Word of Warning — Weekly Warning

As the festival frenzy threatens to fizzle in Mancunia, the hibernian horror is about to heat up!

In these parts you can still catch Claire Cunningham's Thank You Very Much at the Ukrainian Cultural Centre in Cheetham Hill (til Sat 20 Jul) and Animals of Manchester at the Whitworth/Whitworth Park on Sat 20 + Sun 21 Jul.

Refract Festival is in full swing at Waterside Arts, Sale (til Sat 27 Jul) including Kapow's Adrifton Sat 20 Jul; Claire Gaydon's See-Through in double bill with Ransack Theatre's Catching Comets on Sun 21 Jul and next week (w/c 22 Jul) Catching Comets with Beach Body Ready on Mon 22 Jul; Meraki Collective on Wed 24 Jul; Nathaniel Hall (with Fulfilment) on Thu 25 Jul and Motionhouse on Sat 27 Jul.

As promised, looking north and ahead, here are my ramblings on Edinburgh Fringe (2-26 Aug) - so if you've no plans in that direction, you can skip to the end! 

2019 is a British Council Showcase year - which is a good place to start - though much of it may have already been to parts Mancunian (in which case I'm not highlighting it here). While most things on my radar are, as ever, at Summerhall, there's more than a smattering at Zoo Southside + Pleasance, plus a lot of interesting-looking dance at DanceBase, which is where I'd be heading if I had more time.

For my own whistlestop daytrip purposes, on the shortlist is: Cade + McAskill, Emma Frankland, Ontroerend Goed, Scottee + Friends, Catherine Hoffman, Lucy McCormick, Seke Chimutengwende + Alexandrina Hemsley, Louise Orwin, Harry Clayton-Wright, Daniel Hellman, Javaad Alipoor, Dressed, Bryony Kimmings, Mr + Mrs Clark, Ridiculusmus, Concha Vidal.

If you want to dig a bit deeper, once again I've uploaded WoW's long list below (as both pdf and Excel, sorted by artist name). As ever, it's just my pick for my own purposes, largely from paper, and I don't really focus on internationals as they're beyond our programming paygrade. For a tipster more reliable and with broader tastes, you can now find Lyn Gardner's picks via Stagedoor. Usual tips - check dates carefully as you don't want to fall prey to random days off - and my main tip is to log-in to EdFringe, and use the favourites facility (you can then export them as a spreadsheet and sort it as you please - it's what keeps me sane!)

Unless something major crops up, this Weekly Warning is going to go on break now until late August, when I'll be back with what's coming up in the Autumn. 

On a final sad note, we were truly shocked to hear of the death of Dave Murray (QuietmanDave). His was one of the very few strong supportive critical voices out there - as well as just being a lovely man - he'll be very much missed.

Best