Stage and Screen

Aldeburgh really punches above it’s weight in so many ways.  Two great illustrations of this are High Tide (11-16 September) and the Aldeburgh Documentary Festival (2-4 November).

High Tide has been called the theatre world’s Sundance Film Festival (apparently!), providing a platform for new, innovative and challenging work.  This year it includes five new pieces from the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.  Productions take place in a number of places across Aldeburgh including the Jubilee Hall, Pumphouse, Aldeburgh Cinema, Aldeburgh Beach Lookout and even a pub – Ye Old Cross Keys.

We love High Tide and try and see a  couple of things each year.  This is absolutely not Am Dram and the standard is consistently high – as anything as good as you would see in London, Glasgow or Leeds. We have seen comedy as well as top notch drama covering some pretty tough areas – the tragedies of immigration in Lampadusa and the desperation of a group of friends abducted by Boko Haram.  

This year we are keeping it light with a couple of nights of comedy – we are particularly looking forward to Dr Adam Kay, author of the hilarious (and at the same time rather depressing) ‘This is going to hurt’.

The 22nd Aldeburgh Documentary Festival is a distinctive combination of world-class documentaries, discussion and debates, that has grown significantly over the last few years.  The 2018 programme is varied – from US politics to Jazz to Joanna Lumley.  We have to confess that we have yet to go (as it’s not brilliantly signposted) but guests staying last year that highly recommended it.   The programme is best viewed at the moment through The Suffolk Coast website (a great place for information on the area) which can be found here. 

Beach Life

Now we don’t pretend that the North Sea Coast owes much to the Mediterranean of Ibiza or the Greek Islands …. but that’s not to say that it isn’t a great place to hang out and with the Suffolk Coast’s Area of Outstanding Beauty as a backdrop – it can be staggeringly beautiful.  Here are some of our favourites:

• Aldeburgh – a long expanse of shingle and take the obligatory photo by Maggi Hambling’s fabulous Scallop. No access for dogs in the summer months
• Sizewell – yes it’s next to a nuclear power station but it’s beautiful and dog friendly all year round.  Here’s Bruce with Ruby and next door’s border terrier Seve (yes as in the golfer).

• Shingle Street – remote like Dungeness but with huge pebble dunes. Beautiful and desolate!
• Southwold – a gentile seaside town.  Apparently some of the candy coloured seaside beach huts can sell for up to £100k.  Crazy!
• Walberswick – shallow and shandy and they like dogs!  You can also go crab fishing in the inland shallows – probably not enough for a sandwich these are just tiddlers after a piece of bacon.
• Covehithe – a bit off the beaten track and no tourist facilities but the Times rated this amongst its top 30 secret beaches – a quiet, sandy beach running alongside a bird reserve.