The second week of the 54th annual Rye Arts Festival promises a packed programme of treats from across all the arts.
Friday, September 19 serves up Doctor Zhivago at 10.45am in the Kino, the Oscar-winning masterpiece by David Lean is 60 years old in 2025 and gets a deserved showing on the big screen. After a late lunch, Ellen Alpsten will be in the Baptist Church talking about her latest work of historical fiction. The Last Princess tells the story of a strong Saxon woman, Gytha Godwinson, the daughter of King Harold, and retells the events of 1066 from her viewpoint. And the evening will feature a gig by the Cuban swinger Indira Roman and her band Aji Pa’ Ti, who will play Latin American and Caribbean grooves in Rye Community Centre.
Saturday, September 20 sees the Strangeface Theatre setting up shop in the Buttermarket in Rye Town Hall with theatre quite unlike you’ve experience. There’s one table, one puppet and a handful of headphones, so the select audience will get a private performance, albeit in public! The show, called, Beached, is suitable for the whole family and has been described as “spellbinding, hilarious and magical”. Meanwhile, at 3.00pm, the bestselling author and journalist Matt Haig will be in conversation in Rye Community Centre talking about his life and work. And as a writer of both fiction and non-fiction as well as for adults and children, Matt has lots to talk about!
The next day, also in the Rye Community Centre, the actress Heather Alexander returns to Rye with her latest one-woman play, fresh from a successful run at the Edinburgh Fringe. Becoming Mrs Danvers – a Tale of Twisted Karma is Heather’s take on Daphne Du Maurier’s anti-heroine and the secrets in her back-story that made her the woman she was. Heather’s acting is always a tour-de-force and for all Rye’s lovers of drama, this show, on their doorstep, is not to be missed.
Rye Community Centre also hosts a Sussex Shanty Singing supergroup show on the evening of Tuesday, September 23 when the mighty lungs of the Rye Bay Herrings and the Pett Slip Buoys share the stage for a shanty night like no other!
And on Wednesday, September 24 Rye Community Centre is transformed to become a cinema for the screening of a couple of locally-based films from the Country Ways TV series, plus the documentary Group Madness, the Making of Yellowbeard, which is generally held to be much better than the pirate movie itself (Yellowbeard), much of which was shot in Rye!
For more information about these and other event, and to book tickets, go to www.ryeartsfestival.org.uk
Image Credits: Kt bruce , Rye Arts Festival .