MIF23: Find Your Eyes at Manchester Academy

Kristy Stott, Theatre Editor
Find Your Eyes
Image courtesy of Benji Reid.

Find Your Eyes at Manchester Academy, Manchester 12 — 16 July 2023 Tickets from £10.00 — Book now

Fusing photography with performance, Find Your Eyes is a live photography show, created by the award-winning British photographer Benji Reid. Happening as part of MIF23, in this world premiere show, Reid invites a live theatre audience to Manchester Academy to take a behind-the-scenes look at his life and practice.

Beginning his career as a performer and creative director over three decades ago, Reid is an award-winning and senior contributor to Black physical theatre. He has produced and performed over thirty works for international cultural institutions including The National Theatre, Birmingham Rep, PS122 (New York) and Sydney Opera House. Merging his performance practice with photography, Reid began producing images in 2012.

Find Your Eyes is a show that exposes the photographer at work.

Known for his award-winning Afro-futurist images, Reid describes himself as a “choreo-photolist”, an artist who works with photography, choreography and theatre. Creating vivid and often surreal images, Reid’s work expresses his experiences living as a Black man in the UK today.

Benji Reid.
Benji Reid.

 

Find Your Eyes is a show that exposes the photographer at work. In this perceptive new production, the performance area becomes a studio for Reid to create live photographs in front of an audience. Choreographing three performers, this highly visual production is also punctuated with storytelling, as Reid interlaces landmark moments from his life.

Of Find Your Eyes, Reid told us, “This performance is a culmination of all my practices, from popping to contemporary to physical theatre to directing to photography. This work is a dance between all forms framed as a meditation in the artist’s studio.”

The performance area becomes a studio for Reid to create live photographs in front of an audience.

A live photographic experience, Find Your Eyes exposes the artistic process, but also looks at photography as a way to explore personal struggles. Striking and sensitive, full of light and shade, don’t miss this genre-bending and unique performance.

Find Your Eyes at Manchester Academy, Manchester 12 — 16 July 2023 Tickets from £10.00 Book now

Performances

Date
Time
Session Features
12 July 2023
7:30pm
13 July 2023
7:30pm
14 July 2023
7:00pm
15 July 2023
2:30pm
15 July 2023
7:30pm
16 July 2023
7:30pm

Always double check opening hours with the venue before making a special visit.

Where to go near MIF23: Find Your Eyes at Manchester Academy

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The Cafe
at the Museum

Manchester Museum’s cafe is run by the people behind award-winning cafe Teacup Kitchen. The menu features home-baked cakes, the finest loose leaf teas and breakfast, as well as a wide selection of mains and meals for kids.

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Manchester Academy 3

Brilliant venue for catching a touring band on the rise. The boringly titled Academy 3 or more interesting Hop and Grape, as it was once known, is a self contained…

Christie’s Bistro, Manchester. Courtesy Christie’s Bistro
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Whitworth Park

This 18-acre park opposite the Manchester Royal Infirmary provides a welcome patch of green in an otherwise densely populated and heavily used part of the city.

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Want Not Waste

Want Not Waste is a student-run, not-for-profit zero waste shop operating out of Academy 1 at the University of Manchester Students’ Union.

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Big Hands

Big Hands is the one-time haunt of legendary Manchester band Elbow; it’s shabby, loud and dark, with a jukebox and excellent roof terrace.

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Kro Bar

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