Elizabeth McGovern, Celia Imrie and Ben Miles Feature in 10th Anniversary HighTide Festival

HighTide Festival, internationally renowned for discovering some of the UK's best new playwrights and producing new plays, has today announced the full ancillary programme for the 2016 Festival (8-18 September) - its 10th anniversary. Spanning performance, music, visual arts, literature and talks, it also includes world premiere productions from new and established HighTide writers. For the full festival programme, visit www.hightide.org.uk

HighTide Festival's Soho Theatre comedy nights are set to return in 2016 with an eclectic line-up of acts, including: sequin-clad weirdos Bourgeois and Maurice who bring their highly theatrical kaleidoscope of current affairs, moral confusion and social commentary in How to Save the World Without Really Trying; acclaimed cartoonists of the mind, the spectacularly surreal Pajama Men bring a live, comic existential meltdown that takes place as two comedians attempt to stage an epic, historical, romance novel in under an hour; BAFTA-nominated star Spencer Jones arrives with Spencer Jones is The Herbert in 'Eggy Bagel', a magical mélange of visual, prop, clown and homemade musical comedy that takes us on a surreal journey through The Herbert's childlike world, and finally 2015 Edinburgh Comedy Award nominee, Nish Kumar, presents Actions Speak Louder Than Words, Unless You Shout the Words Real Loud, a comedy show about history, democracy and capitalism.

HighTide is also bringing back its hugely successful talks programme Face to Face and The HighTide Symposium. Esteemed thinkers and experts in their fields who will be in conversation for Face to Face this year include: Alexi Kaye-Campbell (Pride, Sunset at the Villa Thalia) and actors Elizabeth McGovern (Downton Abbey) and Ben Miles (Coupling); Olivier Award-winning actor Celia Imrie and theatre commentator Terri Paddock; esteemed actor Eleanor Bron and Terri Paddock; former Theatre Critic for the Daily Telegraph Charles Spencer and Guardian Theatre Critic Michael Billington; playwright and Academy Award-winner Christopher Hampton CBE and Kate Mosse, and Tom Harper, Director of BBC One's acclaimed War & Peace will talk about his career. The HighTide Symposium brings together theatre experts to explore and reflect on artistic trends, social and political shifts and the strengths and omissions in the new plays produced in British Theatre since HighTide's first year, a decade ago.

HighTide Festival 2016 will also include four brand new commissions: the world premiere of the Alfred Fagon and George Devine Award-winning Girls (a co-production with Soho Theatre and Talawa Theatre Company) exploring girlhood and enduring friendship against the backdrop of extremism in Nigeria, written by Theresa Ikoko and directed by Elayce Ismail and Elinor Cook's Pilgrims (a co-production with Theatr Clwyd and Vicky Graham Productions), a psychological battle of the sexes about ambition, colonialism and man's impulse to conquer the world directed by Tamara Harvey; In Fidelity (in association with Traverse Theatre Company), equal parts inspirational presentation and theatrical experiment, combining a live on-stage date with evolutionary theory written by Rob Drummond, directed by Steven Atkinson comes straight from a hit run at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh and Anders Lustgarten's epic The Sugar-Coated Bullets of the Bourgeoisie (a co-production with the Arcola Theatre) which charts the transformation of a rural Chinese village from the Communist revolution through to modern commercialism directed by Steven Atkinson, which opened at the Arcola earlier this year. The Festival will also premiere The Path, a promenade production of seven short new plays created especially for HighTide's anniversary by Alumni Playwrights and directed by Jude Christian. The 10th Anniversary season also includes Al Smith's Harrogate at The Royal Court Theatre, transferring from HighTide Festival 2015.

The HighTide Festival 2016 programme also includes readings of new plays, including The Brolly Project by Molly Taylor, a collaboration between Look Left Look Right, the Young Vic, and HighTide that will be performed by a group of people who either have been, or currently are, working in the sex industry; a new play by Olivier Award nominee Matthew Dunster called Those Who Trespass; and Pentabus present Light in Water by Simon Longman, directed by Elizabeth Freestone. St James Theatre will present a cabaret programme.

The HighTide Festival 2016 brochure can be accessed online here and contains full listings of all events and readings at the festival.

To post a comment, you must register and login.