Festival of Firsts: Manchester International Festival, 4-21 Jul

We take a look at the theatre programme of this year's Manchester International Festival, an event that prides itself on being artist-led, its ideas coming not from the curator but the creators

Feature by Gareth K Vile | 12 Apr 2013

Manchester International Festival (MIF) has already set itself at the pinnacle of British theatre programming through its imaginative combination of new commissions, famous artists and provocative collaborations. The introduction this year of reduced rate tickets for local residents demonstrates, however, that it is not an event that ignores its location. With new works coming from London's Donmar Warehouse, itself a hive of dramatic vitality, and Robert Wilson, the veteran darling of large-scale experimental performance, MIF is challenging the Edinburgh Festival for the title of the UK's most vigorous and daring season.

The five new commissions that make up the bulk of MIF's theatre programme can act as a handy guide to the current state of the art. The Machine, freshly scripted by Matt Charman, returns the Donmar's artistic director Josie Rourke to her native Northwest and pitches the chess battle between grandmaster Gary Kasparov and supercomputer Deep Blue as a metaphor for the relationship between humans and technology. The Rite of Spring reimagines Stravinsky's score in the year of its centenary as a ballet without dancers (but with falling bone powder, instead). The Masque of Anarchy builds theatre from Shelley's poem into a site not far from the location of the Peterloo Massacre, which inspired the original. The Old Woman has Robert Wilson directing Mikhail Baryshnikov and Willem Dafoe in an adaptation of Russian author Daniil Kharms' absurdist novella – and Macbeth reunites Kenneth Branagh with the playwright who has defined British theatre.

In these selections, there is a balance between the new – Rourke and Sarah Frankcom, artistic director of Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre and director of The Masque of Anarchy – and the famous (Branagh took on the role of Britain's most celebrated Shakespearean actor and director after the death of Olivier, and Robert Wilson has been surprising audiences since the 1970s, although more often in continental Europe and America than the UK).

Yet there is a continuity of theme throughout the programme: historical sources from the recent to the Elizabethan become the foundation for thoroughly modern ruminations on culture. Macbeth has become the most over-performed of Shakespeare's plays in recent years, possibly thanks to the question of Scottish independence, but its pace and brutality give it a startling relevance. The Rite of Spring is an iconic moment in dance, standing as a bristling introduction to the savage power of 20th-century art. Although theatre has lost ground to both the small and large screens, delving into its history can be a profitable reminder of its visceral immediacy.

This emphasis on reworking the past isn't simple nostalgia. It simultaneously recollects the rich heritage of performance but connects the present to the events from which the performance was conceived. The Machine might focus on a specific incident – a cerebral conflict between one man and a processor – but it opens up broader questions about the uses of technology, without descending into wild science fiction apocalypse fantasies. The Masque of Anarchy reveals how politics can beget art that can challenge the status quo. Politicians are wont to pretend that their activities are founded in pure reason or realism: The Masque of Anarchy was Shelley's response to an event that needed more than a legislative or tyrannical reply.

There is the thrill of seeing legendary artists in action: Dafoe might be better known for his film roles, but he was a member of The Wooster Group and helped to devise some of the 1980s' most memorable experimental theatre (their LSD (...Just The High Points...) took The Crucible into psychedelic splendour), while Baryshnikov made ballet fashionable and dangerous around the same time (although his turn in Sex and the City displaced George Clooney as the silver fox fantasy). And Branagh has not been seen in Shakespeare since 2002. The pleasure of seeing accomplished performers is more immediate, more startling, than anything offered by celluloid.

It is this combination of thoughtful work and celebrity names that has established MIF's international status so rapidly: opening up unexpected venues, bringing together big names and never forgetting that theatre is a medium where big ideas can be played intimately. Reviving the past, celebrating the present and looking towards the future, Manchester International Festival seems unafraid of either risk or accessibility.

Manchester International Festival, 4-21 Jul http://mif.co.uk