The Welcoming Party
A beautiful blend of installation, live music, puppetry and dance, The Welcoming Party is a site specific show for children aged 8 plus and adults.
Director: Sue Buckmaster
Designs: Simon Daw
Choreography: Jamaal Burkmar
Music and sound design: Frank Moon
Lighting design: Mark Doubleday
Created by Theatre-Rites and co-produced with Manchester International Festival and Z-arts, it premiered in July 2017.
"This is, no two ways about it, an astonishing piece of theatre: a kids' show that handles immigration, both as lived experience and as bureaucratic system, with such nuance and sophistication that it teaches adults a thing or two as well." - What'sOnStage
"Frank Moon’s sound composition creates an unsettling atmosphere and Jamaal Burkmar’s choreography expresses the agony of uncertainty and waiting. Simon Daw’s design, with its constant images of dehumanising cages, makes the most of the venue, which was once the world’s first railway warehouse... This is all pretty grown-up stuff, and is done with the rackety swagger and invention that we’ve come to expect from Theatre-Rites, a company making shows for children that is right at the forefront of contemporary British theatre practice." ★★★★ - The Guardian
"Why can’t all interactive, site-specific theatre be like The Welcoming Party? Theatre-Rites’ first show for Manchester International Festival is beautiful, clever, creative, chilling and thought-provoking theatre. Aimed at family audiences but with absolutely no sugar coating of the subject matter: what it means to be a refugee." ★★★★★ - British Theatre Guide
