This week, head to the Suffolk coast for a festival of new theatre and live performance.
The HighTide Festival is returning to Aldeburgh with a world premiere and new work from homegrown talent. The festival champions new writing as the space for political, contemporary and provocative work, created by new and diverse artists.
From HighTide’s home, East Anglian writer Kenny Emson’s Rust, about two people who never expected to fall in love again, is the centrepiece of the 2019 programme, alongside the world premiere of LIT by Sophie Ellerby which follows Bex, a teenage girl looking for love in all the wrong places.
Collapsible (winner of VAULT Festival 2019’s Origin Award for Outstanding New Work) is a funny, furious new monologue about holding on. Following the life of a complex bisexual woman, it looks at connecting with others when you’re not connected to yourself.
Pops from award-winning writer Charlotte Josephine, follows a father and daughter caught in a cycle of addiction trying to love fiercely through a hopeless situation. Asking challenging questions about mental health, it looks at what is inherited and who is responsible.
A partnership with HighTide and The Queer House sees Since U Been Gone by Teddy Lamb and Mia Johnson’s Pink Lemonade come to Suffolk. Lamb’s moving autobiographical account of growing up queer in the Midlands, and losing a friend, is brought to life in Since U Been Gone, with storytelling and an original pop music score. Johnson’s Pink Lemonade is a multi-disciplinary piece exploring masculinity and lesbianism in Black womxn.
Never losing sight of its idyllic setting, HighTide will also present productions which keep Aldeburgh close to their heart. Beach walks, fish and chips, carnival processions, echoes of bygone Aldeburgh summers, The Old House by Kate Maravan is a funny, heart-wrenching and beautiful story of a mother and daughter.
By award-winning writer Molly Naylor, LIGHTS! PLANETS! PEOPLE! is an intimate and exhilarating play about space science, legacy, loss and communication; both interpersonal and intergalactic. Presented by Suffolk company, Wonderful Beast, Thea Smiley’s The Last Woodwose is a piece which follows a rare Woodwose, or wild woman, captured in a woodland, who must share her extraordinary story to regain her freedom.
In a globe-spanning journey of attempted escape, with songs along the way, the Fringe First award winning Status by Chris Thorpe and Rachel Chavkin is about nationality and trying to run away from the national story you are given. Art Heist is the new existential comedy caper from Poltergeist: when three thieves break into the same gallery on the same night, it’s bound to get messy.
The festival will also present the first looks at the freshest work-in-progress coming from contemporary writers. Logan Dankworth from Suffolk local Luke Wright, follows a journalist determined to join the Brexit fray in one of the biggest political battles ever; while his family are ready to leave London for something better.
Finally, Amy Gwilliam returns with .staybless, a confessional black comedy about human hypocrisy and the struggle to remain good.
In addition to the theatre offerings, there will also be musical and comedy entertainment, talks and special events at this year’s festival.
When: 10th – 15th September 2019
Where: Aldeburgh, Suffolk
£: Ticket prices vary, depending on the event
More info: www.hightide.org.uk
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