Devizes Festival has lots to offer this week (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Devizes Festival has lots to offer this week

1:54pm Monday 16th June 2008 in Leisure By Lewis Cowen

A WOMAN confronting the paedophile who killed her ten-year-old daughter does not sound like easy watching.

But that is the theme of the award-winning play Frozen by Briony Lavery that is guaranteed to grip audiences at the Wharf Theatre this Saturday as one of the final events in this year's Devizes Festival programme.

The play won Ms Lavery the Barclays Award for best new play of 1998 and it is just as powerful now as it was when first produced.

Director Sonia Fraser of Fresh Glory Productions has tackled the tale, which involves the mother Nancy, whose life has been held in suspended animation, the Frozen of the title, after the death of her daughter 20 years before.

She is persuaded by psychologist Agnetha to meet the man responsible, Ralph, and in some way to bury her demons and be able to live her life to the full.

It does not make for easy watching, but is ultimately uplifting.

The final week of Devizes Festival 2008 begins this evening with the visit of BBC cricket commentator Jonathan Agnew to the town hall. All tickets have been sold.

On Friday night, this year's Blues Night features Matt Schofield and the Earl Green Band at the Corn Exchange, while the last event of Devizes Festival proper welcomes the madcap Stringfever to the town hall.

The free fringe festival winds up with Miles Hunt and Erica Nockalls at the Southgate tonight at 9.30pm, the Andy Haig Quintet at the Cellar Bar at the Bear Hotel on Saturday at 10pm and Reg Meuross at the Lamb in St John's Street on Sunday at 9pm.

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