Arundel Festival: theatre trail

The plays will be timed so that you can see all of them in one day or simply come back another day at various locations around the town from Saturday, August 20 to Saturday, August 27.

Now in its eleventh year, the trail - presented by Drip Action Theatre Company (season tickets £30; on the door £5, students £3) - will once again deliver eight new plays in eight venues

across the town on each day of its eight-day run.

Drip Action received nearly 120 entries this year from as far afield as America and Sweden. Artistic director Bill Brennan said: “The standard of writing improves each year making the task of selecting the seven plays to be performed alongside a new commission from Simon Brett increasingly difficult.

“Each play is about 30 minutes long and will be performed in venues across the town ranging from Arundel Football Club, the Norfolk Hotel Ballroom, the Victoria Institute and the St Nicholas Church, to a private kitchen and living room, offering audiences an intimate theatre experience.”

The programme is:

11am – Arundel Football Club, Mill Road. Slideshow. A play with music by Simon Brett and David Hay. In a relationship one character moves forward while the other stays still.

12 noon – The Norfolk Arms, High Street. Spits and Spots by Neil Walden. A surprise visitor brightens up a weather girl’s day.

1pm – 55 Tarrant Street, Mari by Jackie Carreira. Can books be the love of Mari’s life?

2pm – The Victoria Institute. Moving On by Dian Donovan. Kate, a wife and mother, disappears in what becomes a search for survival.

3pm – Ancient Lights, 19 River Road. The Doctor Will See You Now by Andrew Turner. Health problems frankly discussed. You have to laugh...

4pm – 57 Maltravers Streetn. This Almost Joy by Barbara Lindsay. Professor Hart – Meadows poses a problem to his loved ones: he thinks the audience is real.

5pm – St Nicholas Church, London Road. Arrangements by Tom Glover. A moral dilemma for the Vicar. Can he outmatch his formidable flower-arranger?

6pm – St Mary’s Gate Inn, London Road. No Occasion To by David Weir. A reunion in Fleet Street.

For licensing reason, on Wednesday, August 24, all plays will be performed at the time stated at The Victoria Club, 10 Tarrant Street.

Season Tickets will be available in advance from The Book Ferrett, High Street, Arundel, in person or by phoning 01903 885727.