poetic exploration of family, race, identity and love –…