Festival does the rounds in Hull

Heads Up began last year as part of the Freedom Festival, but now has funding from the Arts Council to deliver the festival twice a year until 2016 - the year before the City of Culture celebrations begin.

Part of the Collaborative Touring Network, it features acclaimed shows from Battersea Arts Centre, including Victoria Melody’s Major Tom, a true story of how a 34-year-old and her Basset Hound both became showstoppers.

“Home-grown produce” like The Devil’s Chord, showing at Hull Collegiate School tonight, tells of the complex relationship between Hitler’s piano player and the leader of the women’s orchestra at Auschwitz.

Festival director Andy Pearson, of Hull’s Ensemble 52 theatre company, said: “It’s about developing an audience and getting them used to festivals where not only do they see shows from Battersea but home-grown and locally-produced stuff.

“There are seven shows happening over six different venues.

“The important thing is to get round the city rather than expect people to come to you.

“There’s a couple of school venues and we are taking Major Tom into east Hull to try and redress a bit of the balance there.”

Will Dickies’s Team of the Decades - which takes place in Queens Gardens in the city centre on March 29 - is described as “an outdoor site-sensitive performance for just 10 audience members”.

Interactive installation 97 Years by Jo Hellier, also on March 29, explores a series of conversations with her grandfather and is at Hull’s newest venue, The Other Space on 94 Alfred Gelder Street.

The festival closes with Alan Williams’s monologue The Girl with Two Voices (April 4-5) See www.headsupfestival.org.uk.