ONE of the themes running through the programme at Salisbury Arts Centre this season is family relations and the familial bonds that hold people together.

Next week will see two performances linked to this theme, with a double bill on Wednesday.

In the first, actor, dancer and director Will Dickie presents an interactive outdoor performance about father and son and life on the pitch in Team of the Decades.

Dickie was inspired to create the piece after receiving a purple American football helmet as a surprise birthday gift from his father.

Though he had moved on from his rugby background, the gift made him reconsider an old passion for collision sports, the sporting figures he had thought of as heroes, and what he had shared with his father through these passions.

In each performance the audience come together as members of a sports team, accompanied by a coach and captain, for a fresh perspective on strength and weakness, figure and ground, fathers and sons.

Dickie said the show will “bring a feeling of togetherness among strangers. A new connection to spaces in Salisbury, and fresh perspectives on what it means to be strong, to be weak and to be a man”.

The pitch extends beyond the Arts Centre grounds, along the pavements and out into the landscape.

In the evening the venue will host international theatre company Babakas with their production, Our Fathers.

Performers Sofia Paschou, Bert Roman and Mike Tweddle will be sharing their experiences in a tribute to fathers everywhere.

Mike's dead dad's friend's daughter has asked him to father her child. His boyfriend Bert isn't convinced.

Their housemate Sofia has her own fish to fry.

She needs to find a man before it's too late, but her dad keeps getting in the middle.

A moving and playful portrait of fatherhood by international company Babakas, who mix comedy, contemporary dance and cinema to tell a story that crosses borders and decades.

* Team of the Decades is on Wednesday, May 14 at 6pm and 7pm. Tickets are £5, or £15 for a joint ticket with Our Fathers by Babakas, which shows at 8pm.

Visit salisburyartscentre.co.uk or call the box office on 01722 321744 to book.

The recommended age for Our Fathers is 16+.