FOLLOWING the success of last year’s sold-out 10-day festival, Chudleigh Arts Festival returns this week with a host of performances from local and national artists.
From gypsy jazz to comedy cabaret from Kit Hesketh-Harvey, plus opera, string quartets and fully staged musicals, the performances take place in the idyllic surroundings of the Orchard Open Air Theatre in Old Pottery Court, Chudleigh.
Organiser James Trafford said: ‘Last September in that brief window when we could hold performances, we were blessed with wonderful weather and every show sold out and was rapturously received.
‘We are continuing with socially distanced booking bubbles this year so that nobody needs to feel anxious about the size of the audiences.
‘It is really important to us to create events where people can come together safely and where performers have a platform to show their amazing talents.’
The events open this Friday, September 10, with A Little Night Music, Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Send in the Clowns’ musical, followed by Radio 4’s Kit & McConnel comedy cabaret.
Also featured in the busy line-up are Kickline Theatre , who return with another unusual take on a Shakespearean legend – this time Macbeth comes into their sights with their production The Insane Root.
The Bard is also featured in Living Room Theatre’s presentation of All Is Mended, a re-imaging of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that is now a post-Covid comedy set in a care home.
The festival concludes on September 19 with Opera in the Gardens from the quartet Opera al Fresco who offer a dizzying melange of highlights from comic, serious and pastoral opera and operetta.\The full schedule can be found at http://kickline.co.uk/order-tickets