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Manchester International Festival: Day 9

• Richard Fair
• 6 Jul 07, 09:14 AM

It鈥檚 like banging your head against a brick wall. Honestly, some people. You rave about something and then they ask you if you really liked it. And marks out of ten? Nine, no ten. Really? OK, eleven or twelve. Look, I really hate marking things out of ten. If I give something top marks then there鈥檚 nowhere to go when something better comes along. I gave a nine.

Then along comes and I鈥檓 forced into giving it a ten. Don鈥檛 get me wrong, it deserves it. Not that it鈥檚 any better than Monkey, it鈥檚 just amazing for a Waitrose trolley full of other reasons. The puppetry, the story adaptation, the visualisation and the music (more about that in a moment) were all outstanding. But by giving it the perfect ten, I鈥檓 left high and dry if something better comes along. So from now on, I鈥檒l not be engaging on a scoring system. If I鈥檓 asked to mark out of ten I shall make a mockery of the whole scoring system and respond with something really funny like 鈥� 鈥渕arks out of ten, um, fifteen.鈥� Unless it鈥檚 crap then I鈥檒l say something even more funny like - 鈥渕arks out of ten, um, have you heard the one about the man who sticks his fingers up your nose?鈥�

So anyway, Dead Wedding. It鈥檚 a fantastic theatrical adaptation of the Greek Myth telling the story of Orpheus. Putting into words what did with their wonderful sets and puppets is almost impossible, what I will say is that it was like an opera without words.

music provided the perfect canvas for the characters to paint the tragic tale of Orpheus searching for his dead bride in the underworld. What followed was a dark, nightmarish performance with -like stage props mixed with surreal film and gentle animation. And the music, did I mention the music? Always just enough to set the scene or to submerge us into a fantasy of electronic effects mixed with live music.

I did say on 主播大秀 Radio Manchester last night that after Monkey, this is the next 鈥榤ust see鈥� at the Manchester International Festival and I wasn鈥檛 kidding. But hurry it鈥檚 only here until tomorrow at the Library Theatre.

Johnny Vegas
Are from the Manchester Evening News and me the only two people on the planet who 鈥榞ot鈥� the whole Interiors thing? We sat next to each other last night at the Library reliving some of the highlights of Interiors. Kevin was rather amused to learn that the much talked about pan-rack of Mr Vegas鈥� performance was in fact really his and to add to the irony it was bespoke. Of course you鈥檇 need to see the performance to get all of that and can I suggest you ignore all the other reviews and what people may have told you and what you may have seen on the telly and try your hardest to get hold of a ticket.

Kapital
I met up with director Greg Hall last night. I don鈥檛 think I gave him too hard a time over his film, which I didn鈥檛 really enjoy (and I鈥檓 not the only one 鈥� ). I did question his portrayal of Manchester and suggested that he could have filmed the kind of 鈥榰nderbelly鈥� in any town or city and that by suggesting that Manchester was central to the themes was perhaps a tad unfair. To a certain degree he concurred. 鈥淚 was asked to make it in Manchester for the Festival鈥�. So it鈥檚 our own fault.

Sadly those expecting to see were disappointed and so was Greg. Apparently they had to scrap the screening as the venue had been double-booked. Ooops.

Other blogs
It鈥檚 not really part of the Manchester International Festival, but has been to see the Kylie exhibition at the Manchester Art Gallery. 鈥淚鈥檝e always thought of Kylie Minogue as the poor person鈥檚 Madonna. They share a nasal whine and make disposable pop that鈥檚 sometimes quite good and often quite bad.鈥� Read .

Today
I鈥檓 not sure my body could take another night in a theatre or cinema so I鈥檓 off to have a look at some of the visual art and installations around Manchester for the Festival. I may even tune in to a bit of , the Cornerhouse鈥檚 short-term experimentation into alternative radio.