Hayley MaceThe HighTide festival, which launched at The Cut in Halesworth two years ago and showcases new film and theatre talent, will be bigger and better than ever this year - with performances in three venues over 14 days.Hayley Mace

An East Anglian festival which showcases new film and theatre talent will be bigger and better than ever this year - with performances in three venues over 14 days.

The HighTide festival, which launched at The Cut in Halesworth two years ago, is returning to the town from April 27 to May 10 and will be bringing some of the brightest new theatre talent with it.

As well as expanding from five days last year to a full fortnight of performances, the organisers revealed yesterday that they will be branching out from The Cut for the first time.

Some of the films and plays will be performed at a shop in The Thoroughfare, Halesworth, which is being converted into a theatre space, and three shows will take place at nearby Snape Maltings.

HighTide will also be providing a campsite in Darsham for the first time, with shuttle buses taking campers to all three venues.

This year's main plays have now been selected from more than 700 submissions. Guardians, written by Lucy Caldwell, will premiere at the festival on April 29 and tells the story of a married couple who are forced to question their understanding of one another when they move to Belfast.

Muhmah, by Jesse Weaver, is an original American Gothic-style play and will be artistic director Jon Atkinson's first HighTide production. The third play, Fixer, by Lydia Adetunji, is set in northern Nigeria and is the Nigerian-born former journalist's first full length production.

Artistic direct Sam Hodges said: 'As we embark upon our third season of work, we've sought to push the boundaries ever further, both in the selection of plays and playwrights and the impact of our work on audiences.'

As well as new talent, this year's HighTide also celebrates some of the masters of modern theatre, with a fully staged performance of Samuel Beckett's poetry and a series of seminal films from the 1960s onwards being shown.

Tickets for the festival can be booked from today. Call the HighTide box office on 0207 566 9767 or book online at www.hightide.org.uk.