Flare Festival Opening, Contact, Manchester.

The official opening of the Flare Festival began appropriately with three pyrotechnic flares, one shined brightly and the other two were damp squibs. Which would have been, as a writer, a great symbol for the evenings events, but would also be mean and also untrue. First up, was a young poet, dressed Johnny Cash style, all in black. I didn't catch his name because he spoke really fast, then really slow, then really fast again, in the way that performance poets do. Then our hosts Hannah Butterfield and Dan Craddock a.k.a the Cradfield Collective took to the stage, who looked and sounded lovely. They reminded me of a video I saw on Buzzfeed recently in which a box full of puppies was introduced to a box full of kittens. Then Lemn Sissay MBE came on, he was dressed as the man in black too. He was full of energy and a bit wild and unpredictable and flare-like, which was highly enjoyable and then he started reading a poem called Morning Breaks. I feel now, at this point in the review, I must confess, I don't understand poetry. Then that that was end of the first half.

If this review feels, a little self referential, then this reflects the theme of the evening. It was an evening about theatre, about being present in the space with the audience. Lemn explored the concept of being too aware of leaving the stage, the hosts talked about the opening and what they wanted it to do. The Sleepwalk Collective As the flames rose we danced to the Sirens, the Sirens was charming and knowing and just like the early cinema it mimicked, beautiful to look at and also so concerned with the language of watching they began by explaining the rules of semiotics to us. However, in an evening about being watching and being present in the space, arguably the most fascinating performers of the evening, were the ones who were not there at all. The New collective, from Georgia, who had been prevented from performing by UK Visas and immigration, were projected via Skype, straight from their living room, three hours ahead in Tbilisi. They spoke passionately about the need to fight restrictions placed upon artists and break down the borders that prevent progress. They reminded us of the world beyond theatre, a world other than theatre that artists need to speak about.