This year’s Rye Arts Festival has its underlying theme two big centenaries – the end of the First World War, and Women’s Suffrage. But among the 60 or so events between September 15 and 30 there are other anniversaries that give cause for celebration.
Let’s start with golden anniversaries – there are three events that celebrate 1968. The year after the Summer of Love was far from it – Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy were both assassinated and the US athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos were pilloried for their Black Power protest at the Mexico City Olympic Games. On a happier note it saw the first interracial kiss on US television as Captain Kirk and Lieutenant Uhura had a snog.
But 1968 was also the year in which the brilliant West Indian Garry Sobers achieved the cricketing equivalent of the four-minute mile when he hit six sixes in an over. And on Monday September 24 BBC sports journalist Grahame Lloyd will give a historical talk about this event, which then goes on to a tale of intrigue. In 2006, “the ball used in the over” fetched a record £26,400 at Christie’s – but was it the right one? On sale again in 2012, the plot thickened. Come and hear Grahame’s fascinating story.
The year 1968 was also when Lamb House in Rye acquired a new tenant – the renowned author Rumer Godden moved in. And to mark this there will be a screening at the Kino Digital Cinema in Rye of Black Narcissus on September 24 at 3:30pm. The film by Powell & Pressburger is based on her novel about repressed love and pent-up sexual frustration among Christian nuns in the Himalayas.
And while Rumer was moving to Rye in 1968, the very English movie, If…. , was released. To mark this event there will be a screening on September 16 at the Kino which will be introduced by Rye resident John Howlett (who wrote the original screenplay) and who will take questions and answers afterwards.
This year marks the centenary of the death of the French poet Apollinaire. And his 1903 plays forms the libretto for the opera by Francis Poulenc called Les Mamelles de Tiresias, which will be performed by Euphonia Studio at the Milligan Theatre in Rye College on Saturdays 22 and 29 September.
A riotous farce full of gorgeous tunes and lush harmonies, Poulenc’s opera, written in 1945, is a setting of Apollinaire’s 1903 surrealistic play inspired by the story from Greek mythology of the Theban soothsayer Tiresias.
Poulenc inverted the myth to produce a provocative interpretation with feminist and pacifist elements. It tells the story of Thérèse, who changes her sex to obtain power among men with the aim of changing customs, subverting the past and establishing equality between the sexes.
For the full list of events, and to book tickets, go to www.ryeartsfestival.org.uk . Otherwise ring the Box Office on 01797 224442 or pop into Phillips & Stubbs in the mornings Monday to Friday. Brochures are available from the Box Office plus dozens of shops, hotels, hostelries and so on in and around Rye.
Photos: Rye Arts Festival
Besides John Howlett’s involvement with the iconic film “If”, it must also be remembered that Iden resident Geoffrey Chater also had an acting role as the Chaplain. This was one of Barry Norman’s 50 greatest films and Geoffrey also had roles in two others on this list- Barry Lyndon and Ghandi. He was also in the original television productions of Mapp and Lucia and was a regular in countless other film and television productions. Besides this he had a long and distinguished stage career notably with the Old Vic and working alongside legends such as Ingrid Bergman.
Geoffrey is now a lively 97 and regularly reads in his inimitable voice a lesson at our Church services here in Iden.