Christmas panto Dick Whittington and his Amazing Cat is coming to Manchester’s iconic Contact Theatre

In its first Christmas in four years, Manchester’s historic Contact Theatre will be hosting a one-of-a-kind rendition of Dick Whittington and His Amazing Cat.

After reopening its doors back in September following a huge £6m building transformation, the iconic Contact Theatre boasts a whole host of exciting new facilities, such as new and improved performance spaces, a purpose-built recording studio for young people’s music projects, new offices for artists and cultural organisations to hire, a new and improved public bar and free work and social spaces.

And, of course, the historic theatre has reopened with a whole host of exciting and contemporary performances on the bill, including the festive Panto residency, Eight-Freestyle’s take on the classic Dick Whittington and his Amazing Cat.

Contact Theatre

This upbeat and modern production of the classic rags-to-riches story tells the tale of young Dick Whittington and his loyal cat Scratch on their exciting quest for fame, fortune, and gold-lined London streets that simply do not exist (sorry, Dick).

Can Dick defeat evil King Rat and his rat hordes? Can he win the love of the beautiful Alice Fitzwarren? Can he survive shipwrecks, magic, pirates, ghosts, sharks and Freda the Cook’s terrible pies? These will be just a few of the many adventures experienced throughout this dynamic take on the traditional pantomime. 

The show comes courtesy of local production company Eight-Freestyle, and prides itself on being the city’s ‘proper local panto’ with no ‘wooden reality-TV stars’. 

Contact Theatre

Showings of Contact Theatre’s Dick Whittington and his Amazing Cat will begin this Saturday, December 11th, and will run all the way through the festive period until Monday, January 3rd. 

There will be a British Sign Language (BSL) performance on Wednesday December 29th at 12pm by interpreter Kate Labno as well as a socially distanced performance on Wednesday December 22nd at 7pm. 

For tickets and more information, head over to the Contact Theatre website.