Cheshire Rural Touring Arts new Spring Season – performances across Cheshire

A brand new and exciting season of live performance, including theatre, music and family shows will visit Cheshire’s rural venues this spring.

Starting on Friday13 March and running until Sunday 5 July, these professional and high quality performances take place across Cheshire in 26 village halls, libraries, arts venues or rural museums.  

Councillor Louise Gittins, Leader of Cheshire West and Chester Council said: “You can always rely on a diverse season of performances from Cheshire Rural Touring Arts. This season is looking as exciting as previous ones from meeting the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse to an Austrian cello player. There’s an end of the world comedy and  600 years of musical history.  

“All of the performances are held in local venues across the borough.”  

There is a rich mixture of theatre shows on offer. For children and families Theatre Fideri Fidera will be performing ‘Ogg’n’Ugg and the World’s first Dogg’, a heartfelt and engaging caveman story about Yorkshire hunter gatherers who invented our best friend, the dog. Featuring a mix of song dance and puppeteering, the show will be at Tarvin Community Centre on Friday 13 March (1.30pm) and Lion Salt Works on Saturday 14 March (11 am).  

Also on 13 March at Kingsley Community Centre there is a performance by Cheshire based company Time and Again Theatre. They will be performing their new play ‘Clouds’, which entwines the stories of the pioneering days of early aviation and the rise of the suffragette movement, complete with a scale replica of a Blackburn monoplane.  

If satirical comedy is more your style, Just Some Theatre’s ‘The Four Horsemen’ is a slick high energy performance about the fabled Horsemen of the Apocalypse in a contemporary setting, as death, war, pestilence and famine become arch rivals. Performances take place at Neston Town Hall on Friday 20 March, The Electric Picture House, Congleton on Saturday 21March and Kelsall Community Centre on Saturday 4 April.  

Quick Duck Theatre’s hilarious biographical play ‘Yours Sincerely’ is a queer coming-of-age comedy where storytelling and lip-sync cabaret collide, based on real life postal correspondences. There are three performances, at St Mary’s Creative Space, Chester on Thursday 26 March, Lion Salt Works on Friday 27 March and Audlem Public Hall on Saturday 28 March.  

Still in theatre comedy mode, is a return visit from Box of Tricks with their new show ‘The Last Quiz Night on Earth’, an explosive end of the world comedy. Join Quizmaster Rav and the guests who want to settle old scores or find new love before the very last night earth exists. Expect a night with plenty of drama at Gawsworth Village Hall on Friday 3 April, Goostrey Village Hall on Saturday 4 April or Mollington Village Hall on Sunday 5 April. Also returning is George Egg with his new show ‘Moveable Feast’. Part stand up, part absurd lecture, George cooks plates of delicious gourmet food using engines, car batteries, a cement mixer and other unconventional apparatus at Tarvin Community Centre on Saturday 28 March, Plumley Village Hall on Sunday 19 April and Crewe Lyceum Studio Theatre on Sunday 5 July.  

Food is also the focus of ‘Pepper and Honey’ a new play by Notnow Collective in which stories about settling into life in a new country are carefully paced alongside the making of a Croatian pepper biscuit. This poignant and subtle play will be at Grosvenor Museum on Friday 27 March and links to their forthcoming exhibition Vibrant City: Multicultural Chester, and Cuddington and Sandiway Village Hall on Saturday 28 March.   

A completely different but poignant story, ‘…And this is my Friend Mr Laurel’, is written and performed by Jeffrey Holland (Hi-de-Hi). Set in Oliver Hardy’s bedroom, Laurel pays a visit to his sick friend and they recount their success as one of the greatest cinematic partnerships of the century, This intriguing and funny tale from KPS Productions & The Finishing Touch Company is at Great Budworth Parish Hall on Friday 22 May, Crewe Lyceum Studio Theatre on Saturday 23 May and Goostrey Village Hall on Sunday 24 May.  

‘Home Sweet Home’ is sweet funny and engaging. Part circus, part storytelling, Kaveh Rahmana explores what it is to feel like you don’t belong. He will be performing at Kingsway Theatre, University of Chester on Saturday 25 April and Crewe Lyceum Studio Theatre on Sunday 26 April.  

The music offer this season is as varied as the theatre. Join ‘Truckstop Honeymoon’ in April, for live performances of high energy original songs with banjo, upright bass and guitar. An American duo who have relocated to Wales, Kate and Mike tell stories about the strangeness of everyday life  combining bluegrass music hall jazz and rock’n’roll at Little Sutton Library on Thursday 23 April, Neston Civic Hall on Friday 24 April as part of the Neston Music Festival and Upton-by–Chester Village Hall on Saturday 25 April.  

Performing long forgotten songs and tunes GreenMatthews present ‘A Brief History of Music’, a vibrant and vivid picture of our musical DNA taking in 600 years of musical history beginning in the middle ages and ending in the 20th century. See this fast moving show at Gawsworth Village Hall on Friday 8 May, Kettleshulme Village Hall on Saturday 9 May and Little Budworth Jubilee Hall on Friday 15 May.  

For something completely different musically is Austrian Peter Hudler with ‘Cello on Fire’. Not a standard classical recital, but an extraordinary mix of styles from Baroque to Rock. Expect commissioned works form John Zorn, classical pieces by Bach and Debussy and a range of jazz, folk and cross over music. Enjoy a cello surprise at Upton-by-Chester Village Hall on Saturday 13 June or St Thomas Church, Parkgate on Sunday 14 June.  

CRTA offers over 60 professional shows each year through continued collaborations with volunteer promoters, artistic partners and Cheshire local authorities. Bringing high quality performances from artists from across the UK and abroad, each season has a wide range of shows on offer. This season welcomes two companies, Just Some Theatre (The Four Horsemen) and Kaveh Rahmana from Nearly There Yet (Home Sweet Home) who have been mentored through an Arts Council England funded northern rural touring project which aims to help companies develop new work especially for rural touring. 

For more information about any of the shows, details on how to buy tickets or to see the full CRTA autumn season, visit www.cheshireruraltouringarts.co.uk.