Word of Warning — Weekly Warning

While celebrities worry about being murdered before breakfast, the rest of us face an equally brutal choice: what to see in an impossibly crowded fortnight…

This weekend, in Manchester, BREATHE: Dance & Poetry Slam 2026 is at Aviva Studios on Sat 3 Oct.

Further afield, Sheffield’s Open Works Festival continues with Oluwasegun Lafup Ogundipe’s KalakutHER: Queen of Fela’s Republic (WIP) at the Montgomery Theatre on Fri 2 Oct and Forced Entertainment’s Cold Sweat at the Playhouse on Fri 2 + Sat 3 Oct.

In Liverpool, Ugly Bucket’s STUFFED is at Unity on Fri 2 + Sat 3 Oct. In Yorkshire, Ballet Nights is at Leeds Playhouse on Fri 2 Oct; Company Chameleon’s Obscura is at Riley Theatre, Leeds on Sat 3 Oct; and LUNG’s Woodhill is at Barnsley Civic, also on Sat 3 Oct.

Next week (w/c 5 Oct) things get extraordinarily busy: Lowry has a range of things: Ontroerend Goed’s Thanks for Being Here on Tue 6 + Wed 7 Oct. Special offer £5 ticket here.
Plus CIRKO’s Yes Person – Based on Kimberley on Thu 8 Oct and Natalie Reckert’s Songs for an Unwritten Sky on Fri 9 + Sat 10 Oct. Use code CIRCUS08 for £8 tickets to both. (nb both incur booking fee). 

At Aviva Studios, Ahmed Masoud’s Application 39 is on Fri 9 + Sat 10 Oct.

Also in Manchester, Auris Festival takes place from Fri 9-Sun 11 Oct, with performances from Nik Colk Void, Francisco López, Lee Patterson, Lola de la Mata, Ryoko Akama, Robin The Fog and WEȽ∝KER.

In Sheffield, Open Works continues with a Scratch Afternoon featuring Lora Krasteva and Nam Huh at the Montgomery Studio, followed by Scratch Night 2 with Jessica Millward, Callum Berridge, Victoria Marrett and Jas Nisic at the Playhouse, both on Mon 5 Oct; LUNG’s Woodhill at the Playhouse on Tue 6 + Wed 7 Oct; and Alex Kelly/Voyager 3’s The Thin Places (WIP) at the Montgomery Studio on Fri 9 Oct.

Elsewhere in Yorkshire, Matthew Tweedle’s D Is For Dyslexia is at Lawrence Batley Theatre, Huddersfield on Wed 7 Oct; Victoria Firth & Company’s BATTY! is at Settle Victoria Hall on Thu 8 Oct; and Grandly Strange’s stuff Of Life is at Slung Low’s Warehouse in Holbeck on Sat 10 Oct.

In Liverpool, Jasmin Vardimon’s Lullaby is at the Playhouse on Fri 9 Oct; while in Lancaster, Ontroerend Goed’s Thanks for Being Here is at Lancaster Arts, also on Fri 9 Oct.

The following week (w/c 12 Oct) shows no sign of calming down. In Mancunia, LUNG’s Woodhill is at Lowry from Tue 13-Sat 17 Oct. At Waterside, Sale, Theatre North/Martin Lewton’s The Luxurious Time: A Queer Love Story is on Thu 15 Oct; while Stay in Those Colours: Release – Live Performance is at Aviva Studios on Sun 18 Oct.

In Yorkshire, Victoria Firth & Company’s BATTY! is at The Muni, Colne on Tue 13 Oct; Matthew Tweedle’s D Is For Dyslexia is at Barnsley Civic on Wed 14 Oct; Off-Grid is at Sheffield Playhouse on Thu 15 Oct; and Imogen Reeve & Co.’s Mother Computer, Folk Dances from the Future is at stage@leeds, also on Thu 15 Oct.

In Lancashire, Forced Entertainment’s Cold Sweat is at Lancaster Arts on Wed 14 Oct, followed by Tim Etchells and Bert & Nasi’s L’Addition on Fri 16 Oct.

On Merseyside, Blackout is at The Atkinson, Southport on Wed 14 Oct; Caitlin Barnett Dance Co.’s Comrades in the Dark is at Unity, Liverpool on Fri 16 + Sat 17 Oct; and on Sat 17 Oct, Off Grid is at Shakespeare North Playhouse and Liverpool Scratch Network’s Scratch Night is Downstairs at the Everyman.

Much further afield, Fierce Festival takes over Birmingham from Wed 14-Sun 18 Oct, featuring Chou Tung-Yen, Ligia Lewis, Wojciech Grudziński, Faye Driscoll, n (melissandre varin), Justine A. Chambers, Shannon Cochrane, Hana Umeda, Ewa Dziarnowska, Dana Michel, SERAFINE1369, Josh Anio Grigg, Dickie Beau, Helen Noir and Steven Cohen.

Keep checking our News + Information page for more pointers to opportunities and show videos online, and @WarnMcr on Twitter (X if you must) for short-notice performances.

Notes for Artists — Social Experiment remains open for proposals for the 19 November edition, deadline 2 Nov, midday.

Best

Tamsin

@WarnMcr: Bsky | Fb | Insta | X | YT

Information for artists: habmcr.org

No. 586/ FY 18