We’re Not Really Here – A Football Opera at Contact

Andrew Anderson

Book now

We're Not Really Here – A Football Opera

Contact Theatre, Manchester
20-23 September 2017

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

© Lee Baxter
Book now

Believe it or not, Contact is getting a bit of a reputation for football theatre. Earlier in the year we had a play about women’s football titled Offside, while in its summer programme Michael Essien I want to Play as You featured African footballers who had come over to Europe in a bid to make the big time. Now in the new season we’ve got We’re Not Really Here – A Football Opera.

In many ways it makes sense – after all, football is often described as the people’s theatre, a place where the masses come to be entertained each week, with heroes and villains being reviled and redempted. We’re Not Really Here takes these stories of highs, lows and a shared spirit and puts them on the stage.

The excitement of a goalmouth scramble, the pressure of a penalty shootout and the stomach-sinking sucker punch of a last-minute loss – all this is material ripe for dramatic treatment. Further, we know it’s going to feel authentic because it is performed by real football fans (in this case, those of Manchester City…though don’t let that keep you away).

A thorough and well-thought-out treatment of football fandom, We’re Not Really Here does a great job of bringing the beautiful game onto the spot-lit stage.

Where to go near We’re Not Really Here – A Football Opera at Contact

Manchester
Music venue
The Deaf Institute

The Deaf Institute is a vibrant gig venue and nightclub for which it is well worth taking a jaunt out of the Northern Quarter.

Manchester
Catalog Bookshop

Find Peter and his Christiania cargo bike around All Saints Park, a hop, skip and a bunnyhop from Manchester Poetry Library.

Manchester
Bar or Pub
Sandbar

Sandbar, just off Oxford Road in Manchester, is a well-loved watering hole, with a great selection of ales and some eccentric seating.

Johnny Roadhouse store
Manchester
Shop
Johnny Roadhouse

Buffeted by fried chicken outlets, legendary musical instrument emporium Johnny Roadhouse has been serving the local music community for over 50 years.

Manchester
Café or Coffee Shop
Eighth Day

Eighth Day is a co-operative shop that sells ethically-sourced food, wine and cosmetics. There’s also café that serves hearty, healthy meals in the basement.

Manchester
Event venue
The Proud Place

Based in the heart of Manchester on Sidney Street, The Proud Place houses The Proud Trust and serves as a community hub for the wider LGBT+ population across Greater Manchester and beyond.

What's on: Theatre

TheatreManchester
1984 at Waterside

Box Tale Soup’s inventive puppetry reanimates Orwell’s vision of surveillance, obedience and the erasure of truth.

From £18.00
A man (Macbeth) stands in a dark studio lit in vivid green light, with vertical neon-green light bars glowing behind him through light fog. He wears a dark suit jacket over an open-collared shirt, one hand in his pocket, and looks directly at the camera with an intense, brooding expression.
Until
TheatreChester
Macbeth at Storyhouse, Chester

For its first Storyhouse Originals production of 2026, the Chester theatre presents a bold new staging of Macbeth, directed and adapted by Jamie Sophia Fletcher.

From £20.00

Culture Guides

deathcrash Press Image
Music

This month’s live music picks move between ambitious new work, grassroots celebrations and a few memorable settings.

Food and Drink in the North

Spring has arrived, bringing with it Mother's Day, al fresco dining and a rush of high-profile food and drink-related events in Manchester.

A pair of white angel wings displayed against a dark, black background. The lower parts of the wings are stained with vivid red, resembling blood splatter.
Theatre

This month’s theatre highlights span dystopian classics, political thrillers and bold new opera.

Ceramic Sculpture
Exhibitions

Across Manchester and Salford, exhibitions are thinking hard about how things are made – and how materials carry stories.

Emily Lloyd-Saini as Grace in Space and Harrie Hayes as Lieutenant Strong in Horrible Science
Family things to do in the North

Whether you’re after storybook theatre, museum wanderings or illusion-bending play spaces, there’s plenty to keep curiosity ticking through winter and beyond.

A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night
Cinema in the North

There's no shortage of great films out at the moment, whether you're looking for the latest blockbuster, that hot arthouse flick fresh from Cannes or a cosy classic.