Art & Theatre / Events in Norfolk and Suffolk / Tourist Attractions Norfolk and Suffolk January 6, 2014
A show that had its very first performance anywhere in the world at the 2013 Holt Festival has been selected as number one in a national newspaper’s list of the best theatre events of 2013.
Influential critics at The Guardian have drawn up a list of the top theatrical events around the country in the past year and The Events by theatre company Actors Touring Company has made the coveted top spot. After premiering in Holt the show transferred to Edinburgh where it won a slew of awards including the top accolade of all, The Carol Tambor Award which guarantees a New York run. It also enjoyed an extended London run and dates around the UK – and it all started in the Auden Theatre in a small North Norfolk town as part of the 5th Holt Festival!
The Events is a quiet, moving drama which starred actress Neve McIntosh as the liberal vicar of a small seaside community whose understanding of the world is challenged when the choir she founded as a haven for the vulnerable becomes the target of a lethal attack by a local boy. It asks how far forgiveness will stretch in the face of atrocity and featured a choir specially created for the Holt performance featuring local people with a soaring soundtrack, The Events tells of tragedy, obsession and our destructive desire to fathom the unfathomable.
Holt Festival Director Delaval Astley said ‘It is a terrific that The Events has been named as the top theatre of 2013 and also a significant accolade for the festival, its sense of adventure and the quality of its programming that a show which premiered in Holt this summer, went on to win the Carol Tambor, Best of Edinburgh Award, and with it a transfer to New York has also been chosen as number one by The Guardian critics. I really feel that the festival is earning a significant national and international reputation now. We are delighted to have hosted the Actors Touring Company here before anyone else and thrilled that our own specially formed choir of local residents had the opportunity to take part in what is now a huge international success. With this and other accolades’
The 2014 Holt Festival runs from 19-26 July. The full line up will be revealed in May.
Box office 01603 766400
Image from The Events in Holt attached showing Neve McIntosh and members of the local choir (credit: The Photographers Gallery)
