Canterbury Festival Revives a Cathedral Tradition

Canterbury Cathedral is gearing up for the Canterbury Festival , from October 11 to 25, next month. The extravanganza of theater, art, music, dance, comedy and more virtually takes over the Cathedral precincts in the city center for two weeks every October.

This year, you'd be smart to book early - the organizers are planning a very special event. Between 1928 and 1948 the Cathedral Play was a central feature of the festival. Authors commissioned to write plays for performance in the cathedral included John Masefield, Dorothy Sayers and Christopher Fry. Murder in the Cathedral, T.S. Eliot's classic verse drama about the murder of Thomas à  Becket in Canterbury Cathedral was written for this festival in 1935.

This year, for the first time since 1948, the tradition of the Cathedral Play is being revived and a new work, Dallas Sweetman, by Sebastian Barry, has been specially commissioned. The play is described as an epic about a 16th century pilgrimage to Canterbury Cathedral.

Find out more about the Canterbury Festival and how to book tickets

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