Suffolk's annual HighTide Festival presents work by emerging playwrights and this year's event has a diverse programme of drama, music, comedy and book and play readings.
Highlights include the "savagely funny" (Variety) American–set Neighbors by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, co–productions with Nuffield Theatre, Southampton and London's Soho Theatre, and Bottleneck by Luke Barnes which returns to HighTide where it had a staged reading last year.
Touring companies paying a visiting to Halesworth include Eastern Angles with their musical documentary Parkway Dreams by Kenneth Emson and withWINGS's singular take on The Tempest, If Room Enough.
Four new plays receive readings, Stuart: A Life Backwards by Alexander Masters adapted by Jack Thorne, Harrogate by Al Smith, Klippies by Jessica Sian, and My Name Is… by Sudha Bhuchar, and book readings and signings will be given by British authors Piers Torday (The Last Wild) and Nigel Cliff (The Last Crusade).
There are two days of the Festival promising lesser known work curated by winners of the Take-over competition held in association with IdeasTap, as well as a programme of music and comedy events, discussions and skills surgeries.
Steven Atkinson the Festival's Artistic Director has said, "This is the first time that all the major productions, of which there are five this year, have lives beyond Suffolk, with transfers already confirmed with the Soho and Bush Theatres, to Southampton, and on tour. 'See it here first' is our motto for the year."
HighTide Festival 2013 runs from 2 to 12 May. For further information and online bookings, visit www.hightide.org.uk.