It’s that time again, the popular PUSH festival has returned to HOME for a biennial celebration of North West creative talent.

As HOME reliably (and accurately) tell us,

over two weeks (our) stages, screens and spaces will be dedicated to showcasing fantastic works from around the region, as well as offering opportunities for creatives to meet industry professionals, share ideas and inspiration and develop their skills.

As a very lucky frequent flyer at the wealth of talent taking to the stage and spaces in the region, I can lay testament to what a treat it is to bear witness to the plays, performances, creative pieces produced in our region, no matter what stage of development they’re at.

And so what is on offer over the next fortnight?

Exhibitions include Omid Asadi’s new commission for the HOME Arches, work which responds to the architecture of the building, taking inspiration from its structure, and a special collaborative project, ‘10 artists, 10 years‘ showing in the Granada Foundation Galleries until 6 April, which includes painting, drawing and collage through quilting and print-making.

There are a large number of events on offer throughout the festival as well, highlights including;

With a range of ‘works in progress’ productions, this is an opportunity for artist(s) and audiences alike to in essence collaborate.

Audiences have early access to some fabulous stage shows placed in the spotlight at various stages of development and we in turn have the privilege of providing inferred insight and feedback in our reactions and responses to the work.

And so Monday night I attended Bad Science in Theatre 2, from Manchester based theatre company, Switch_MCR…

Darkly satirical and fast paced, Bad Science is a cautionary tale of what happens when a discipline of care morphs into one of control. 

Three authoritarian, yet incompetent, politicians are tasked with creating a new psychiatric diagnosis as a way of controlling the masses. Donning lab coats, they become pseudo-psychiatrists and through their journey the lines of science and politics, diagnosis and policy, sanity and insanity become blurred.

While a work of fiction, Bad Science is based on true instances where psychiatry has been abused for political gain. 

The show notes promised that the performance would be ‘creatively captioned’. And that it was.

As well as providing live captions throughout the show, we were ‘spoken’ to as we took our seats, by the screen in the corner which gave us useful information such as whether there was still time to go to the loo, what time the performance was billed as starting (along with the time that it was actually likely to start – honestly, two pieces of information years of theatre-going have led me to understand the importance of and so gratefully receive), as well as the fact that due to a sprained ankle in the cast, understudy James was valiantly stepping into the breach during the performance.

There was also the gentle warning that audience participation may be a thing and to listen for instructions.

Audience participation and listening – two concepts that will surely send me into a tailspin but that I have learned to appreciate and value all the same (maybe not the listening part).

Friends, it was fine. Thank goodness for the extroverts who walk amongst us as they will surely take the strain in moments where we played a game of ‘madlibs’, allowing the more guarded and ‘reflective’ of us to sit back, relax and enjoy the show in our own special way.

And so to the actual production that is Bad Science. It was frantic and frenzied in both delivery and soundtrack. We open with news to politicians of their party’s landslide election victory.

But wait, what of the crowds outside, “I never look outside” (this line tickled me more than it should).

Are they…somehow disgruntled by this turn of events? With direct orders from the prime minister to deal with the rioters/vegans protestors, the only possible solution is a psychiatric diagnosis, courtesy of said game of mad-libs, or to give it its official title, a ‘focus group’, This of course inevitably leads to a mass diagnosis of the rioters/vegans protestors of basketballism.

Bad Science is satirically on point as a cynical yet dare I say sharp suggestion of the extreme ways society’s behaviours can be sweepingly dismissed and badged up as a result of a mental affliction by leading factions.

Gaslighting in its finest form (feeling familiar?).

Under pressure and the common cause quickly turning to in-party fighting, sacrificial lambs and some lines straight out of The Thick of It “and that’s why you’ve got to go”, Bad Science is performed with a keen sense of comic timing, leading to many a laugh out loud moment, along with some dark yet well-recognised themes and messaging which landed well with this audience without need to labour the point further than necessary.

Billed as 60 minutes, this performance lasting 40, thus is a work in progress that already works well and has potential and time to pack even more of a political punch when fully realised.

For details of all listings for this year’s PUSH Festival at HOME, visit https://homemcr.org/event/push-2025/ – until 8 February.