September 25th – October 5th 2014
The Rochester Literature Festival is proud to present its second annual festival, Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know.
We’re delighted to be opening this year with an hilarious and heart-warming one woman show with actress Sunny Ormonde – the outrageous Lilian Bellamy from BBC Radio 4’s The Archers, the world’s longest running soap.
Over the course of the next ten days, we’ll be joined by as-seen-on-tv-off-his-trolley comic genius Phil Kay, master of freeform performance and storytelling, and notorious Australian, Trenton Oldfield – who served six months at her Majesty’s Pleasure for disrupting the 2012 Boat Race in a protest against elitism.
We will be hosting two wonderful authors who’ll fascinate you with insights and anecdotes from their latest books: Angela Buckley introduces us to The Real Sherlock Holmes – Detective Jerome Caminada, whose methodologies mimicked Conan Doyle’s genius, and Debz Hobbs-Wyatt, who will discuss the impact of reality on fiction. While No One Was Watching is set against the backdrop of the Kennedy assassination and the abduction of a young girl from the grassy knoll on that fateful day.
For families to enjoy together, we haveAssassin,featuring the fantastic Joe Craig reading extracts from his Jimmy Coates series – part boy, part weapon, totally deadly – which will be interpreted with music by Alice composer, Jacob Bride, and exciting young street dance group CYC. Awesome Keeper of the Realms trilogy author, Marcus Alexander, who is Charlie’s Keeper, will entertain and inspire you with his delightfully wicked fantasy adventure series – get your read on!
Our interactive story game this year is Murder in the Crypt and will feature some of your favourite detectives. In addition, we’re holding a Cafe Crawl, where you can sample music, poetry, storytelling and more, in the company of, amongst others, former Canterbury Laureate Dan Simpson. Bookmark’d is a chance to buy books, swap books or just listen to books, read aloud by their authors.
Our Night at the Theatre will this year be held in conjunction with Chatham Grammar School for Boys and be presented by award winning 17% playwrights, Sam Fentiman-Hall, Sarah Hehir and Maggie Drury. The Spirit of My Dream is inspired by Byron’s poem The Dream and features new plays with a somewhat fantastical theme.
An exhibition curated by ME4Writers especially for the festival, An Assemblance of Judicious Heretics, has channelled Byron to produce work inspiring madness, badness and dangerousness in the hearts of artists. A live reading will bring the visual carnage to life!
Byron’s Teapot will be our finale – a mad mix of the unusual and quirky, featuring The James Worse Public Address Method, JP Lovecraft, Dylan Oscar Rowe and Brides of Rain.
We look forward to welcoming you to our exciting – and only slightly scary – second full length festival!
To read full details, download a copy the 2014 programme and buy tickets, please visit rochesterlitfest.com.
If you have any enquiries regarding any of the events or festival in general, please email [email protected] or telephone 07904 643770.
The Rochester Literature Festival (RLF) was formed in May 2011 as an information sharer, and held its inaugural event, The Garden Poetry Party in July 2012.
The first main festival, Other Worlds, Other Voices took place in October 2013.
The RLF is a voluntary group and currently receives no public funding, relying solely on the generosity of its performers, audiences, personal donations and in kind help.
The Programme Details
An Evening with Sunny Ormonde
Thursday, 25th September, 7pm – 10pm
Lords Wood Sports and Social Club
£10 plus booking fee
Café Crawl
Saturday, 27th September, 1pm-5pm
La Toretta, Tiny Tims, Café 172 (Dot Café), Bruno’s Bakes. Rochester High Street
Free
The Queen versus Trenton Oldfield: A Prison Diary
Saturday, 27th September, 7pm – 10pm
Sun Pier House, Chatham
£6 plus booking fee
Bookmark’d
Sunday, 28th September, 12noon – 4pm
Guildhall Museum, Rochester
Free
Marcus Alexander: Who is Charlie’s Keeper?
Sunday, 28th September, 2pm – 3.30pm
Woodlands Academy, Gillingham
£3 includes fee
The Real Sherlock Holmes: Angela Buckley
Monday, 29th September, 6.30pm – 9pm
Café 172 (Dot Café), Rochester
£4.00 plus booking fee
While No-one Was Watching: Debz Hobbs-Wyatt
Wednesday, 1st October, 6.30pm – 9pm
Café Nucleus, Chatham
£4 plus booking fee
An Assemblance of Judicious Heretics Live
Thursday, 2nd October, 7.30pm
Rochester Library
Free
Exhibition: Friday 26/9 to Saturday 25/10 Free, normal opening hours.
Phil Kay: Wholly Viable
Friday, 3rd October, 8.00pm – 11.30pm (includes support)
The Billabong Club, Rochester
£7 plus booking fee
Murder in the Crypt
Saturday, 4th October, 10am – 4pm
Bishopscourt, Rochester
Ticket price £3 plus booking fee
A Night at the Theatre: The Spirit of my Dream
Saturday, 4th October, 7pm – 10pm
Chatham Grammar School for Boys
£5 plus booking fee
Assassin
Sunday, 5th October, 2pm -5pm
Lords Wood Sports and Social Club
Tickets from £3. Family tickets available.
Byron’s Teapot
Sunday, 5th October, 7.30pm – 11pm
Lords Wood Sports and Social Club
£5 plus booking fee