The 44th Rye Arts Festival is going great guns, but there is still well over a week of events for people to enjoy comprising contemporary and classical music, literary talks and plenty of exhibitions at the town’s existing galleries, as well as in pop-up galleries too!
The Festival concludes on Sunday September 27 at 6pm with a special performance of words from John Fletcher’s plays by professional actors along with music from the Jacobean period. Fletcher, who was a collaborator with William Shakespeare and co-wrote plays with the great man, was born in Rye just by St Mary’s Church. It is fitting therefore that this event takes place in the new Kino Cinema near by , which was bought and built by the Fletcher in Rye CIC (Community Interest Company) named after Rye’s finest son.
The Kino is also the setting this Friday evening (8pm, September 18) for a very special event as local artist and film director Dave McKean will give a director’s narration to his film “The Gospel of Us”. Filmgoers will be provided with an interesting and unique insight into the movie by the man who made it. Not to be missed.
And on Saturday night (8pm, September 19) Altan (pictured at top) fly in from Donegal to play an exclusive one-off gig at Rye Arts Festival before returning to Ireland the next day. Altan were the first traditional Irish band to sign to a major record label, Virgin in 1994, and they have created a massive global following and are truly world class. Their gig at the Milligan Theatre in Rye will be followed by tours of Belgium, Germany and Switzerland in the autumn, and finally four gigs in Japan in December.
Thursday September 24 (at 8pm in Rye Community Centre) provides the chance to enjoy English eccentricity at is very best. Viv Stanshall was perhaps the most bonkers member of the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and in his solo masterwork “Sir Henry at Rawlinson End” he really let rip. Mike Livesley recreates the story on stage along with The Brainwashing House Orchestra for what promises to be a fun, but odd night. Expect Scrotum, the wrinkled family retainer, to make appearance.
And next Friday September 25 folk with a modern edge is provided by one the UK’s leading duos at 7:30 pm in St Thomas’ church, Winchelsea, Who says so? The Prestigious BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards voted Kathryn Roberts and Sean Lakeman the Best Duo in 2013.
The Classical music programme sees the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble (ECSE) playing at St Mary’s church on Sunday September 20 at 6pm. Just this week the ECSE have won the coveted best Early Music Award at the prestigious 2015 Gramophone Magazine Awards, and they will be playing music from Venice on instruments that are early versions of the trumpet and trombone.
And on Thursday September 24 in St Mary’s the Festival welcomes the Belcea Quartet , who have a huge reputation in Europe as one of the top international string quartets. And in a real treat for the second half of the programme, the Belcea are joined by the Piatti Quartet to form an octet. The Piatti were last year’s Rye Arts Festival’s ‘Quartet in Residence’ and it is a delight to welcome them back after a busy year that has seen their reputation deservedly growing, not just in the UK but internationally too.
Last, but very, very far from least, Saturday September 26 will see a second performance at this year’s Festival at 630pm in the Milligan Theatre of Mozart’s opera “Don Giovanni” by the Euphonia Company. These young professional singers and musicians in the orchestra gave a fabulous first performance of the opera on September 12 and lots of that audience have been booking tickets for the second performance as it was that good!
Tickets for all these events and others are available online at www.ryeartsfestival.co.uk or call the Box Office on 01797 224442, or visit the Box Office at Phillips and Stubbs at 47 Cinque Ports Street Monday-Saturday 930-1230.
Photos from Rye Arts Festival