Quirky - but in a good way

The night before I’d been to see one of the venue’s more quirky productions. It involved drunken moose, half a mannequin in a hot tub and a quite astonishing amount of wool.

It was very silly and quite weird.

But I mean that in a nice way.

The Arts Centre does weird wonderfully well.

The latest brochure for the spring season includes a Wild West show that promises inflatable Mexican bandits.

That one I’ve got to see. It sounds hilarious.

But the Arts Centre balances its off the - wall offerings with more mainstream comedy, serious drama, exhibitions and live music.

So if wool-based comedy crime thrillers with knitted sets aren’t really your thing, you can choose folk music or live broadcasts of the Metropolitan Opera instead.

And it also programmes a lot of work to appeal to children and young people, as well as holding script-writing, dance and other workshops to help nurture and encourage the theatre professionals of the future.

Last year, the Arts Centre joined forces with Salisbury Playhouse to present Theatre Fest West, which aims to celebrate and highlight talented artists from around the south west.

They’re still putting the final touches to the programme for next year, but it promises to offer a range of funny, entertaining and surprising productions that allow local artists to develop and shine and to share what they’re doing with the rest of us.

It’s great to see collaboration of this sort between the city’s venues, as well as the focus on encouraging the young people in whose hands will rest the future of the thriving arts scene we enjoy in Salisbury at the moment.

For the next week or so that scene will be offering a festival of festive frolics, with pantomimes to catch, carol concerts to listen to and Christmas shows to attend.

The Arts Centre will be entertaining all the family with Hoodwink’s Winter Wonderland, while the Playhouse continues its run of this year’s pantomime, Dick Whittington, and opens with the alternative Christmas show London’s Calling.

And at the City Hall Slade and Sweet will be joining forces to celebrate the season in raucous glam rock-style.

No prizes for guessing what number will be closing that particular show: Merry Xmas Everybody!

Readers who submit articles must agree to our terms of use. The content is the sole responsibility of the contributor and is unmoderated. But we will react if anything that breaks the rules comes to our attention. If you wish to complain about this article, contact us here