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Press release — 19 November 2014
BRIAN COX, WAYNE MCGREGOR, OLAFUR ELIASSON, JAMIE XX,
FRAMESTORE, KEVIN MACDONALD, JUSTIN FLETCHER & MAGIC LEAP
ANNOUNCED TODAY FOR FIRST SHOWS OF MIF15
Nadja Coyne
Press & PR Director
+44 (0)161 817 4505
nadja.coyne@mif.co.uk
Manchester International Festival announces the first three shows for the 2015 Festival, the
fifth edition of the world’s only biennial of new commissions and special events.
www.mif.co.uk
Running 2 – 19 July 2015, the MIF15 programme will include:
TREE OF CODES – a new contemporary ballet directed and choreographed by Wayne
McGregor with music composed by Jamie xx and visual concept by Olafur Eliasson
Page 1 of 4
THE AGE OF STARLIGHT – Professor Brian Cox writes and presents, Kevin MacDonald
directs a new kind of show about the history of the universe. Technology by Rony Abovitz
and Magic Leap, CGI by Tim Webber and Framestore
THE TALE OF MR TUMBLE – a new theatre show for young children and families; Justin
Fletcher invites audiences to step inside the colourful world of one of our most cherished
TV characters
More details below, including press performances and prices.
Tickets go on sale at 10am on 20 November via www.mif.co.uk or 0844 871 7654
The Festival launched in 2007 as an artist-led, commissioning festival presenting new
works from across the spectrum of performing arts, visual arts and popular culture.
Some highlights of previous festivals include premieres of Steve McQueen’s
commemoration of fallen British soldiers, Queen and Country; Damon Albarn, Jamie
Hewlett and Chen Shi-Zheng's Chinese opera Monkey: Journey to the West; Björk's three
week Biophilia residency; director Robert Wilson's The Life and Death of Marina
Abramović, starring Abramović, Willem Dafoe and Antony, and Kenneth Branagh’s
Macbeth.
The Festival works with co-commissioning partners around the world to create and present
new productions; 28 MIF shows have gone on to have a life outside the Festival, visiting
Park Avenue Armory, New York, Ruhrtriennale in Germany, Abu Dhabi Music and Arts
Festival, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Festival d’Automne in Paris, Spoleto Festival Italy
and many more.
In addition to income from co-commissioners and ticket sales, MIF receives support from
private sponsorship, individuals and trusts and foundations. This money is raised by
building on the solid support MIF enjoys from Manchester City Council and Arts Council
England, our principal public funders. The top tier sponsors for the 2015 Festival are
Bruntwood, Doubletree by Hilton, Manchester Airports Group, NCP and PZ Cussons.
The full programme for MIF15 will be announced in February 2015.
For more information,
images, quotes and
interview requests
please contact:
Manchester International Festival has a low cost ticket scheme for local audiences: a
number of tickets for every performance of every show will be on sale exclusively for
Greater Manchester residents at just £12. These tickets are for residents who earn less
than £14k.
Nadja Coyne
Press & PR Director
+44 (0)161 817 4505
nadja.coyne@mif.co.uk
The aim is to make more of the Festival more accessible to local people on a lower wage.
Some of these tickets will be available from the box office online and by phone on a first
come first served, honesty basis. The Festival will also be working with existing networks in
Greater Manchester to identify audiences who qualify for this scheme.
www.mif.co.uk
Page 2 of 4
TREE OF CODES
Opera House, Manchester
7 performances, 2 – 10 July 2015
Press performance 3 July
Tickets £12 - £45, on sale at 10am on 20 November via www.mif.co.uk or 0844 871 7654
+ £1.25 ATG restoration levy + one off transaction fee (no per ticket booking fee)
Wayne McGregor
Director and choreographer Olafur Eliasson
Visual concept Jamie xx
Composer
Inspired by Tree of Codes by Jonathan Safran Foer
Manchester International Festival is bringing together the choreographer Wayne
McGregor, visual artist Olafur Eliasson and Mercury Prize-winning producer/composer
Jamie xx to create a contemporary ballet inspired by the book Tree of Codes by Jonathan
Safran Foer.
Soloists and dancers from The Paris Opera Ballet alongside Wayne McGregor | Random
Dance will form the company, who will perform in an environment created by Eliasson to a
score composed by Jamie xx.
Safran Foer’s novel is literally carved from the text of Bruno Schulz’ Street of Crocodiles;
words and phrases are cut from the pages to produce an entirely different story. The
creative team has worked together over the last two years to make a contemporary ballet
that responds to this remarkable and beautiful artwork.
'Jonathan Safran Foer's enigmatic novel Tree of Codes is an immersive sculptural work
that brilliantly hovers between words and spaces, surfaces and layers, pasts and futures.
Its post apocalyptic narrative and reinvention of the process of reading itself catapults your
imagination into bracing liminal states. These blurred and disorientating worlds provide a
powerful point of departure for our collaboration on stage --- where constellations of light,
shadows, bodies, objects and sound dance at the edges of darkness.' Wayne McGregor
‘Clearly Jamie's music can't live without movement and space. Clearly Wayne's
choreography can't live without sound and space. Clearly my art can't live without sound
and movement. Clearly creativity can change the world.’ Olafur Eliasson
For more information,
images, quotes and
interview requests
please contact:
Nadja Coyne
Press & PR Director
+44 (0)161 817 4505
nadja.coyne@mif.co.uk
The company
From Paris Opera Ballet: Aurelie Dupont (Etoile), Marie-Agnes Gillot (Etoile), Jeremie
Belingard (Etoile), Eve Grinsztajn (Premiers Danseur), Sebastian Bertaud (Sujet), Julien
Meyzindi (Sujet)
From Wayne McGregor | Random Dance: Catarina Carvalho, Travis Clausen-Knight,
Alvaro Dule, Michael-John Harper, Louis McMiller, Daniela Neugebauer, Anna Nowak,
James Pett, Fukiko Takase, Jessica Wright
Commissioned by Manchester International Festival, Park Avenue Armory, Paris Opera
Ballet, Sadler’s Wells and FAENA ART
www.mif.co.uk
Produced by Manchester International Festival, Paris Opera Ballet and Wayne McGregor |
Random Dance
Page 3 of 4
Supported by the PRS Foundation for Music
MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL PRESENTS
THE AGE OF STARLIGHT
Professor Brian Cox, Kevin MacDonald, Rony Abovitz and Magic Leap,
Tim Webber and Framestore, Peter Saville
“Standing on a well-cooled cinder, we see the slow fading of the suns, and we try to recall
the vanished brilliance of the origin of the worlds.” George Lemaitre
Audiences at Manchester International Festival will experience The Age of Starlight: a
world first show about the origin of the universe and everything within and without it.
Brought to life by inventor Rony Abovitz and the team at Magic Leap, Professor Brian
Cox will tell the story of the unlikely events that have led to our existence.
Directed by Oscar-winner Kevin MacDonald (Last King of Scotland, One Day in
September), The Age of Starlight will feature computer-generated imagery created by
Oscar-winner Tim Webber and Framestore, the VFX team responsible for the film Gravity.
Peter Saville is consultant Art Director for Age of Starlight.
“The Age of Starlight will invite an audience to face the biggest questions about our
existence, our place within the universe, and the origin of our universe itself, using new
technology to create an experience beyond anything that has been possible before.”
Professor Brian Cox
“MIF has assembled a remarkable group of people to tell a complex and beautiful story
about where we’ve been, where we are and where we’re going - in a completely new way.
Over the last two years we have dreamed up a genuinely radical and truly experimental
project, at the very limits of what is possible. It’s a risk, but it’s one worth taking.”
Alex Poots, CEO & Artistic Director, Manchester International Festival
For more information,
images, quotes and
interview requests
please contact:
Nadja Coyne
Press & PR Director
+44 (0)161 817 4505
nadja.coyne@mif.co.uk
www.mif.co.uk
Page 4 of 4
Originally conceived by Brian Cox, Peter Saville and Alex Poots
The Age of Starlight is commissioned by Manchester International Festival.
The film for The Age of Starlight is produced by Manchester International Festival and DNA.
Supported by The Granada Foundation and The Stavros Niarchos Foundation
THE TALE OF MR TUMBLE
Starring Justin Fletcher
Written by Will Brenton and Justin Fletcher
Opera House, Manchester
14 performances, 13 – 18 July 2015
Press performance 2.30pm, 13 July
Tickets £12 - £25, on sale at 10am on 20 November via www.mif.co.uk or 0844 871 7654
+ £1.25 ATG restoration levy + one off transaction fee (no per ticket booking fee)
All children’s tickets £12 + £1.25 ATG restoration levy
Manchester International Festival has invited Justin Fletcher to create The Tale of Mr
Tumble, a very special new show for children and their families in the glorious and intimate
surroundings of Manchester’s Opera House.
This funny, moving and visually exciting show gives children the chance to see Mr Tumble
live and up close as he tells his own improbable life story.
Audiences will find out exactly how he became the joyful entertainer familiar to so many,
following his journey from bouncing baby Tumble (with his bright red nose already in place),
through his singing and dancing school years, right up to the present day.
‘MIF and Justin Fletcher have a shared interest in making really good work for young
audiences. He’s a superstar in the world of children’s TV, but his work is clearly part of a
long tradition, and there's a line that stretches from Justin all the way through his teacher
Jack Tripp and back to Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin and the greats of silent comedy. I
hope that seeing Mr Tumble live and in the flesh in the historic setting of the Opera House
will spark a life-long love of theatre in our youngest audiences.’ Alex Poots, CEO & Artistic
Director, MIF
Mr Tumble will be joined by his friends and family including Grandpa Tumble and Justin,
and introducing Tootsie. Featuring songs new and old and a choir of Makaton signing stars,
there will be plenty of opportunities for audience participation in this high energy event.
Written by Justin Fletcher and Will Brenton, The Tale of Mr Tumble will be a real
opportunity to step inside the colourful world of one of our most cherished TV characters.
Commissioned by MIF Creative
Produced by Manchester International Festival