Something especially for the grown-ups

This week’s Festival Focus takes a look at those performances throughout the Festival that cater exclusively to the grown-ups. These performances are stylish, sagacious and some are just a bit saucy....

Going out for dinner just reached a whole new level of entertainment thanks to The Wedding Reception running from October 20 to 22 at Abode.

Will and Kate’s dream was for a small intimate wedding – but Kate’s Mum, Lynne, had other plans. In a bid for peace, a compromise was reached and the happy couple tied the knot in a register office so that Lynne’s lavish reception could go ahead without fuss.

Interactive Theatre International invites you to be a guest, enjoy a sit-down dinner (with cake) and witness the party of the century.

Promoters promise “a rollercoaster journey full of fun, frolics and more than a few surprises”.

From the producers of Faulty Towers the Dining Experience, the show features awardwinning performers in multiple roles.

If you prefer your entertainment with a little more sauce, join mistress of ceremonies Lili la Scala and some of her mostbeloved cabaret reprobates at the Spiegeltent for their exclusive late night show – The Gilded Lili Revue on November 2 and 3.

This show has been selling out at the Edinburgh Fringe since 2012 and it really is the very best of the international cabaret, burlesque and comedy circuit.

Are you a Disco Diva or perhaps a Hip Hustler? If so, get down to the Spiegeltent for Club Click on October 22.

In the unforgettable

Witness the party of the century with The Wedding Reception words of Don Cornelius: “You can bet ya last money, it’s gonna be a stone gas honey!” Funky beats will be provided by resident DJS Local Honey and Desert Ivan Discs, with MC skills from Cutting Luce and Flick Fernando. Get up to get down or sit back and relax while you watch dazzling dance displays from Pearl & Dean. Boogie down with prizes for best dressed and best dancers. Can you dig it? Yes you can! If you need time to cool down from your disco dancing, why not dive into the darkly comic and musical world of The Moscow Drug Club at the Spiegeltent on October 27? Let this take you to a curious musical place where elements of 1930s Berlin Cabaret, Nuevo Tango and Gypsy Campfire meet, have a few drinks and stagger arm in arm into the darkness on a mission to find the bar where Django Reinhardt and Tom Waits are jamming with the local Tziganes.

These talented performers combine original material with songs by Brel, Cohen, Waits, Brecht and more in order to transport audiences through the 1930s and 40s, through Berlin, France and New Orleans.

What happens when you mix science with cocktails? Cocktail Laboratory!

The Guard Chamber in the Westgate Tower is going to be transformed into a laboratory space for this interactive event on November 3, where audiences will be able to take part in a range of cocktailthemed experiments and some lessons in cocktail-making inspired by science.

The sessions will be led by scientists from the University of Kent and your ticket includes four cocktails. This is the perfect way to take ‘going out for a drink’ to a whole new level! Suitable for over-18s.

The Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppets are also returning to Canterbury Festival on November 3 and this time they are doing Shakespeare in a way that only they can. This new performance features brand new songs, sketches and violence and encourages you to howl at their Hamlet, roar at their Romeo and Juliet and peer into their Coriolanus.

If you want to laugh until your sides hurt, this is the performance to see.

See the full listings for Canterbury Festival online at www.canterburyfestival.co.uk or pick up a brochure from the festival office.