HighTide announces Steven Atkinson's final Aldeburgh programme

The HighTide Aldeburgh programme has been announced, marking Steven Atkinson's final as artistic director.

The 13th festival will feature world premieres and new work from writers including Kenny Emson, whose Rust, about two people who never expected to fall in love again, will be one of the festival's centrepieces. The piece will run alongside the world premiere of Sophie Ellerby's LIT, directed by Stef O'Driscoll, which tells of Bex a teenage girl, looking for love in the wrong places.

The festival will also feature talks and events by artistic figures including Andrew Davies, Kate Mosse, Catherine Johnson, Deborah Warner, Simon Evans and Joe Stilgoe. BBC Radio 3 and BBC Arts will also be at the festival recording live performances of new radio plays by Tallulah Brown and Vinay Patel, which will be broadcast later this year.

Collapsible, a new monologue about holding on by Margaret Perry, will be directed by Thomas Martin as part of the festival as well as Charlotte Josephine's Pops, directed by Ali Pidsley of Barrel Organ Theatre. The show tells of a father and daughter caught in a cycle of addiction.

In a partnership with The Queer House, Since U Been Gone by Teddy Lamb and Mia Johnson's Pink Lemonade will run. The first is an autobiographical account of growing up queer in the Midlands, while the second is a piece exploring masculinity, lesbianism and the fetishisation of black and brown bodies.

Kate Maravan's The Old House is a story of a mother and daughter hanging on to their history, while Molly Naylor's Lights! Planets! People! looks at space science, legacy and communication. The Last Woodwose is a piece by Thea Smiley, which follows a wild woman, captured in a woodland.

Hey Diddle Diddle! is a new take on the nursery rhyme for families and Chris Thorpe's Status will also run at the festival. Poltergeist present its new comedy show Art Heist, following its show Lights Over Tesco Car Park.

Work-in-progress plays come from Mid Life by Sheila Chapman, which looks at three women going through the menopause, while Luke Wright's Logan Dankworth looks at a journalist determined to join the Brexit fray. .staybless is Amy Gwilliam's newest show following The Profit and Yolanda Mercy presents Cooking with Dad inspired by a real journey to build a relationship with her father.

The festival runs from 10 to 15 September 2019 at venues throughout Aldeburgh. HighTide will be taking Rust, Collapsible, Pops, The Queer House's Pink Lemonade and Since U Been Gone alongside Suffering From Scottishness to Assembly Roxy for the Edinburgh Festival Fringe from Wednesday 31 July.