Cookham Festival 12-22 May 2011: Music, Drama, Art and Comedy

10th March 2011

The programme for the Cookham Festival 2011was announced at a launch party at Moor Hall in Cookham today. The Festival is a celebration of the amazing talent we find across the Cookhams. Building on the success of past festivals, there are three new events this year, to broaden the appeal still further and to encourage many more people to get involved in different ways.

A first this year is a unique version of A Midsummer Night's Dream which sees aspiring actors taking to the boards for the first time in the People's Shakespeare directed by Richard James. This is Shakespeare for the people of Cookham by the people of Cookham.

Cookham High Street will be transformed for a day into a Street Festival, providing an opportunity for displays of great local arts, crafts and food - and a lot of fun.

And, our most important development - the Fringe Festival - takes us into new venues on a more informal basis, encouraging many people of all ages and with a myriad of talents to entertain their fellow Cookhamites.

Music for all tastes includes a galaxy of talented young musicians as well as established professionals, featuring classical music, organ recitals and jazz and a closing concert by Cookham's Cantorum Choir. Let's Rock the Moor is back for its third year to bring together people of all ages in a family rock festival starring Brit award-winning Rick Astley, T’Pau, The Real Thing, and Curiosity Killed the Cat.  

Edinburgh Festival success Barbershopera  is back with it’s funniest quartet Apocalypse No! . This is an award winning show featuring three guys and a girl and mayhem.

Local comedienne Helen Huscroft will again be hosting an evening of adult humour featuring a new line-up of stand-up comedians.

The visual arts are back in force. Retrospective exhibitions of two Cookham artists: Leslie Orriss and Juliette Palmer provide a rare opportunity to follow the careers of these two and successful local artists through their works. There will be an exhibition of the work of cartoonist Posy Simmonds who has written and illustrated many children’s books and some distinctly adult graphic novels.The exhibition shows Posy’s working process and her heroine, Tamara Drewe.

Open studios across the community showcase excellent local art featuring more than twenty artists. The inspiring Festival Sculpture Garden returns at Odney, This year the exhibition of works by local artists and established sculptors from all over the country promises to be the biggest and most varied to date. There is also a series of workshops to encourage you to develop your own talents.

Michael Johnson has created a major new work for the Festival A Grave History. History is not just about them: kings and queens and politicians. It’s about us and the place in which we live. Holy Trinity Church provides stories of Cookham people in times past. The entertainment was written by Michael Johnson, with music by Gillian Salmon – the team that brought you ‘Another Cookham Resurrection’.

The Cookham Festival Committee Chairman Mike Copland, said “ The  eleven day Festival is a celebration of the talent that exists across the community and features many new events for 2011.  It provides the opportunity for people of all ages and with a wide range of skills  to join in, express themselves and enjoy the work and performances of others in the community. The Cookham Festival is for everyone.”

Issued on behalf of Cookham Festival Committee for more information please contact Judith Diment on 07860 162313 or email Judith@thediments.co.uk