Things to do this March

There are signs of Spring in the air and plenty of things to do in March on the Oxford Road Corridor. It’s Women’s History Month and we are lucky enough to be surrounded by the inspiring rich history of the activism of women in Manchester. This is the birthplace of the suffragette movement so International Women’s Day is rightly celebrated here every March, see our guide below for some of the best things to do.

Manchester Museum made a brilliant return last month which saw visitors queuing down Oxford Road to get a glimpse at its brilliant £15m transformation. With absolutely no plans to rest on their laurels, the museum has announced an exciting programme of events which kicks off this month with RhythmXChange, a festival of musical collaborations including J.A.V.A and Jay’s Jam with Johnny Jay and guitar legend Aziz Ibrahim.

The pioneering art of Rebecca Allen, perhaps best known for her work with Kraftwerk, is on show at SODA’s Modal Gallery this month in A Tangle of Mind & Matter, showcasing artworks from half a century of innovation. 

At the Whitworth, the excellent Althea McNish retrospective continues and is joined by the premiere of Familiar Phantoms, a major new film by artists and long-time collaborators Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind. There are three exhibitions in HOME’s main gallery, and this month we are highlighting Is there anybody there?. The exhibition uses archive footage from North West Film Archive at Manchester Metropolitan University to create a monumental study of cultural traditions, processions and ceremony.

On the stage, it’s your last chance to catch Will Young’s critically acclaimed performance in Song From Far Away. That show is succeeded by Tracy-Ann Oberman alongside an incredible cast in an exciting retelling of one of Shakespeare’s best-known – and most controversial – plays, The Merchant of Venice. Also at HOME, Yusra Warsama takes Lorca’s classic The House of Bernada Alba as inspiration for this powerful new production, as she exports Lorca’s language to a Moss Side home.

At The Palace, the circle of life is complete as The Lion King ends its reign, there are new shows this month, but the big story is Hamilton which arrives in November, it is the first venue in the UK outside of London to host the multi-award-winning musical phenomenon. Tickets go on sale this month. 

It’s a busy month at Contact beginning with Turn, the annual whirlwind of new dance. We are also excited to see This Town, an ode to home from Rory Aaron which uses powerful spoken word to transport us to a post-industrialised landscape, weaving together stories of loss, PTSD, and friendship.