HighTide Festival Aldeburgh: Top 5 shows to see

If you are on the look-out for some exciting shows at the upcoming HighTide Festival in Aldeburgh, then look no further. The following are five of the best things at the festival beginning on 10 September.

1) Voulez-Vous chat Mamma Mia?

Writer of the stage musical Mamma Mia!, now celebrating its 20th anniversary in the West End, and the screenplay for the international smash hit movie, Catherine Johnson will be in conversation with Anthony Banks, who has directed new plays at the National Theatre and the UK tour of The Girl on the Train as well as commissioning and developing a hundred new plays for NT Connections during his time as Associate Director.

2) Theatre moves beyond the stage:

Offering a new way to enjoy one of last year's hit shows, the Songlines installation and exhibition will present extracts from the 360-degree virtual theatre experience captured during a performance last year by LIVR, the new virtual reality platform, alongside artefacts from the production to showcase how it was made.

3) There's a world premiere:

Exploring turbulent teenage years, the spark of LIT came from Sophie Ellerby's experience of studying young women and mothers in the prison system. This is a piece that places complex working class people at the heart of the work.

4) Give yourself deja-vu by catching two new radio plays which will be live recorded, and then tune in to hear them again later this year on BBC Radio 3:

Coming to the Festival for the first time, BBC Radio 3 and BBC Arts are collaborating with HighTide and two of their talented alumni writers Vinay Patel (HighTide production True Brits, Doctor Who, BAFTA-nominated Murdered By My Father) and Aldeburgh-raised Tallulah Brown (BBC New Talent Hotlist; Sea Fret; writer of HighTide hit Songlines) on two 45 minute radio plays that thematically interweave; to be live recorded and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 later in the year.

Vinay Patel's The Shores – Three Tales From the End of a World brings together stories from the ancient past, the modern Suffolk Coast and a dystopian future to explore community, gods and catastrophe. Silver Darlings by Tallulah Brown is a mystical play set near Sizewell's Nuclear Power Plant about environmental disaster and pulling up a mermaid from the North Sea.

5) After Hadestown wins big on Broadway:

In a globe-spanning journey of attempted escape, with songs along the way, the Fringe First award-winning Status by Chris Thorpe (Your Best Guess, There has Possibly Been an Incident) and Rachel Chavkin (The American Clock, Hadestown) is about nationality and trying to run away from the national story you are given.