‘I couldn't be more thrilled that Benji finally accepted the invitation back to the stage; not surrendering his camera, but exploring its relation to the performance space.’ John McGrath

I first met Benji Reid more than 20 years ago, when I was Artistic Director of Contact Theatre, and he was setting Manchester alight with shows like The Holiday and 13 Mics. I'd recently returned from a decade in New York, where the growing Hip Hop Theatre movement was creating a new set of possibilities. Benji
- and collaborators such as Jonzi D and Rob Hylton - were exploring the same sources but, particularly in Benji's case, with a more abstract, visual imagination than the relatively narrative-based New York scene.

Benji's work was, I felt, a truly exceptional example of the kind of multi-disciplinary, multi-sourcing approach to art-making that unites hip hop artists with other experimentalists the world over. It was an approach to creativity that became central to everything we did at Contact, and Benji's influence through his work there, as well as his independent projects such as his Process Lab, has profoundly impacted a generation of Manchester artists. I see his spirit everywhere.

When Benji took a turn away from performance and into photography, the move made sense - visual iconography had always been so central to his work. And who could do anything but thrill to the extraordinary images that started to emerge. However, returning to Manchester to run MIF, I felt some frustration that this brilliant performance-maker wasn't available to create new work for the Festival.It's taken years of persuasion and discussion, but I couldn't be more thrilled that Benji finally accepted the invitation back to the stage; not surrendering his camera, but exploring its relation to the performance space. Find Your Eyes is a unique dialogue between image and body, studio and stage, lived reality and racing imagination. In this work Benji re-opens the question of Hip Hop Theatre, of theatre itself, for our strange, troubled times, and offers tough lessons partnered with glorious imaginative possibilities.

John McGrath

Artistic Director & Chief Executive, Factory International