A landmark piece of theatre and art by Florentina Holzinger exploring women's bodies, identity, ageing and the quest for immortality, performed by 24 women and non-binary performers.
Florentina Holzinger brings A Year Without Summer to Aviva Studios from 14 to 16 October 2027, her first UK residency since the acclaimed Seaworld exhibit at the Venice Biennale. It's a dance and musical theatre piece that takes its title and its starting point from 1816, the year the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia plunged much of the world into darkness and Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein.
On stage are 24 women and non-binary performers, with ages ranging from their 20s to their 80s. Holzinger describes the work as a journey through health, identity, ageing, technology and the limits of the human body. The title refers to that strange year when the weather turned and the light failed, and the production works its way from there into how we think about the body over a lifetime.
Holzinger is an Austrian director, choreographer and performance artist, and this is a rare UK residency for her. The run is part of Factory International's 2027 anniversary season, which marks 20 years since the Manchester International Festival first launched in 2007. It's one of the larger productions in that programme, and the cast's age range — from twenty-somethings to people in their eighties — is a big part of what it's about.
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A Year Without Summer runs from 14 to 16 October at Aviva Studios on Water Street, Manchester M3 4JQ.
