Projects
Let’s Talk About It!
SICK! Festival commissions outstanding new productions that investigate & reflect upon the urgent themes we address. Local, national and international artists working across art forms develop projects with partners from other sectors including healthcare, academia and the charities sector, creating experiences that are engaging, urgent and rooted in the lives of our communities and neighbourhoods.
MINDSCAPES
WELCOME TO MINDSCAPES MONDAY 19TH APRIL - FRIDAY 16TH MAY 2021 MINDSCAPES is five brand new artworks and online events happening in Manchester from 19th April until 16th May 2021. It explores how the world around us - our homes, our streets, our cities - affects our...
SICK! MENTAL HEALTH ARTS PROGRAMME (SMASH)
As part of our 10-year + commitment to Moston and Harpurhey (North Manchester) we have launched SICK! Mental Health Arts Programme (SMASH!), a creative social prescribing project offering a range of creative, innovative experiences designed to: Help improve how...
DDD15: DEATH, DIVERSITY & DECOLONISATION
SICK! Festival has been invited by Manchester Metropolitan University, on behalf of the Association ofor the Study of Death and Society to deliver a programme of cultural events as part of the 15th International Conference on the Social Context of Death, Dying and...
INHERITED RESILIENCE
VOLUME OF POETRY FLOWS FROM CULTURAL COLLABORATION A community of like-minded black and dual heritage women from Oudtshoorn (in the Klein Karoo area of South Africa’s Western Cape) and Moston (in Manchester in the UK), embarked on a virtual four-part journey to...
DEATH & BIRTH IN MY LIFE
MATS STAUB Death and Birth In My Life invited the audience to listen in on a series of intimate conversations about the most moving and challenging experiences in life. Developed with staff from the Intensive Care Unit at Manchester Royal Infirmary, Mats Staub’s...
GRAPHIC ENCOUNTERS
KAISA LEKA (FINLAND), TIITU TAKALO (FINLAND), JAMIE SQUIRE (UK), UNA (UK) SICK! FESTIVAL COMMISSION Graphic Encounters discussed the experiences of women in Manchester through a series of compelling illustrated narratives presented in poster-sites across Greater...
A FAMILY OUTING – 20 YEARS ON
URSULA MARTINEZ SICK! FESTIVAL CATALYST COMMISSION CO-COMMISSIONED BY THE BARBICAN, SICK! FESTIVAL AND PERTH FESTIVAL Twenty years after bringing her parents onstage in the sublime A Family Outing, Ursula Martinez attempts to recreate the show, without...
THE YEAR MY VAGINA…
AMY VREEKE SICK! FESTIVAL CATALYST COMMISSION CO-COMMISSIONED WITH CONTACT In 2016 stand-up comedian and theatre-maker Amy Vreeke was diagnosed with endometriosis. Now she relives twelve years of misdiagnosis, toilet-based mishaps and failed one-night stands....
18%
URBAN WOORDEN & YOUNG IDENTITY In January 2019, a YouGov survey for the Prince’s Trust revealed that 18% of young people in the UK believe ‘life is not really worth living’. More than 25% of those surveyed felt that their life had no sense of purpose. Providing a...
BODY OF KNOWLEDGE
SAMARA HERSCH Body of Knowledge is an intimate conversation piece created by a group of teenagers and a team of artists, initiated and directed by theatre-maker Samara Hersch. In Body of Knowledge, you are invited to join a conversation. This is a conversation between...
SICKOS
Jackie Hagan is a live artist who was diagnosed with a rare and variable disease. Most commonly ‘sufferers’ live for 5-15 years after symptoms show. This was 6 years ago. She has coped by embracing uncertainty, covering her life in pompoms and mainly – Ignoring it. In...
BABY FEVER
THEATER DEGASTEN & CONTACT YOUNG COMPANY SICK! FESTIVAL CATALYST COMMISSION In Autumn 2019 Contact Young Company worked with multidisciplinary performance-makers Theater DEGASTEN. Co-produced by SICK! Festival, this show addressed the main question proposed by...
FOUR DHOLIS AND A DIVORCE
HAFSAH BASHIR SICK! FESTIVAL CATALYST COMMISSION Four Dholis and a Divorce is a new performance by poet and performer, Hafsah Bashir. The project will explore how South Asian women suffer from psychological and somatic symptoms of anxiety, stress and depression, and...